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Dalziel & Pascoe #10
Under World
When young Tracey Pedley vanished in the woods around Burrthorpe, the close-knit community had their own ideas about what had happened. But Deputy Chief Constable Watmough has it down as the work of a child-killer who has since committed suicide -- though others wondered about the man's fatal plunge into a disused mine shaft. Returning to a town he left in anger, Colin Farr's homecoming is ready for trouble, and when a university course brings him into contact with Ellie Pascoe, trouble starts. . . Meanwhile, a murder in Burrthorpe Mine forces Andy Dalziel to take action that brings him up against a hostile and frightened community...
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
310 people are currently reading
465 people want to read
About the author
Reginald Hill
154 books503 followersReginald Charles Hill was a contemporary English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
February 20, 2021
Digging deep…
Colin Farr is an angry young man. When young Tracy Pedley vanished some years earlier in the woods around the Yorkshire mining town of Burrthorpe, the townspeople held Colin’s father responsible. Some felt he must have killed her, others that his carelessness led to her disappearance – he had taken the little girl out for a walk and his story was that he then let her return the last part of the journey alone, and she was never seen again. The police, however, blamed a different man but that didn’t stop the gossip, and Colin’s father died in an accident that may or may not have been suicide. Now the cop who was in charge of the case back then has retired and is serialising his memoirs in the local paper, bringing the old story back to the surface and Colin’s anger back to boiling point. And then someone dies down the mine…
The story is set a couple of years after the Miner’s Strike of 1984, while memories are fresh and scars not yet healed. The miners hate the bosses and the feeling is mutual, and those who scabbed during the strike have not been forgiven. But the biggest divide is between the miners and the police, who were used by a heavy-handed government to break the strike, often violently. Hill works all these resentments through his plot, giving the book a real feel for the period and for how devastating the strike and its aftermath were for the mining communities. Although the mine at Burrthorpe is still working, the writing is on the wall for the whole British mining industry and the miners know their way of life is coming to an end. Not that it’s a good way of life – the work is hard and dangerous, and many men who manage to avoid accidents are still struck down by the deadly lung diseases that come with breathing in coal-dust down the pits. But it’s a life that has developed strong ties of community, where trust is an essential component of the job – one careless worker could put everyone in danger.
Another aspect of the strike that Hill uses very effectively is the coming together of the women – the miners’ wives and mothers, struggling to hold their families together with no income, taking on the role of breadwinner sometimes, dealing with the mental health problems and domestic violence that grew in correlation with the desperation (and, in their own eyes, emasculation) of the men. The women built support networks, campaigned for their men and begged for their children, and showed a level of strength and resilience that fed into the wider story of women’s demands to be treated as equals.
As is often the case with Hill, the plot is somewhat secondary to the social aspects and to the further development of the recurring characters in his team. Although it’s a bleak story, Dalziel always adds an element of humour, and his rough uncouthness appeals much more to the miners than Pascoe’s sympathetic attempts to understand their point of view. Dalziel is of them, so understands them naturally, and they him.
Ellie Pascoe, still struggling to finish her novel, takes a part-time job giving classes to the miners and finds herself drawn to the troubled Colin, partly because he shows he has an intelligence she, in her middle-class way, doesn’t expect to find in a miner, and partly becoming attracted to his overt physical masculinity despite her feminist disdain. Ellie doesn’t come out of this novel well – she behaves like a spoilt privileged child and becomes intensely annoying, to the point where it’s hard to understand what Peter Pascoe could possibly like about her. She settles back down a little in future books, but this is not one of her better outings. However, later in the book she comes to know the women of the Burrthorpe support group and has enough self-awareness to recognise that they roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done, rather than pontificating about women’s rights from a lofty academic height. What always redeems Ellie is her willingness to recognise her own faults.
Hill gives a very authentic feel to what it was like to work in a mine at that time – the physical demands, the danger, the safety protocols, the reliance on each other. He also shows the do-gooder element of society, visiting the mine in order to get a vicarious thrill, so they can then go off and make political points in their nice clean safe council chambers and middle-class restaurants. The climax of the novel happens below ground, in a tense and thrilling finale which more than makes up for the rather obvious solution to the central mystery.
Another fine outing for Dalziel and Pascoe, and one of the most realistic pictures of the post-strike-era mining communities I’ve come across in fiction. I listened to the audiobook with Colin Buchanan reading, and now that I’ve got used to his voices for the characters, I enjoy his narrations. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Colin Farr is an angry young man. When young Tracy Pedley vanished some years earlier in the woods around the Yorkshire mining town of Burrthorpe, the townspeople held Colin’s father responsible. Some felt he must have killed her, others that his carelessness led to her disappearance – he had taken the little girl out for a walk and his story was that he then let her return the last part of the journey alone, and she was never seen again. The police, however, blamed a different man but that didn’t stop the gossip, and Colin’s father died in an accident that may or may not have been suicide. Now the cop who was in charge of the case back then has retired and is serialising his memoirs in the local paper, bringing the old story back to the surface and Colin’s anger back to boiling point. And then someone dies down the mine…
The story is set a couple of years after the Miner’s Strike of 1984, while memories are fresh and scars not yet healed. The miners hate the bosses and the feeling is mutual, and those who scabbed during the strike have not been forgiven. But the biggest divide is between the miners and the police, who were used by a heavy-handed government to break the strike, often violently. Hill works all these resentments through his plot, giving the book a real feel for the period and for how devastating the strike and its aftermath were for the mining communities. Although the mine at Burrthorpe is still working, the writing is on the wall for the whole British mining industry and the miners know their way of life is coming to an end. Not that it’s a good way of life – the work is hard and dangerous, and many men who manage to avoid accidents are still struck down by the deadly lung diseases that come with breathing in coal-dust down the pits. But it’s a life that has developed strong ties of community, where trust is an essential component of the job – one careless worker could put everyone in danger.
Another aspect of the strike that Hill uses very effectively is the coming together of the women – the miners’ wives and mothers, struggling to hold their families together with no income, taking on the role of breadwinner sometimes, dealing with the mental health problems and domestic violence that grew in correlation with the desperation (and, in their own eyes, emasculation) of the men. The women built support networks, campaigned for their men and begged for their children, and showed a level of strength and resilience that fed into the wider story of women’s demands to be treated as equals.
As is often the case with Hill, the plot is somewhat secondary to the social aspects and to the further development of the recurring characters in his team. Although it’s a bleak story, Dalziel always adds an element of humour, and his rough uncouthness appeals much more to the miners than Pascoe’s sympathetic attempts to understand their point of view. Dalziel is of them, so understands them naturally, and they him.
Ellie Pascoe, still struggling to finish her novel, takes a part-time job giving classes to the miners and finds herself drawn to the troubled Colin, partly because he shows he has an intelligence she, in her middle-class way, doesn’t expect to find in a miner, and partly becoming attracted to his overt physical masculinity despite her feminist disdain. Ellie doesn’t come out of this novel well – she behaves like a spoilt privileged child and becomes intensely annoying, to the point where it’s hard to understand what Peter Pascoe could possibly like about her. She settles back down a little in future books, but this is not one of her better outings. However, later in the book she comes to know the women of the Burrthorpe support group and has enough self-awareness to recognise that they roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done, rather than pontificating about women’s rights from a lofty academic height. What always redeems Ellie is her willingness to recognise her own faults.
Hill gives a very authentic feel to what it was like to work in a mine at that time – the physical demands, the danger, the safety protocols, the reliance on each other. He also shows the do-gooder element of society, visiting the mine in order to get a vicarious thrill, so they can then go off and make political points in their nice clean safe council chambers and middle-class restaurants. The climax of the novel happens below ground, in a tense and thrilling finale which more than makes up for the rather obvious solution to the central mystery.
Another fine outing for Dalziel and Pascoe, and one of the most realistic pictures of the post-strike-era mining communities I’ve come across in fiction. I listened to the audiobook with Colin Buchanan reading, and now that I’ve got used to his voices for the characters, I enjoy his narrations. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
April 10, 2017
As a lover of the Dalziel & Pascoe T.V series I was hoping for great things from this and thankfully Hill lived up to my love of the series. This has all the bits I love from the series including Dalziel's blunt and to the point approach to people, investigations and life in general and Pascoe's quiet patience as well as the added bonus of knowing what is going on in their heads (and getting to spend more than just an hour or two in their company). I really did not like Ellie though, she annoyed the living hell out of me and I would not have been disappointed if she had disappeared down a mine shaft! I don't know if she was meant to be so irritating but she really was. Thankfully this didn't detract from the story and the other characters, in fact it probably made me more sympathetic to them as none were as irksome as she was.
January 24, 2018
I almost missed out on this tenth entry in the 24-book Dalziel-Pascoe mystery series. I thought I had read them all, when a member of a Facebook group mentioned this title in a post. It's definitely one that should not be missed, with its first-rate story, superb writing, vividly portrayed Yorkshire coal-mining setting, great dialogue, and excellent characterization, with a notable development in Peter Pascoe's character at the end.
Reginald Hill was among the most literate and imaginative of mystery writers, and references and allusions to literary works abound. The sections of the novel are separated by excerpts from Dorothy L. Sayers' translation of Dante's "Inferno."
I am so glad I didn't miss out on this book, and I recommend it, and the entire series, to all who enjoy well-written, compelling crime fiction.
Reginald Hill was among the most literate and imaginative of mystery writers, and references and allusions to literary works abound. The sections of the novel are separated by excerpts from Dorothy L. Sayers' translation of Dante's "Inferno."
I am so glad I didn't miss out on this book, and I recommend it, and the entire series, to all who enjoy well-written, compelling crime fiction.
August 27, 2011
So basically Ellie is a selfish, self-obsessed twunt who not only gets in the way of police procedures but actively harms them. And is a bitch while doing so. Right.
The book was great, but I really really hate Ellie. What a self-righteous nitwit.
The book was great, but I really really hate Ellie. What a self-righteous nitwit.
March 15, 2023
There is a similarity in all the books in this series that makes them quite unique. The style, humour and characters remain equally as entertaining throughout. The storylines though obviously differ and this one I felt was the best I’d read so far.
Much of the plot is away from the police investigation and instead is centred on a small mining town with its tensions, history and infighting. I did work out who the antagonist was but not until near to the ending. Very well done.
Much of the plot is away from the police investigation and instead is centred on a small mining town with its tensions, history and infighting. I did work out who the antagonist was but not until near to the ending. Very well done.
September 4, 2014
This series goes from strength to strength. Beautifully done. I don't get Ellie Pascoe though. She walks around with blinders on. Her life is a knee jerk reaction, why doesn't she ever think things through?
January 21, 2015
Ellie Pascoe became very frustrating. The writting was slick but some of the local Yorkshire dialect was incomprehensible at times. The press tried to sensationalise the local police but came to a sticky end.
August 21, 2023
Someone presumably killed seven-year-old Tracey Pedley. I say presumably because her body disappeared. Folks said Billy Farr did it. He was a miner who spent time with Tracey—walking with her in the woods near her community. When the investigation into her disappearance began to focus on Billy, he, too, died mysteriously. The locals said it was suicide, but his troubled son, Colin, doesn’t think so, and he has come back to the mining community to prove his father’s innocence if possible.
You really need not have read any of the previous books in the series to enjoy this. Andy Dalziel is a corpulent old-school cop with his share of bigotries. But he knows well how to solve cases. Peter Pascoe is Dalziel’s partner, and his social-justice diversity, equity, and inclusion wife has turned him into a hyper-sensitive modern guy—whatever that meant in the late 1980s when Hill wrote this.
Ellie Pascoe takes a job teaching miners at an adult education class in her community. Colin Farr is one of her students. The two develop a thing for each other. Rough-edged bad-boy Colin fascinates Middle-class social justice warrior Ellie, and she has no problem making out with him in a car even though days earlier, he slammed his hand between her legs as if he intended to rape her. Indeed, Ellie Pascoe is the most disappointing character in the book. Peter Pascoe deserve better, but it’s unlikely he’ll see it that way.
The end is massively suspenseful and will make for a satisfactory experience.
You really need not have read any of the previous books in the series to enjoy this. Andy Dalziel is a corpulent old-school cop with his share of bigotries. But he knows well how to solve cases. Peter Pascoe is Dalziel’s partner, and his social-justice diversity, equity, and inclusion wife has turned him into a hyper-sensitive modern guy—whatever that meant in the late 1980s when Hill wrote this.
Ellie Pascoe takes a job teaching miners at an adult education class in her community. Colin Farr is one of her students. The two develop a thing for each other. Rough-edged bad-boy Colin fascinates Middle-class social justice warrior Ellie, and she has no problem making out with him in a car even though days earlier, he slammed his hand between her legs as if he intended to rape her. Indeed, Ellie Pascoe is the most disappointing character in the book. Peter Pascoe deserve better, but it’s unlikely he’ll see it that way.
The end is massively suspenseful and will make for a satisfactory experience.
May 23, 2018
Another literary-inspired mystery from Hill. This time Dante provides the influence. Published in the late 1980s, the novel presents a Britain, specifically Yorkshire, riven and still reeling from the miner's strike action of 1984. Criminality flourishes both above the collieries and deep within. Unusually, Pascoe's wife Ellie takes center stage. Her socialistic streak, her sympathy for the colliers (and one in particular) chafes with her view of her husband's strong arm police practices. Ellie may have fair-minded concerns and beliefs but she is also somewhat shrill and strident in voicing them and this can grate. As ever, Hill is a dexterous and devious plot strategist; perhaps this time too wily for his own good though. Recognizing his dynamic duo will not be able to solve the mystery through conventional procedure he inserts an unlikely deus ex machina to provide an explication for the mystery.
July 3, 2024
A continuation of going through Dalziel & Pascoe. It is an absolute joy to listen to Reginald Hill’s excellent writing. There is humour at every turn. All the characters work with each other and the relationships are believable. I recognised a number of points in this book, which probably means I’ve read it before, but knowing it has stuck with me for so long shows the depth of the writing.
Knowing this was written about 40 years ago it’s amazing the topics covered, and the attitudes around those. An author well ahead of his time and one that I’m sure will endure for a long time.
Knowing this was written about 40 years ago it’s amazing the topics covered, and the attitudes around those. An author well ahead of his time and one that I’m sure will endure for a long time.
October 24, 2008
En plus des bonnes intrigues et de l’écriture excellente de la série, j’aime les personnages. Dalziel est assez original dans le genre. Il n’est pas du genre à traîner son mal-être et ses questionnements sur la vie, l’univers et le reste comme la plupart des héros policiers. Il n’est pas du genre à se demander pourquoi sa femme est partie (il aurait d’ailleurs été plus surprenant qu’une femme puisse rester avec lui). Il est odieux, il passe son temps à gratter certaines parties de son anatomie en public, il engueule tout le monde en jurant comme un charretier, bref c’est un gros con vulgaire et il fonce dans le tas mais c’est un bon vivant. Et on finit par s’attacher à lui parce que c’est un type réglo et loyal qui a parfois des élans de sensibilité inattendus. En fait, il se fait un malin plaisir à ne jamais agir comme les gens s’y attendent. Son subordonné Pascoe est un nouveau type de policier. Il a fait des études, il est moins corporatiste que la plupart des policiers, il fait confiance aux méthodes modernes. Bref, c'est un objet de moquerie constant pour son supérieur.
La série a d’autres personnages récurrents, le sergent Wield, policier imperturbable et Ellie Pascoe, gauchiste, féministe, toujours prête à fustiger les brutalités policières mais aussi femme de Peter. Les joutes verbales entre elle et Dalziel sont toujours savoureuses même si, elle le reconnaît elle-même, gagner contre lui, c’est comme vouloir « tuer un grizzli en le chatouillant ». La série met aussi en scène le Yorkshire, région industrielle et ses communautés. Le premier de la série, « Une femme trop sociable » (publié au Masque) se passait dans un club de rugby, le deuxième, « Leçons de meurtre », dans une université. J’ai lu tous ceux qui ont été traduits en poche et je me suis arrêtée faute de combattants.
Je reprends ma lecture après quelques années avec la suite en anglais, « Under World », le dixième de la série, qui se passe dans un village de mineurs dans les années 80. Il est un peu long à démarrer. On y découvre une histoire complexe où sont mêlés disparition d’enfant, conflits sociaux, ambitions politiques et journalistiques. Le début se concentre surtout sur Colin Farr, un mineur qui suit des cours universitaires avec Ellie Pascoe et l’enquête d’un journaliste sur une ancienne affaire à laquelle était mêlé le père de Colin. En plus, les tensions sociales sont beaucoup mises en avant. Un policier résume les relations entre la police et la population locale : « -You’re not really expecting trouble, are you ? said Pascoe.
The man shrugged.
- You weren’t here during the Strike, sir. Ever see that film, Zulu ? Well, that’s what it were like in here that night we had the bother. Except that in the film the redcoats stood their ground. We had more sense. We ran ! Since that night, I’ve been ready for anything. A mob’s like a dog. Once it’s bitten, it can always do it again. »
C’est, malgré ce démarrage un peu long, un bon cru qui se dévore (même si j’ai dû m’habituer au parler populaire du Yorkshire et des mineurs en anglais), l'intrigue se tient parfaitement et Dalziel est égal à lui-même.
La série a d’autres personnages récurrents, le sergent Wield, policier imperturbable et Ellie Pascoe, gauchiste, féministe, toujours prête à fustiger les brutalités policières mais aussi femme de Peter. Les joutes verbales entre elle et Dalziel sont toujours savoureuses même si, elle le reconnaît elle-même, gagner contre lui, c’est comme vouloir « tuer un grizzli en le chatouillant ». La série met aussi en scène le Yorkshire, région industrielle et ses communautés. Le premier de la série, « Une femme trop sociable » (publié au Masque) se passait dans un club de rugby, le deuxième, « Leçons de meurtre », dans une université. J’ai lu tous ceux qui ont été traduits en poche et je me suis arrêtée faute de combattants.
Je reprends ma lecture après quelques années avec la suite en anglais, « Under World », le dixième de la série, qui se passe dans un village de mineurs dans les années 80. Il est un peu long à démarrer. On y découvre une histoire complexe où sont mêlés disparition d’enfant, conflits sociaux, ambitions politiques et journalistiques. Le début se concentre surtout sur Colin Farr, un mineur qui suit des cours universitaires avec Ellie Pascoe et l’enquête d’un journaliste sur une ancienne affaire à laquelle était mêlé le père de Colin. En plus, les tensions sociales sont beaucoup mises en avant. Un policier résume les relations entre la police et la population locale : « -You’re not really expecting trouble, are you ? said Pascoe.
The man shrugged.
- You weren’t here during the Strike, sir. Ever see that film, Zulu ? Well, that’s what it were like in here that night we had the bother. Except that in the film the redcoats stood their ground. We had more sense. We ran ! Since that night, I’ve been ready for anything. A mob’s like a dog. Once it’s bitten, it can always do it again. »
C’est, malgré ce démarrage un peu long, un bon cru qui se dévore (même si j’ai dû m’habituer au parler populaire du Yorkshire et des mineurs en anglais), l'intrigue se tient parfaitement et Dalziel est égal à lui-même.
September 1, 2015
This is number ten in the wonderful Dalziel & Pascoe series, written in 1988 with a setting centred on a small mining community in Burrthorpe in Yorkshire. This is in the aftermath of the strikes of the 80’s and the miners now have sponsored day release for educational purposes. Ellie Pascoe is roped in to take some classes which provides her from a break writing her feminist novel which isn’t proceeding as planned. Her class includes an angry young man, Colin Farr whose father was the last person to see young Tracey Pedley alive before she was murdered. A local man who committed suicide was widely believed to be the culprit but that hasn’t completely stemmed the whispers and rumours.
Under World creates the atmosphere of a small closed community perfectly, a place where old secrets are kept and ruminated upon away from outside eyes so when a murder occurs in Burrthorpe mine means that the police are called in to investigate it takes Dalziel and Pascoe a while to get to the truth. It doesn’t help that Colin Farr is one of the chief suspects not least because Ellie obviously is attracted to the dark brooding young man who hates the locality but is unable to leave until he works out the truth of what his father did the day little Tracey went missing. Ellie is drawn to the young man’s mind, as well as his physical attributes, as she struggles to balance her feminist and leftist ideals against her role as wife and mother, most particularly her role as wife to a Police officer in a place where the wounds from the strike have not yet healed.
Most of us won’t have worked under ground yet Hill manages to recreate the atmosphere both from multiple points of view, from the seasoned miner to a sightseeing trip for the educators and an investigative perspective for the police. All add a different facet to build up a picture of what this way of life would have meant for those toiling unseen in the depths of the earth and given the lack of alternative employment in the locality, let alone one that would provide the same sense of mutual dependency on those who worked alongside you, why the downfall of this industry had the power to change these communities for ever.
I love Reginald Hill’s writing, he is one of the few writers whose strong political messages I enjoy rather than dismiss, probably because he weaves this carefully into the story-line without ever invoking a ‘preachy tone’. The black-humour that is present in the rest of the series also threads its way throughout this book, raising a wry smile from time to time, usually provoked by one of Dalziel’s proclamations. None of this gets in the way of a really good story though, the plot is as convoluted as expected, the tension kept taut as the investigation is sent hither and thither and the set of characters entirely believable. Although the absence of modern technology was noticeable, especially the use of phone boxes to summon help, apart from that, despite having been written so long ago this book didn’t feel dated, it easily stands up to the more modern police procedurals from one of the masters of this genre.
Under World creates the atmosphere of a small closed community perfectly, a place where old secrets are kept and ruminated upon away from outside eyes so when a murder occurs in Burrthorpe mine means that the police are called in to investigate it takes Dalziel and Pascoe a while to get to the truth. It doesn’t help that Colin Farr is one of the chief suspects not least because Ellie obviously is attracted to the dark brooding young man who hates the locality but is unable to leave until he works out the truth of what his father did the day little Tracey went missing. Ellie is drawn to the young man’s mind, as well as his physical attributes, as she struggles to balance her feminist and leftist ideals against her role as wife and mother, most particularly her role as wife to a Police officer in a place where the wounds from the strike have not yet healed.
Most of us won’t have worked under ground yet Hill manages to recreate the atmosphere both from multiple points of view, from the seasoned miner to a sightseeing trip for the educators and an investigative perspective for the police. All add a different facet to build up a picture of what this way of life would have meant for those toiling unseen in the depths of the earth and given the lack of alternative employment in the locality, let alone one that would provide the same sense of mutual dependency on those who worked alongside you, why the downfall of this industry had the power to change these communities for ever.
I love Reginald Hill’s writing, he is one of the few writers whose strong political messages I enjoy rather than dismiss, probably because he weaves this carefully into the story-line without ever invoking a ‘preachy tone’. The black-humour that is present in the rest of the series also threads its way throughout this book, raising a wry smile from time to time, usually provoked by one of Dalziel’s proclamations. None of this gets in the way of a really good story though, the plot is as convoluted as expected, the tension kept taut as the investigation is sent hither and thither and the set of characters entirely believable. Although the absence of modern technology was noticeable, especially the use of phone boxes to summon help, apart from that, despite having been written so long ago this book didn’t feel dated, it easily stands up to the more modern police procedurals from one of the masters of this genre.
November 16, 2020
Good book, amazingly annoying characters
Andy Dalziel is certainly the most repellent detective in British fiction: crude, profane, and with no discernible redeeming characteristics at all. But Ellie Pascoe takes the cake. A ranting Feminazi, a far-headed far-left do-gooder so sure her lunatic notions are correct she is wholly immune to common sense. The sort of chanting nitwit in a pink pussy hat who storms the barricades screaming self-righteous invective, a woman whose idiocy leads her to break laws and get emotionally involved with madmen, all the while justifying it as necessary for society to "evolve" to a higher state. The daughter of privilege who derides privilege until she needs to invoke it to save her ass from jail by letting her policemen husband get her out of hot water. No doubt she feels Hillary Clinton was cheated out of what was was rightfully hers. An absolutely infuriating individual, one who needs to be shaken by the scruff if her neck.
Andy Dalziel is certainly the most repellent detective in British fiction: crude, profane, and with no discernible redeeming characteristics at all. But Ellie Pascoe takes the cake. A ranting Feminazi, a far-headed far-left do-gooder so sure her lunatic notions are correct she is wholly immune to common sense. The sort of chanting nitwit in a pink pussy hat who storms the barricades screaming self-righteous invective, a woman whose idiocy leads her to break laws and get emotionally involved with madmen, all the while justifying it as necessary for society to "evolve" to a higher state. The daughter of privilege who derides privilege until she needs to invoke it to save her ass from jail by letting her policemen husband get her out of hot water. No doubt she feels Hillary Clinton was cheated out of what was was rightfully hers. An absolutely infuriating individual, one who needs to be shaken by the scruff if her neck.
April 10, 2009
Great stuff. If you've never read a mystery, you could do much worse than starting with Reginald Hill. He is one of the few mystery writers that manage to consistently incorporate a little black humor (usually provided by Superintendent Dalziel) into his books. This one takes place largely in a mining town and provides a fairly interesting and gripping description of what it is like to be a coal miner in Northern England (not very nice, as it turns out). The mystery is first rate as well. However, as in all of his books (or at least all of the ones I've read) the pleasure is not in the plot but in the characters.
December 5, 2015
One of Hill’s best in the Dalziel-Pascoe series. I’d seen the TV version of this which followed the book faithfully. The brotherhood of the coal miners is depicted clearly as well as their resistance to “outsiders.”
April 17, 2015
Superior murder mystery with Andy just getting better and better but Ellie possibly even more irksome!
May 22, 2017
A good one. Nobody would get away with writing these books today.
November 14, 2017
Despite all the fancy linguistic trappings and foul miner's language and imagery, the plot to this story is easy and it is almost too easy to spot the main villain! It seems that everything points to one individual so that you think it can't be that obvious, but it is! By the time the book ends, seven people and a dog have died violently and the life of Peter Pascoe hangs in the balance.
Basically, the plot is this: a n'er-do-well by the name of Colin Farr is a brooding Heathcliffesque kind of character, stirring up trouble for no clear reason in his grimy, remote coal-mining village. He is taking an enrichment University course, being taught by none other than Ellie Pascoe. There ensues some hanky-panky of a very awkward sort, followed by a lot of soul-searching! In the meantime, an old child killing crime is revived by a tabloid newspaper and the hunt is on for both the true perpetuator as well as for the murderer of a miner in a new death. There follow many nasty discoveries, many down in the forgotten shafts of closed mines.
Amid the many well-drawn and believable, if rough, characters, Ellie Pascoe stands out as a misfit among the rest of the cast. I can't imagine why she would marry a policeman when it is so clearly against her feminist principles. I don't know why she chose to have a baby whom she so readily palms off on anyone near-by in the most cavalier, non-caring way ever seen in fiction! Presumably, she creates some sort of foil for Andy Dalziel, but I don't think it works. In fairness, her character settles down a bit more comfortably in later books in the series, but she is nothing but a problem in this one!
Because Reginald Hill is a writer of the highest eschelon, he gets away with a lot, including a great deal of word-play that I doubt the police (or anyone else outside of word games) has time f0r. But he's clever and makes the reader feel clever too by letting him in on the fun of figuring it all out at lightening speed while the plot races on!
Basically, the plot is this: a n'er-do-well by the name of Colin Farr is a brooding Heathcliffesque kind of character, stirring up trouble for no clear reason in his grimy, remote coal-mining village. He is taking an enrichment University course, being taught by none other than Ellie Pascoe. There ensues some hanky-panky of a very awkward sort, followed by a lot of soul-searching! In the meantime, an old child killing crime is revived by a tabloid newspaper and the hunt is on for both the true perpetuator as well as for the murderer of a miner in a new death. There follow many nasty discoveries, many down in the forgotten shafts of closed mines.
Amid the many well-drawn and believable, if rough, characters, Ellie Pascoe stands out as a misfit among the rest of the cast. I can't imagine why she would marry a policeman when it is so clearly against her feminist principles. I don't know why she chose to have a baby whom she so readily palms off on anyone near-by in the most cavalier, non-caring way ever seen in fiction! Presumably, she creates some sort of foil for Andy Dalziel, but I don't think it works. In fairness, her character settles down a bit more comfortably in later books in the series, but she is nothing but a problem in this one!
Because Reginald Hill is a writer of the highest eschelon, he gets away with a lot, including a great deal of word-play that I doubt the police (or anyone else outside of word games) has time f0r. But he's clever and makes the reader feel clever too by letting him in on the fun of figuring it all out at lightening speed while the plot races on!
January 22, 2025
Dalziel and Pascoe find themselves involved in a mine death with possible links to an earlier case in which a young girl, Tracey Pedley, disappeared.
Peter Pascoe's wife, Ellie, is teaching a writing course for miners at the local college and finds herself attracted to a handsome but troubled miner, the son of a man who has ties to Tracey Pedley's disappearance. Impetuous and a heavy drinker, Colin Farr faces his own demons and makes enemies — he also feels an attraction to his teacher and their relationship rapidly goes beyond that of teacher and pupil.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Constable Watmough retires into a future in politics only to be disappointed and agrees to write a series of articles on his cases. But he soon finds that having his cases ghost written by a journalist, who is doing his own investigation, leads to angering police officials and upsets what used to be settled cases, most notably that of Tracey Pedley.
Then there is another murder in the mines where Farr is working. Could Farr have been involved in the death? And the location of the dead body means Dalziel and Pascoe are a part of the investigation. It's a collision between the tight knit world of the miners and the police and Pascoe finds himself wondering just what his wife is doing in all this.
Another excellently crafted and well-written mystery. The characters are realistic, the dialogue true and the solution completely exciting and satisfying. My only complaint is the actions of Ellie Pascoe and the lack of a resolution between the Pascoes. This is not the first book that portrays Ellie as a woman who battles being an activist for women's rights, equality for the underclass and various other causes, but she also uses them often as cudgel against her husband. I for one am tired of it. She flings everything at him like a child throwing a tantrum — and that is disappointing, because it diminishes both of them. No wonder in the television series they get divorced — and good riddance.
Peter Pascoe's wife, Ellie, is teaching a writing course for miners at the local college and finds herself attracted to a handsome but troubled miner, the son of a man who has ties to Tracey Pedley's disappearance. Impetuous and a heavy drinker, Colin Farr faces his own demons and makes enemies — he also feels an attraction to his teacher and their relationship rapidly goes beyond that of teacher and pupil.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Constable Watmough retires into a future in politics only to be disappointed and agrees to write a series of articles on his cases. But he soon finds that having his cases ghost written by a journalist, who is doing his own investigation, leads to angering police officials and upsets what used to be settled cases, most notably that of Tracey Pedley.
Then there is another murder in the mines where Farr is working. Could Farr have been involved in the death? And the location of the dead body means Dalziel and Pascoe are a part of the investigation. It's a collision between the tight knit world of the miners and the police and Pascoe finds himself wondering just what his wife is doing in all this.
Another excellently crafted and well-written mystery. The characters are realistic, the dialogue true and the solution completely exciting and satisfying. My only complaint is the actions of Ellie Pascoe and the lack of a resolution between the Pascoes. This is not the first book that portrays Ellie as a woman who battles being an activist for women's rights, equality for the underclass and various other causes, but she also uses them often as cudgel against her husband. I for one am tired of it. She flings everything at him like a child throwing a tantrum — and that is disappointing, because it diminishes both of them. No wonder in the television series they get divorced — and good riddance.
July 29, 2022
6 stars. There are a couple of cold cases that might be related to the 'accidental' death of a coal mine manager found dead from a fall in one of the shafts. Pascoe and Wieldy are tasked with helping the neighboring Yorkshire police force investigate the death. Because the mine is so vast the other police force decide the death actually occurred under the territory Dalziel's team manages. One of the main characters is Colin Farr, a charming handsome student in Ellie Pascal's class, who constantly challenges her middle class assumptions about coal miners. He's perceptive, smart, and always seems to be manipulating people, unless he's been drinking and starts fighting. He threw a reporter through a plate glass store window in one incident, but Ellie thinks his grievances are justified when she goes down into the hot humid filthy mine shaft where he works. Hill's revelations about the characters history and relationships in the mining town are a study in sociology. Colin observes the miners in his bar and sees they all will look like the old men whose lungs are wrecked and will die soon - a predictable future, so unlike the middle class students who will grow old doing anything they want. - And the world of 2022 still burns coal, and plans to drill for more oil and gas. The latest surge of Covid has included President Biden, but he was able to get Paxlovid and has recovered. Portland and Seattle are covered in a heat dome which will give them 100º F days while Kentucky drowns in 10 inch a day rain caused floods. European news agencies are linking the weather to climate catastrophe but US news barely mentions it.
October 16, 2023
Perhaps I’ve read too many Dalziel novels lately. I was pretty sure who the murderer was about 2/3s through the novel. I’d give this a 3.5-3.75, if that was allowed.
I did love the scene with Dalziel with the rather militant miners at the local pub, and the scene with him in a pub with Ellie and her miner wives friends. Dalziel masterfully handles both tense situations in unexpected ways. Bravo! The tension between Ellie and Peter was portrayed in a very realistic, believable manner. I’m not sure sure about the young man’s essential attack on Ellie and her response. I guess complete emotional confusion explains it.
A young man, Colin, returns to the coal mining town he grew up in. He hates the mine. His father died in a mine, possibly a suicide after he was accused of attacking a young girl. The town is full of resentment against police officers, after a rather brutal Strike situation years before. Ellie has been convinced to offer classes to some of the minors, including the very gorgeous but fickle Colin. The officers involved in investigating the young girl’s death include Wield and the retired boss Dalziel assisted in never getting promoted. This is a pretty dark novel.
I did love the scene with Dalziel with the rather militant miners at the local pub, and the scene with him in a pub with Ellie and her miner wives friends. Dalziel masterfully handles both tense situations in unexpected ways. Bravo! The tension between Ellie and Peter was portrayed in a very realistic, believable manner. I’m not sure sure about the young man’s essential attack on Ellie and her response. I guess complete emotional confusion explains it.
A young man, Colin, returns to the coal mining town he grew up in. He hates the mine. His father died in a mine, possibly a suicide after he was accused of attacking a young girl. The town is full of resentment against police officers, after a rather brutal Strike situation years before. Ellie has been convinced to offer classes to some of the minors, including the very gorgeous but fickle Colin. The officers involved in investigating the young girl’s death include Wield and the retired boss Dalziel assisted in never getting promoted. This is a pretty dark novel.
July 19, 2022
This was an excellent continuation of the Dalziel and Pascoe series. This time our dynamic duo are facing trouble in a local mining community that is still struggling to get back on its feet following the miners strike, a result of which is a thorough dislike of the police. The former ACC is telling is memoirs to a local journalist who is sensationalising them, since on relates to the disappearance of a young girl (daughter of the local welfare club steward) tempers run high when the article implies that the police may have got the wrong man. When a fresh corpse turns up in the local pit and the prime suspect is the son of a man who featured heavily as a suspect in the girls disappearance the question is are the 2 cases related? Dalziel blunders about in his usual rough manner, and Pascoe's investigations are somewhat hampered by the fact that Ellie is teaching the prime suspect and seems to have become his friend. Between them can they unlock a close knit community and find the truth?
November 9, 2025
Underworld is one of Reginald Hill’s darker Dalziel & Pascoe novels that I’ve read so far— steeped in guilt, buried secrets, and the shadows of a mining town that never quite lets go of its past. The atmosphere is claustrophobic, the mystery layered, and the writing as sharp as ever.
What stood out most for me wasn’t just the crime but the psychology. Hill digs deep into how people justify what they’ve done — or what they’ve ignored.
Ellie doesn’t always have much going on in the stories, but she does play a much larger role in this one. Often, the moral voice of the books, she comes across here as a little spoiled and childish at times, reacting with more emotion than reflection.
Her choices in her personal life, especially in a certain relationship, seem negative and self-defeating and even a little selfish when considering the wider context.
While the pacing can feel dense, Underworld still grips with its moral tension and sense of decay. It’s a great addition to the series, and it’s a compelling descent into the darker corners of both the town and its people.
What stood out most for me wasn’t just the crime but the psychology. Hill digs deep into how people justify what they’ve done — or what they’ve ignored.
Ellie doesn’t always have much going on in the stories, but she does play a much larger role in this one. Often, the moral voice of the books, she comes across here as a little spoiled and childish at times, reacting with more emotion than reflection.
Her choices in her personal life, especially in a certain relationship, seem negative and self-defeating and even a little selfish when considering the wider context.
While the pacing can feel dense, Underworld still grips with its moral tension and sense of decay. It’s a great addition to the series, and it’s a compelling descent into the darker corners of both the town and its people.
March 18, 2018
Really solid Dalziel & Pascoe book, with a really interesting context given the era - miners in Yorkshire in just after/during the unrest. I found the mystery to be intriguing, and Ellie's role was interesting, if a bit frustrating at times. Her bond with Peter doesn't seem to be as strong as I'd like to imagine, but that might reflect my own expectations rather than the intention of the author for the characters.
Overall, 10 books into the series, I'm really glad I decided to pick these up. I loved watching the series back in the day when I watched crime shows with my parents. And I remember I read one Dalziel and Pascoe book (Beulah Heights?) when I was about 18, and if left quite an impression. Looking forward to seeing how these characters grow and develop over the next few books,
Overall, 10 books into the series, I'm really glad I decided to pick these up. I loved watching the series back in the day when I watched crime shows with my parents. And I remember I read one Dalziel and Pascoe book (Beulah Heights?) when I was about 18, and if left quite an impression. Looking forward to seeing how these characters grow and develop over the next few books,
March 7, 2022
I listened to the audio version which is narrated by Colin Buchanan (Pascoe in the TV series). Whilst I love Brain Glover as an actor I prefer CB as a narrator.
Set in the 'Mid' Yorkshire coal fields a few years after the divisive and hugely damaging miners strike of 1984 the partially healed sores are re-opened. The memoirs of the recently retired Deputy Chief Constable being published in a newspaper prove to be the catalyst to the re-opening of the case of a missing child who is presumed dead and whose believed killer committed suicide.
Ellie Pascoe comes to the fore with her relationship with one of her miner mature students who is out of the bad boy mould. It is Dalziel who with his combination of bluntness and bad language who steals the show.
Set in the 'Mid' Yorkshire coal fields a few years after the divisive and hugely damaging miners strike of 1984 the partially healed sores are re-opened. The memoirs of the recently retired Deputy Chief Constable being published in a newspaper prove to be the catalyst to the re-opening of the case of a missing child who is presumed dead and whose believed killer committed suicide.
Ellie Pascoe comes to the fore with her relationship with one of her miner mature students who is out of the bad boy mould. It is Dalziel who with his combination of bluntness and bad language who steals the show.
March 31, 2023
Reginald Hill is admired by other crime writers for a reason. His writing can be earthy and descriptive (not keen on the use of the c*** word myself, but these are tough Yorkshire miners in conversation) or poetic and full of classical references. This tale of gruff Yorkshire folk is set in the fictional mining village of Burrthorpe, blighted not only by the strikes of the early 80s but the disappearance of a young girl, Tracy Pedley, several years earlier. Some blamed Billy Farr, who used to take her for long walks and thought of her as the daughter he never had. There are as many twists and turns as there are abandoned mine shafts but the resolution was deftly done and satisfying. No spoilers from me and I look forward to reading the next in the series
July 9, 2021
The book is set in the Yorkshire mining town of Burrthorpe. Inspector Peter Pascoe's wife, Ellie, teaches an extension course for miners in Burrhtorpe. One of the students is Colin Farr, a central figure in the book. Colin's father, Billy, was the last person to see a 7-year old girls before she disappeared. He disappeared at the same time and there were rumors that he had killed her.
I would give this book 3.5 stars. It spends too much time with Ellie Pascoe, her student Colin, and the people in the mining town, especially in the first half of the book. That comes at the expense of the involvement of Dalziel and Pascoe.
I would give this book 3.5 stars. It spends too much time with Ellie Pascoe, her student Colin, and the people in the mining town, especially in the first half of the book. That comes at the expense of the involvement of Dalziel and Pascoe.
September 27, 2024
More violent and a little more depressing than some of the Dalziel & Pascoe books. I like Ellie Pascoe as a character in these books, but here she wasn't completely believable. Her relationship with bad boy coal miner Colin Farr seemed unlikely. Not the flirtation, but his calling her when he needs a ride or just showing up in her car and her driving him about. On the other hand, the conflict between the police and the miners is probably all too real. So was chasm between the well-educated Ellie and the miner's families. It was still a good book and took me about ten minutes to start another book in the series.
June 21, 2023
There was some thing really sad about this one - # 10 in the Dalziel and Pasdcoe series - the setting of a small mining town, its inhabitants beaten by the work they do and the strike the year before (#whyitseasytostillhateThatcher) and the cracks in the Pascoe marriage. More a character study than a mystery, the dysfunction of the community and the brutality of the relationships are unforgettable.
February 17, 2017
Interesting, to see the push and pull within the Pascoes' marriage as the case progresses. The shifting relationship with Peter and Wield is becoming fun to watch, too. Great story, plenty of twists, and, since I never try to guess whodunnit too far in advance, a pleasant surprise (so to speak) at the reveal.
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