Arms and the Women (Hardcover)

The stunning new Dalziel and Pascoe novel from Reginald Hill: 'The most brilliantly entertaining and intellectually satisfying writer now practising in the field of the classic English Detective novel' -- Independent on Sunday When Ellie Pascoe finds herself under threat, the men in her life assume it's because she's married to a cop. But while they trawl after shoals of red herrings, Ellie is blasted off course with a motley crew of women on a voyage of discovery whose perils make Scylla and Charybdis look like a pair of Barbie dolls. Irish arms, Colombian drugs, and men who will stop at nothing, create a tidal wave which threatens to sweep her away. She heads out of town in search of haven, but instead finds herself at the very edge of the storm in a remote clifftop house undermined by the sea. Fat Andy eventually smells a Security Service rat and comes steaming to the rescue, but for once it's too little, too late.;Ellie's on her own (apart from her Middle England friend, Daphne; an octogenarian aid-worker and her vapid secretary; a gorgeous South American money launderer; an ancient crone; and a female cop who gets up her nose) and must reach deep down into her reserves to find the strength to survive. After the huge success of ON BEULAH HEIGHT, the question was, where could Reginald Hill take his Dalziel and Pascoe novels next? The answer is, even further! Part detective story, part mythological novel, part international thriller, ARMS AND THE WOMEN is wholly Hill, pacey, perceptive, humorous, intelligent, and above all compulsively readable!