Stranger House by
Reginald Hill
hbk out July 05
Published by HarperCollins
at £12.99
Although this book marks a temporary desertion from Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe
series, the voice and style offer many reminders of the investigations conducted by
mid-Yorkshire's finest. Here, though, the odd couple who seek to solve puzzlees of
the past are a young Australian mathematician, Sam Flood, and a Spanish historical
researcher, Mig Madero. Their quests bring them to the Stranger House, a guest house
in the village of Illthwaite, tucked away in the shadowy Cumbrian valley of Skaddale.
This is a part of the country that Hill, long a resident of Ravenglass, knows intimately,
and he evokes its lovely yet sinister atmosphere with characteristic flair, making much
of the macabre Viking legends which shroud the region to this day. The plot is
characteristically convoluted, the characters as charismatic and memorable as one
expects in a book by Reginald Hill. This is a mystery novel, certainly, but the main
focus is not on a conventional murder inquiry. Crimes are committed in the distant
and more recent past as well as in the present day, but what matters most to the reader
is whether Sam and Mig will discover the truth about their family backgrounds – and
what that truth might turn out to be. Of course, one misses Dalziel and Pascoe, but
this is an interesting and readable book which is sure to appeal to Hill's many fans.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Stranger House by
Reginald Hill
