Reginald Hill

Just read that Reginald Hill died yesterday. He'll be missed, but I'm grateful for the books he left for us to read.

I've been dreading this news....

WHAT!!!! Oh no!!! How awful. :(

So tragic.

I truly loved the characters he created - can't believe he won't be using them again in new mysteries!

>5: My sentiments exactly!

No more fat Andy! Damn, I'll miss the fat man!

;-)

>5-7 Yes, it's sad. But I think it was already pretty clear that we weren't going to see fat Andy again. He'd already been Reichenbached at least twice, hadn't he?

The gray cells fail me, but I seem to remember at least one resurrection. I might still have one or two to read. No falls that I remember. ;-)

I forget the sequence, but I vaguely remember at least one heart attack, another where he gets shot, and one where he fakes his own death and then gets blown up. I don't think there was ever an actual waterfall. I suppose it would have had to be Hardraw Force or Mallyan Spout, and he would have made quite a splash...

Wasn't there a pretty strong hint that he wouldn't be back in A cure for all diseases? Since he'd been a superintendent since at least 1972, he must have paid rather more than his fair share into the police pension fund...

Oh no! One of my favourite authors.

My favourite crime author, as well. Pictures of Perfection is one of my all-time favourite novels of that genre. The King Is Dead :(

I've never tried his books. What is his writing like?

>13
Hard to sum up, when you're talking about a writing career of forty years ... A very good writer, liked to play around with different styles and voices, maybe a bit too fond of parody and literary jokes (esp. in the later books), but he was always entertaining and he usually remembered that he was supposed to be writing a crime story. You never quite know what to expect from one book to the next: some of the stories are very black, others are rather joky.

I agree with thorold. It's hard to point out a special style he is writing in. But he was very literary talented. If you want to read something by him I would suggest Pictures of Perfection, as I have written above.

I just came across this topic today...and I am so sad. He was one of my favorite authors, and I have been waiting patiently for a new Dalziel & Pascoe book since finishing the last of the series a couple of years ago. I wonder if there are any works out there that were near completion that may be published posthumously? He was publishing about a book a year, and The Woodcutter came out in 2010.

I thought he did a great job of developing the characters, even some of the less major recurring ones, and each time I picked up a book, I felt as though I was visiting with old friends. I also enjoyed how he moved the series along, and how he was able to age them believably over time. I definitely agree with those above, it's very difficult to describe his style, as each book seemed to have a different style.

I can honestly say that of the Dalziel & Pascoe series there was not one book that I disliked, all of them were very enjoyable for me, even the short stories. My particular favorite happens to be Deadheads.

I was hoping for a rematch with killer in Deadheads. We know he was still in town cause every bow and then Ellie would run into his wife and ask after him.

>17 I was also hoping for a rematch with Patrick Alderman in Deadheads and well as perhaps another go at Franny Roote from the various books. I cannot believe that Franny turned out to be a sort of good guy in A Cure for All Diseases.