Deadheads

Dalziel & Pascoe #7

by Reginald Hill

Patrick Aldermann, an accountant with a company that makes toilets, is passionate about his roses, which he prunes ruthlessly, 'deadheading' any blossoms a minute past their prime so as to make space for the younger blooms. Not much of a gardener, Dalziel views Patrick as a strong contender for the title of Most Boring Man in Yorkshire. Pascoe, though, has noticed that senior executives at the toilet company 'gentlemen, you might say, just a minute past their prime' have an unlucky habit of dying. And when they do, it's all but inevitably Patrick who, like a lucky young bloom, is poised to take their place.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, British Literature, Procedural, Detective, Audiobook

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

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

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Rose Cultivator as Macbethian Murderer?
Review of the Harper paperback edition (2009) of the MacMillan/HarperCollins hardcover original (1983)

Don't be cheeky to the customers unless they're nicked, or you're Dalziel.. - Sergeant Wield remembers an old rule.

'You fat bastard,' she said. 'You haven't changed have you? They all said you were a nasty bit of work then, and you still are now. I'll leave you to finish this muck. Next time you take a lady out, probably in another fifty years, try to buy her a decent bottle of wine instead of five gallons of this sludge, will you? Give my regards to Yorkshire.' - a witness reacts to Superintendent Dalziel's attempts to gain background information by plying her with drink.

Yorkshire CID Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel (pronounced "dee-ELL") and assistants Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe and Detective Sergeant Wield are set on the trail of accountant Patrick Aldermann when his boss at a home-fixtures conglomerate suspects that Aldermann's career rise is due to the number of dead bodies left in his wake. All of the previous deaths had been written off as accidents, but the trail gets increasingly long and appears to stretch all the way back to Aldermann's youth.

Aldermann himself seems the most unlikely of suspects and acts as if he is barely interested in his business career and instead obsesses over the extensive rose garden in the estate which he has inherited. His constant 'deadheading' of dying blooms though would seem to be a metaphor for trimming old growth out of the way so that youth and ambition can prevail. Will the Yorkshire CID find any actual evidence of murder though?

The side-plots involve Peter Pascoe's wife Ellie becoming friends with Daphne Aldermann, even while her husband is on the investigation of the latter's husband. The still-closeted homosexual Sergeant Wield is meanwhile distracted by the physical attractions of new police cadet Shaheed Singh, which he tries to repress by assuming a cold and unwelcoming attitude. Meanwhile a string of house burglaries in the area has the constabulary seeking for clues to break the case.

This was an earlier Dalziel & Pascoe which I backtracked to read in my current 2022 re-read mini-binge. I had skipped Deadheads originally back in the 1980s, but now I see it as a major step in author Hill's development from a more simplistic police procedural writer into a more developed author with an increased level of characterization alongside the investigative elements.


Cover image of the original MacMillan/HarperCollins hardcover edition (1983). Image sourced from Goodreads.

I backtracked to read Deadheads due to a recent discovery of my old mystery paperbacks from the 1980s in a storage locker cleanout. I had also been curious about the precedents for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb in the Slough House espionage series in the personality of Reginald Hill's Chief Inspector Andy Dalziel, which Herron has acknowledged.


Book haul of the early Dalziel and Pascoe paperbacks, mostly from Grafton Books in the 1980s. Image sourced from Twitter.

Trivia and Link
Deadheads was adapted for television in 1997 as Episode 3 of Series 2 of the long running TV series of Dalziel and Pascoe (1996-2007). Although many of the episodes are posted on YouTube in a series here, there is no posting for Deadheads.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorny problem...

Patrick Aldermann seems to lead a charmed life. Every time anyone gets in his way fate intervenes and they die. When Patrick’s boss, Dandy Dick Elgood, suggests that perhaps Patrick gives fate a hand, Dalziel hands the case over to Peter Pascoe. Peter will have to decide if there’s any truth to Elgood’s fears by looking back at some of the convenient deaths to see if there were any suspicious circumstances missed at the time. But this is complicated by the fact that Peter’s wife, Ellie, has struck up a promising new friendship with Daphne, Patrick’s wife. Dalziel has his own personal interest – once upon a time he tried to seduce Patrick’s mother...

By this stage in the series, Hill has hit his stride and the recurring characters have developed the depth and complexity that make them so enjoyable. Sometimes Hill concentrates more on one of his leads than the others, giving the bulk of the book over to either Dalziel or Pascoe, or later in the series, to Wield or even Ellie. In this one, Pascoe is the leading character, but it’s very much an ensemble piece, with each having their own story within the story, so to speak. We get to know Ellie better as we see her try to juggle between her friendship with Daphne and her loyalty to Peter. Always what we would now call a social justice warrior, her left-wing, anti-Establishment, feminist views sit uneasily beside her role as policeman’s wife, but she’s an independent-minded woman with enough of a sense of humour to cheerfully navigate the dilemmas in which she often finds herself.

There’s a new cadet attached to CID on a short training placement – young Shaheed Singh, known as Shady by his colleagues. I’ve said before that Hill in his day was at the forefront of addressing the changing face of British society in crime fiction. With Singh he gives a very credible picture of a young lad, Yorkshire born and bred, but treated always as different because of his skin colour and Asian heritage. Hill never takes any of the subjects he tackles to the extremes, be it gender, sexual orientation or race, and that’s why I love him – one of the reasons, anyway. Singh gets fed up with the racially-tinged jokes directed at him by his colleagues, but he recognises that they’re basically the result of casual thoughtlessness rather than any real attempt to hurt.

Patrick Aldermann is an intriguing potential villain. Having inherited Rosemont from his rich great-aunt – victim of one of the fortuitous deaths that ease his path through life – Patrick is devoted to his huge garden. He seems to love his wife and children too, though perhaps with less passion than the roses on which he spends all his spare time and money. Could this apparently good-natured if rather emotionally undemonstrative man really be responsible for the murders of several people? Or is it all simply coincidence? As Peter investigates, he stirs up some murky secrets but they merely add to the confusion around Patrick’s guilt or innocence.

Meantime, CID are also investigating a spate of burglaries in the area, while Dalziel is off to London for a conference on community policing in mixed societies, giving us the opportunity to hear some of his un-correct but very funny views on political correctness! So Peter and Wieldy have their hands full, even without this case that might not be a case at all.

Another excellent instalment in this series, with one of Hill’s more playful plots. I’m always a bit reluctant to recommend reading this series in strict order, since I do think the first two or three have dated rather badly and might be a bit off-putting to newcomers. But these middle books would all make good entry points – although the character development is important, each of the books at this stage of the series works fine as a stand-alone (which is not true of some of the later books). Highly recommended, book and series both.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy the Dalziel/Pascoe series but this book is not on the top of my list. It has pluses but the minuses got it a little lower rating than I usually give Hill's books.

First, the minuses: There is too much Pascoe and not enough Dalziel. Fat Andy is what gives this series such a great ambiance and in this story he is away at a conference in London. Toward the end, we get to be with him a bit more but it is his personality that makes the books so appealing. Second, there is too much Ellie Pasco, the uber liberal wife of Detective Pascoe. She is either walking picket lines or trying to convince her friends not to send their children to public schools (which in England is a private school). Her proselytizing gets very old very fast.

The pluses are that the storyline is very clever......the manager of a plant thinks one of his accountants is killing people for his own advancement in the company, although the deaths do not look like murder. Pascoe takes it pretty much with a grain of salt but promises to look into it. Then things begin to look interesting and some red herrings may not be as red as they formerly appeared. The second plus is the twist ending which is rather a surprise and puts paid to the saying that crime doesn't pay and that criminals are always brought to justice..
Good read but just not one of Hill's best of the series.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very different offering from Reginald Hill. There is no 'whodunnit' as such, more of a 'were these murders and where to find the proof' search for North Yorkshire's finest. We don't get a lot of Andy Dalziel but there is a lot more of Ellie Pascoe; probably too much in my view. Not one of the best in the series by a long way but still entertaining.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely different from its predecessor, this book reveals the (probable) serial killer fairly early. The police investigate the cold cases, in which there are no solid clues. The likelihood that the suspect is the real murderer varies as the book progresses, the author hinting one way then the other, playing with our expectations. Eventually we learn the truth, while having been entertained on every page by lively dialogue, likable, complex characters, and elegant writing.

[denudatio_pulpae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Księgowy Patrick Aldermann to facet urodzony pod szczęśliwą gwiazdą. Dzięki kilku zbiegom okoliczności, Patrick staje się właścicielem i spadkobiercą domu, oraz pewnej sumy pieniędzy. Wszystko byłoby idealnie, gdyby nie idący za tym tajemniczy wysyp zgonów. Wszystkie wyglądają na nieszczęśliwe wypadki, ale w przełożonym Patricka wzbudzają na tyle wątpliwości, że postanawia on zgłosić się z tym na policję. Chwilę potem odwołuje to oskarżenie, ale policyjna machina zaczęła już działać, a na światło dzienne zaczynają wychodzić nowe fakty, dotyczące nie tylko Aldermanna. Komu oskarżenie Patricka przyniesie najwięcej korzyści?

Przez większość książki nie byłam nią jakoś szczególnie zachwycona, ot zwykły kryminał z różanymi rabatami w tle. W pewnym momencie dałam się jednak wciągnąć w tę historię i muszę przyznać, że całościowo wypada całkiem dobrze. Zakończenie również mnie usatysfakcjonowało. Może jeszcze kiedyś sięgnę po książki z tej serii, ale duet Dalziel & Pascoe nie przypadł mi specjalnie do gustu.
6/10

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was #7 in the whopping 24-book Dalziel and Pascoe series and from what I understand, a bit of a departure from the usual depth and tone of the rest. I enjoyed it as much as I have the others, although it was much more character study than mystery. In fact, the only mystery involved Patrick Aldermann’s father and that was very easily solved by a casual reading of the first few chapters. The writing here displays monumental verbosity which I’d condemn in a lesser writer, but there’s an overt purpose to this literary extravagance and I loved the wit and sarcasm and subtext of every detail. The main character is driven by a passion for the cultivation of roses, and each chapter begins with the name of a rose along with its colour and primary characteristics. It took me an embarrassingly long time to see that those descriptions introduced that chapter's characters and events in the most subtle and amusing way. “Good hedger” can be interpreted in several ways! I loved the humour here, some of it very localized (“the contour of her stomach was Cotswoldian rather than Pennine”), and appearing to come directly from the characters themselves. I'd give this 4 stars but my enjoyment in revisiting these people bumps it up to a 5.

We’re turning into a geriatric society. The old are fighting back. They have the great advantage of an irresistible recruitment program.

[Surreysmum · Rating 4 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1988, and reflect my first encounter with Dalziel and Pascoe:]. A real chiller of a mystery, the more so since the villain gets away with it, despite the best efforts of some quite intelligent and sympathetically drawn police. The title is a metaphor drawn from rose-gardening, which is the obsession of Patrick Aldermann. It refers to the practice of ripping off old blossoms so that young ones can survive. And all through Aldermann's life, inconvenient people have had conveniently fatal accidents, with the result that he has thrived. Eventually even the intelligent Pascoe, the bigoted but shrewd Dalziel, and the dogged and secretly sensitive Wield cannot actually prove that Aldermann is responsible for any or all of the accidents - even when the man (Elgood) who brought the business to their attention himself dies a horrible death (chemicals in the shower). Hill brings in several situations of interest - not really dynamic or substantial enough to be sub-plots, more like small movements in character. One of these is the unlikely friendship that develops between Aldermann's upper middle-class wife, Daphne, and policeman Pascoe's cheerily left-wing wife Ellie. Naturally enough, this friendship comes under considerable strain when Pascoe starts investigating Aldermann. Another situation of interest is that of the young police cadet Singh. Not only does he have to deal with routine & thoughtless racism within the force, and with the shift in loyalties away from his working-class, fringe-criminal schoolfriends, but he is also in a state of considerable doubt about his suitability for police work. That doubt is exacerbated by the gruffness and critical attitude of his immediate superior, Wield. What Singh has no way of knowing is that Wield is a closet homosexual and his gruffness is an attempt to compensate for the attraction he feels towards the young man. Nothing comes of the attraction, but in the quiet of an overnight stake-out, Wield manages to convince Singh that he is right to stay in the police force. I liked this book.

[rabbitprincess · Rating 3 out of 5]

* * * 1/2

Another early Dalziel and Pascoe mystery (published in 1983). The back cover describes the events of the book as a "cold enigmatic trail of murder", and this description is very apt. It seems that whenever Patrick Aldermann runs into circumstances that may deprive him of his house, Rosemont, and its beautiful rose gardens, the person who stands in his way conveniently dies. But is he actually a murderer, or is it just coincidence? Basically, he is, but there's not enough solid evidence or reliable witnesses for the police to convict him. In this respect I think the ending is pretty realistic. Sometimes people do walk away because there's not enough solid evidence.

As for the writing and other aspects of the book, it was the usual treat to read. Hill has a lovely way with language and his dialogue sounds natural. Dalziel is his usual outrageous self, with a few lines prompting some pretty scandalized laughter. The description is very vivid -- the final victim's demise was pretty gruesome to read about, and it made the character of Patrick that much more chilling to contemplate because he displayed absolutely no remorse about it and would very likely have known just how horrifying a death his victim was in for.

It also occurs to me that the multiple murders made to look like accidents is somewhat reminiscent of Agatha Christie's Murder is Easy, although Patrick is even more subtle than the murderer in that book, because in one case it is implied that Patrick merely suggested that the victim return home at a certain time, knowing full well that the circumstances that would greet the victim would produce the desired result. Creepy.

To sum up, this is a good book, an interesting mystery and you may even pick up a thing or two about roses.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hill is another author I buy in hardcover. He began many years ago as an ordinarily good Brit detective writer and through the years, he has developed more than anyone I can think of in the genre. He has experimented and developed and delighted. I chose this one to comment on because it's one I have read several times for its interesting characterizations. Hill would be a top writer in any genre. He just happens to use policemen as his protagonists. And Fat Andy is one of the best---love him.

[Matt Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally listened to my father-in-law and read a Reginald Hill novel. Damn, the ol' man was right; Hill is a fine writer. The characterizations are rich, the dialogue is smart and snappy, he explores racism/homosexuality/class and he is funny. The main thrust of the story: is Patrick a prolific serial killer or is he just some boring accountant with an uncanny ability with roses? The two protagonists are wildly different in looks, language and approach but, of course, that is why they work well together. Each chapter is titled with the name of a Rose and its defining characteristics. ex: "Blush Rambler (Climber. Very vigorous, flowers profuse in summer but little thereafter, blush pink, large-headed, resistant to weather but not to mildew)." Somehow Hill is able to align the Rose to events in the chapter in some clever way. Male authors aren't usually known for this but some of the absolute best dialogue is between two extremely smart female characters who are at opposite ends politically but who become friends in spite of their differences. So much to like here. A good read.

[Poonam · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoiler alert*

Just last night when reading about Reginald Hill's bibliography, I had read that Dalziel and Pascoe, from mid-Yorkshire CID, didn't always get their man. This is one man. I now come to think, almost every writer writes such a character once, one who gets away. Usually a master manipulator. Keigo Higashino wrote similar characters in "Under the midnight sun".

Despite that apparent dissatisfaction as a reader that your protagonists don't solve the crime(s) and get a dangerous man, the book was pleasure to read. A fast read, in fact.

There's much to recommend besides an intriguing criminal and other interesting characters. There's also a new Asian-origin cadet Shaheed Singh who is eager to make his mark as a policeman but is, at the same time, at constant receiving end of 'friendly' racism in force.

[Ryan Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoy Hill's writing and this series you will thoroughly savor every chapter of this well plotted and creatively themed novel. The entire gang of familiar faces are working together in a highly entertaining read. It doesn't hit with the sadistic punch of A Killing Kindness but Hill's stories and characters remain a distinct pleasure. This one is good, not exceptional, but still better than most in the genre. 3.5 stars if I could.

The Dalziel and Pascoe series remains must-read for the connoisseurs of mystery/thrillers.

[Thejelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard Hill fare with a rather unusual (and quite impressive) twist at the end. Some reviewers seemed to be disappointed that someone can get away with murder but I think that reflects real life and that Hill should be commended for it. Dalziel on decent form but still rather too much of the annoying Ellie Pascoe for my taste. This to me was a classic four-and-a-half stars but as I can't award that I've gone for four

[cloudyskye · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little disappointing. Ideally it's Pascoe and Dalziel together, and there was very little of that.
I'm really bored with Ellie constantly and repetitively harping on her topics (women's lib & co.).
I did like the rose theme.
But the serial killer walks free, he's even on a first name basis with Pascoe in the end? Seriously?

[Marie-Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy in its own right. Really creepy!

[J. Merwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly wonderful read!

[Randal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The library collection is missing some of the older titles so I skipped 2 through 6. I'm thinking I might want to go find them.
It's an odd series. At first glance, it's another cop buddy tale, but D&P aren't buddies. Or friends. They're a superior / underling pair and the older half, Dalziel, really is an ugly person, deep down, not just on the surface -- but with enough moments of kindness to make him better than grotesque. (His casual racism toward young Cadet Singh / caring support when it mattered, for instance).
And Hill writes Pascoe's wife, Ellie, and her struggles to be both a young progressive and a cop's wife so well, and the inner conflict of the closeted gay sergeant, and the dualities that are straining Singh that the series is really turning into an ensemble piece, not a buddy tale.
Readers looking for a straightforward whodunit with a tidy ending will leave frustrated. I enjoyed it.

[Mario · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining easy read, written in Reginald Hill’s totally unique style. There really is nobody else who writes the way he does, I often find myself smiling at his turn of phrase. Beautifully written, plenty of humour and a story that flows along.

These are not deep thought provoking books but enjoyable they certainly are. Just what’s needed if your previous read was a little on the heavy side and you need some light relief.

Perhaps not one of his best but still an excellent story.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pascoe is left by Dalziel, who has to go off to a conference on PC policing, to discover whether or not a rose aficionado is behind a series of murders made to look like accidents.

This series reminds me of Terry Pratchett's Vimes & co. characters--this one particularly does. But there's something about the two books in this series that make it something of a slog to get through. I don't think it's pacing; I'm not sure what it is. A good book, even if something about it makes me want to set the book aside after every chapter.

[Książkowe_Wyliczanki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Akcja powieści rozgrywa się na początku lat osiemdziesiątych na angielskiej prowincji, w Yorkshire. Dwójka detektywów Pascoe i jego przełożony Dalziel nie prowadzą tej sprawy razem, a raczej wzajemnie się wspierają. Podejmują różne tropy, które nasuwają podejrzenia, a w momencie kiedy jeden zarzut zostaje odparty, wyłania się inne morderstwo z przeszłości, które w jakiś sposób łączy się z podejrzanym. Autor wprowadza wielu bohaterów, oprócz tytułowej dwójki mamy dwóch policjantów, jednego oryginalniejszego od drugiego. Ważną rolę odegra żona Pascoe a także Dick „Dandys” Elgood, prowodyr śledztwa.

W tej książce nie znajdziecie hektolitrów krwi, ciągłego strachu przed mordercą, trupów również jest niewiele. Historia toczy się dość leniwie, mam wrażenie, że to klasyczny angielski kryminał, pokazujący pracę wydziału kryminalnego, przedstawiający angielską klasę średnią, z wszystkimi jej grzeszkami, powiązaniami i grą pozorów. Wydaje się trochę nudno prawda? A jednak czytałam tą książkę z zainteresowaniem, co jest wynikiem wciągającego stylu pisarza jak i bardzo ciekawych bohaterów. Są to bardzo realistyczne postacie, z wszelkimi wadami i zaletami, charakterystyczne i dające się lubić. Autor tak poprowadził akcję, żeby stworzyć swego rodzaju dylematy moralne w innym miejscu niż policyjne biuro.

Ścięte głowy" to dobry kryminał, z doskonale zarysowanym tłem społecznym, wyrazistymi bohaterami, plastycznym językiem i wątkiem kryminalnym, który intryguje.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my limited experience, Hill is remarkable (not unique, but somewhat rare) among mystery authors I know of. The expectations he'll bend/thwart/... seem to me to be among some of the most established. In Deadheads the murderer is not only not arrested by the police, he successfully outwits them; moreover, he and his (probably innocent) wife reappear in later novels in the series as happy, successful subsidiary characters, his wife a good friend of Detective Pascoe's wife Ellie (in Arms and the Women and one or two others, and Peter (Pascoe)'s thoughts express a certain embarrassment that he ever suspected Patrick of guilt of the murderers earlier- at the time of "Deadheads", that is.) (In some other novels in the series, the villain escapes arrest or is arrested but not convicted, and then... - well, already perhaps have given away more spoilers than strictly allowed by the "spoilers" rule, which may only apply to this _specific_ book! )

As to yea or nay, quite liked this book - as I have most of Hill's novels since recently finding out about him; have only read it once, so far, though (some of the others in this series I have read at least twice).

[Tanja Berg · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unengaging intrigue regarding a man, Patrick Aldermann, who appears to have had a bit too much luck in life. People in his way have a tendency to die. One of Patrick's co-workers raises his suspicions to the police and Peter Pascoe starts to investigate to see if he can find any sort of evidence to confirm them.

This is long-winded, boring and contrived. It is difficult to believe that the police, even in the eighties, would have so little to do that they would time and effort into investigating idle gossip. It's not badly written and I suppose I'll be listening to more Reginald Hill mysteries eventually.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a mystery novel that takes the unusual course of having our detectives not be able to bring the killer to justice. Strangely, this doesn't make for an unsatisfying novel, although since the book does end with Ellie Pascoe being rather good friends with the wife of the suspected killer, I do wonder if this is a setup for belated justice to be served in a later book.

Unusual aspects aside, I found this a very enjoyable read. It's got lots of great characters, with even relatively minor figures like new police cadet Saheed Singh coming across as real people.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colin Buchanan's narration of this highly convoluted and complex crime novel is sheer delight. All of the well-known characters appear, and some new ones enter stage left, to allow Peter and Elli, and Sergeant Wield's personal lives to become apparent to the listener. Andy Dalziel continues to be arrogant, bombastic, genially racist, attractive to some women, and sometimes sensitive to others.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cleverly plotted novel involving a not particularly good businessman, Patrick Alderman who path to success is continually opened up by the unexpected death of the most likely candidate. Dalziel and Pascoe look to investigate whether there is anything to back up the ever growing number of explainable deaths. The situation is only made worse by the friendship Ellie Pascoe and Alderman's wife Daphne. A very enjoyable read from one of Britain's great crime writers.

[Margaret L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series! Once I discovered it (I think this was the first one I read), I would read each entry in the series as it came out, in pre-Kindle days. I'm looking forward to re-reading them all as they become available in ebook format. Reginald Hill was a master who passed too soon and is sorely missed.

[Cybercrone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was actually quite a good story, but if I want to read about serial murderers getting away with their crimes I could go and buy a newspaper for a buck, and save the money I spend on books. That just really spoils my day!!

[Owlsinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The librarian said, as she handed me the book, "I'm not sure I like this author; the good guys don't always win." Or words to that effect. Definitely enjoyed it, but - to her - "QED".

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each chapter is titled by the name and description of a beautiful rose. Like a French farce, the story includes a number of liaisons between people who aren't married to each other, including Dalziel. Dandy Dick Elgood and the widow Mandy feature in the town's gossip. After the childless elderly Aldermans die the beautiful estate with its rose gardens ends up in the hands of Patrick Aldermann, the son of Florence Aldermann's unmarried niece, Penny Highsmith. Penny never divulged the name of Patrick's father but he changed his name from Highsmith to Aldermann when he grew up because he greatly admired his great uncle. And, as Dandy Dick informs Pascoe, Patrick has been remarkably lucky with an advancing career due to those in his way conveniently dying. Dick wants to fire him as the accountant for the bathroom fixtures company he owned, but now manages it for a foreign company. You get a peak into the town's kinship system by who worked in management positions at Elgood-ware. Coincidentally Pascoe's wife, Ellie, becomes fast friends with Patrick's wife Daphne, which makes Pascoe's investigations awkward. And there are a number of unsolved home burglaries. Excellent yarn. -- Covid pandemic wave 6 is rising in the San Francisco Bay Area. Russia celebrated their annual victory over WWII Nazis, and they claim the Ukrainians are Nazis. It looks like Ukraine will be turned to rubble before the Russians stop the invasion. The US Supreme Court will decide next month how they plan to roll back abortion rights to the 17th century Originalist view of society. And South Asia is experiencing a terrible heat wave far earlier and worse than they've ever had. I wonder how many years we have left before everything collapses. 5?