I'm definitely running out of things to say about Reginald Hill because it seems I am destined to be never disappointed by his books. This is a very good thing and I'm not complaining. It's taken me several months to get hold of this book as it seemed to be in the middle of a reprint when I finished the previous book. It's also an episode of the series that I've only heard exceedingly good things about and so I was really looking forwrad to it.It hasn't turned out to be my favourite read of the series though. I thought it went a bit too far into coincidences and unlikelihoods. A writer this good can get away with spinning a tale that eats its own tail like this but I definitely prefer some of the other, less lauded, stories.In this story Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe discovers that his great grandfather who was killed in the first world war at Passchendaele wasn't killed in battle at all but executed by his countrymen. It makes for a great background and it is very interesting but the way Pascoe's historical investigations marry with the present day story has echoes of the kind of thing I have to ignore in Kate Ellis's books in order to enjoy them. Also having done quite a bit of genealogical research of my own lately the way that Pascoe finds out about his family history had me laughing my socks off (walks into local church, vicar happily skims through parish registers and gives him a potted version and sends him on to a distant aunt who tells all, yeah right, that's great detective work).It's a good read all the same, but it's a long way from being my favourite of this series and I didn't find it the most well crafted story in the series either.
The old trick of splitting a central character into two very different parts and using the tension to create literary sparks has worked for writers as diverse as Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin) and Patrick O'Brian (Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin). Nobody in the mystery field does it better these days than Hill, whose down-and-dirty Inspector Dalziel (pronounced Dah-eel in the A&E TV series) jigs and jousts wonderfully with his smart, sensitive sidekick Pascoe. Their latest outing is one of the best in the series, with Pascoe digging up some old bones and family secrets from his own pastA ravaged wood, a man in uniform long dead -- this is not a World War One battlefield, but Wanwood House, a pharmaceutical research centre. Peter Pascoe attends his grandmother's funeral, and scattering her ashes leads him too into wartorn woods in search of his great-grandfather who fought and died in Passchendaele. Seeing the wood for the trees is the problem for Andy Dalziel when he finds himself fancying an animal rights activist, depite her possible complicity in a murderous assault and her appalling taste in whisky. A mind-bending puzzle leading us on the wild side of the pastoral.Convoluted story line, shifting between the first world war and the present day, mixed in with desertion, cowardice, and bent ex coppers being involved in animal experiments. I found this to be a so-so story, and not in a rush to read another
What do You think about The Wood Beyond (1997)?
Animal rights protesters break into the Wanwood laboratories and are caught. This leads to Dalzeil looking back at a similar attack in Redcar were a guard was killed. The protesters had accidentally uncovered a skeleton buried outside the perimeter fence. The security firm are investigated as two of their workers are found dead. and are linked to the Redcar death which was a fix as the security firm and Dr Batty wanted to steal secrets. As an aside Pascoe finds some WW1 papers and photo's of his great grandfather who was executed for cowardice in 1917. He learns of a connection with the army museum curator and with the animal laboratories. It is speculated that the bones are his relative stephen pascoe who was killed by the Grindals.Pascoe does little police work. Very tenuous conclusions with little evidence. Dalzeil has affair with Anima group leader Cap Marvell.Quite a long book but not altogether convincing plot.
—Colin Mitchell
Took me almost as long to read this rather convoluted story as it did for them to fight the bloody first world war! I did delight in Reginald Hill's wit and his development of character relationships, but the 'mystery' took forever to unfold. Didn't really get to it until about the final 15 pages or so. I actually found the secondary plot (Pascoe's search for details surrounding the execution of his great-grandfather in the first world war) more engaging than the primary plot. Plod. Plod. Maybe I'll stick to the telly.
—Minstrlman
Though there were points when I felt like I was trudging through this one, one the whole I thought it was excellent. I'm not sure I fully followed all of the genealogy, but I don't think that really matters. Hill's descriptions of mud and fear at the Battle of Passchendaele are poignant. Serendipitously, it prepared me well to read what I'm reading now, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society>, a fictional response to the German occupation of the Isle of Guernsey during WWI. I love connections like that.
—Claudette
