Having been a bit busy working lately I have not been able to read as much as I desire, but, I have still been able to do some.
And what I read this week was a collection of Dalziel and Pascoe stories. That's pronounced Dee-Ell, to the uninitiated. There are four stories here written between 1979 and 1994.
With any long running series maintaining the same characters, there can be a drop off every now and again of consistency. But with Reginald Hill even if the story is not that great you will always have brilliant dialogue. Andy Dalziel has the best lines in crime fiction, he's rude crude and clever. There is never any drop off in the consistency of his patter.
This collection has early stories through to one that is science fiction but always the verbals, they just make you laugh out loud.
When ever I read one of these novels I always see 'Fat Andy" as played by Warren Clarke in the television series.
Which of course brings me back to Anthony Burgess. Clark played the part of one of Alex's 'Droogs', Dim, in the film adaptation of 'A Clockwork Orange'. I may have mentioned this before but in case you missed it, Anthony Burgess was a genius.
Grab a Reginald Hill anytime, you will not regret it. Even his poorer stories are head and shoulders above anyone writing procedurals today.
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