Who Guards a Prince?

by Reginald Hill

Who would sever a tongue from a living mouth? Or kill a pathetic, homeless old man? Or frighten a young doctor into silence? The questions are piling up, and Doug McHarg can't stop asking them, even when he's warned off his inquiries by his boss in the local police force, by Scotland Yard, and by increasingly professional death-threats. The pattern that emerges is that of a shadowy, immensely powerful organization, with a reach that extends to the White House and the English throne. And all that stands against them is the implacable McHarg, one discontented copper with little left to lose.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Detective, Audiobook, Crime

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Reginald 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.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reginald Hill, best known for his Daziel and Pascoe detective series, gives readers his take on the suspense-driven, international conspiracy thriller in Who Guards a Prince (1982). There are royals in danger, a secret society that involves Freemasonry, a sex and blackmail scheme to control an up-and-coming young senator with his eye on the presidency, and a little Fenian/Irish American plotting and counter-plotting just for good measure. The book is littered with bodies--people with their tongues cut out, burned up in a fire, killed in car "accidents," blown up, shot, and dropped 20-some stories out of windows. Just a normal few weeks on both sides of the pond--British or American victims, we're not picky. We might even add a Canadian or two just for luck.

Balance that out with a disgruntled British policeman by the name Doug McHarg--a disillusioned, but doggedly-devoted-to-duty widower who used to be the security man for Price Arthur and who has stumbled across the trail of the secret society. Much to their displeasure. McHarg follows the meager clues and finds himself the target for a series of Masonic death-attacks. Can he save Prince Arthur from becoming the latest victim and prevent the society from fulfilling their aims for power? And can he do so without sacrificing people he has begun to care about--because the society doesn't care who it hurts if it can pressure its enemies into leaving it alone...or doing its bidding.

This novel is over-the-top and far too busy with all the conspiracies and schemes and side-issues. And the scattered bodies bothered me much more than the somewhat gruesome thriller that I just finished (especially that tongue business). At least I understood the killings in Relic...here there are so many senseless deaths. So many people crushed under the wheels of the secret society machine and we're just supposed to take it in stride. To top it off, it winds up very predictably with a shoot-em-up ending (which takes place in America where such things happen, you know) and a "surprise" unmasking of the evil genius behind the plots. I will admit that McHarg's method of dealing with the mastermind is unique...but it seems more suitable for a over-blown thriller movie. I just really wasn't taken with this at all. ★★ may be generous.

The best part? A sub-plot with Prince Arthur and his lady-love, an Irish American who must go against her family's anti-English sentiments to be with man she cares for. No sloppy romance--just a nice little thread to follow.


First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"All he asked was to be left alone."
I very much enjoy the author's Dalziel and Pascoe series with the larger than life Fat Andy and his university degree holding sidekick. Great characters, changing writing style but always humorous with a well woven plot. Who Guards A Prince?I is different, a stand alone, not part of the series and, although well written and an easy read, it lacks the humour so pervasive in his detective series. Births writing is sharp, the story almost an unusual telling of a Romeo and Juliet romance.
Narration by Ian Redford is excellent.

[Jim Willse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect in between his thoughtful and literate Dalziel & Pascoe novels, Hill would sit by the fire in his Cumbria cottage, sip a bit of single malt, and say to himself: "Let's see - what's the most preposterous plot I can come up? How about we take a daughter of the Kennedy clan, pair her up with a Charles-type British prince, throw in an international conspiracy by a secret fraternal order. Then have the Scottish version of Clint Eastwood ride to the rescue. Ah, just the thing." It's silly and absurdist and great fun.

[Mark Baines · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent thriller, with several twists and turns. The various strands are presented and then woven together masterfully, keeping the reader engaged and unsighted on the route to conclusion until very close to the end when threads always have to be tidied up. There is evidence of the use of a crystal ball in its vision of part of the plot (published in 1982); the author should be congratulated for being so well ahead of his time in foreseeing potential events.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see this was Hill’s first published novel. Well, it’s uncharacteristic and maybe a bit uneven, but excellent writing with very strong characters as one expects from him. (And now about 40 years old…)

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stand alone thriller. Written around 1981, I have to wonder how much of the novel was inspired by Chuck & Di's engagement and marriage. The plotting was a little dissatisfying for me. (I won't do a plot spoiler to explain why.) But a good read by a very good writer.

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Laughably ridiculous plot, stereotyped characters...this earned one star only because some of the dialogue was tolerable.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent thriller as a ex-royal protection police officer gets drawn into an international conspiracy led by a secretive Masonic lodge.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early Hill thriller that starts out as a rather dated evil Free Mason conspiracy featuring a self-destructive drunken detective, but then some nice unexpected plot twists appear.

[Lisa Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a co-inky-dink! This thriller is so coincidence riddled as to make me think the fluttering of a butterfly's wing in Indonesia might actually affect the results of an election in Panama as well as what the serve for lunch at Apple Valley Middle School. Indeed, so much if this book was so laughable, the bounds of my willingness to suspend my disbelief was so stretched, and the writing so hackneyed that I can't imagine why I am giving it three stars. I was about to say it is because I liked some of the characterization, but, honestly, that was fairly lame too.

I guess I am giving it three stars because I did sort of care what happened to the characters in the end. Plus, it's five days until Christmas and I am feeling generous.

What a ragbag of all sorts: Freemasons, Fenians, Princes, evangelists, presidential candidates, a Carolina girl, professors, journalists, cops and robbers all wrapped up in one of the silliest conspiracy plots I have ever read.

Is this the worst book I have read all year? No. But just about.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I had read all of Reginald Hill's books, but this is an early (1982) thriller. There are several characters and plot lines - a grieving British police officer whose wife has just died, his semi-estranged daughter, a young Irish-American woman and her brothers and grandfather, a minor member of the British royal family, and a secret society, renegade Freemasons running amok. Set in the UK and US, with a brief foray into Canada, the plot moves among all these places and characters, culminating in an exciting finale.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another non-Dalziel/Pascoe from Hill except... McHargh is a bit Dalziel-y, with all the gruffness and ability to inspire terror (and lack of mortality) that The Fat Man has. The introduction of Evil Masonic Elements and the Royal Family were a bit much, but as with almost all of Hill's writing, I thoroughly enjoyed this!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like books about conspiracies in which shadowy figures with great power control current and future events by devious, amoral and violent means, then read this story and enjoy. I prefer to live with my ignorance believing and hoping that truth and justice are somewhere out there.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay, but the Dalziel and Pascoe novels are my favorites.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book. Interesting characters. Good pace. Perhaps a few too any coincidences, but otherwise good.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is perhaps just a bit too far-fetched...but it is Reginald Hill, and Ian Redford's reading of the tale is excellent. It is a very long book.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a murder mystery, but an excellent novel about a tough cop.