Reginald Hill. The Cure For All Diseases. (2008) Dalziel is recuperating at Sandytown from a near-lethal injury. The local patroness of the healing arts has teamed up with the local promoter of holistic healing to create a health-spa that will rejuvenate the town’s economy and add a considerable chunk to the patroness’s not inconsiderable fortune. She’s had two husbands, and is working on acquiring a third. Unfortunately, she’s murdered and rather grotesquely encaged in a contraption designed to roast the pig that’s the center piece of a commemoration of her first husband’s source of wealth. That’s not the only grotesquerie, but you’ll have to read the book yourself to find out who dun what to whom and what for.
Another nicely plotted, wonderfully convoluted and narrated police procedural. Hill has taken Austen as his inspiration this time, labelling the book’s sections as “volumes”, and basing the cast loosely on Austen’s Sanditon. Pascoe is in charge while his boss recuperates, Wield steadies his new boss as skilfully as he’s steadied Dalziel. An assortment of Yorkshire eccentrics (are there any other kind?) tangle and untangle their relationships and the skein of clues that eventually lead to a satisfying solution. Recommended. ****
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