Tangled Web UK Review September 2008
The Roar of the Butterflies by
Reginald Hill
pbk out December 08
(Harper)
at £7.99
Reginald Hill is a prolific writer who has been entertaining with his novels since 1970. Now in his seventies, he shows little sign of slowing down and every sign of improving with age. Mr Hill is best known for his Yorkshire-based series of twenty-three novels featuring detectives Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, dramatised by the BBC for television as Dalziel and Pascoe. He is also the creator of the Joe Sixsmith series, which began in 1993 with Blood Sympathy. The Roar of the Butterflies is Sixsmith’s fifth outing.
Sixsmith is an absolute gem, a good-natured, self-effacing private investigator who thinks of himself as a "black, balding, middle-aged, vertically challenged, slightly overweight, redundant lathe operator". Joe isn’t too bright or too energetic, but he knows his limits and relies on his local connections in Luton and a large amount of luck - neither of which ever let him down. The prose perfectly matches Joe’s character, skipping and tripping along with plenty of light relief and downright hilarity. A set of charming sketches complements the tone of the story as well.
The novel takes it title from a P.G. Wodehouse quote, used to describe the intensity of a golfer’s concentration, and the mystery does indeed involve misbehaviour on the green. Joe is hired by Christian - ‘call me Chris’ - Porphyry, a "Young Fair God" who has been accused of cheating at the prestigious Royal Hoo Golf Club. To Joe’s credit, he is as much at ease in the opulence of the golf club’s bar as he is in the Hole in the Wall pub, and just as capable of keeping up with the repartee, even if he doesn’t know what a "gotcha" is. The plot thickens when Ratcliffe King, better known as "King Rat", a wealthy and unscrupulous business tycoon, attempts to send Joe on a four thousand pound job to Spain. When he throws in his gorgeous, young secretary as bait, even Joe smells a...small, furry animal of some description. Just when he has more than enough on his plate, a murder on the links emerges.
Mr Hill not only delights with expert humour and characterisation, but also beguiles with a very clever mystery story that begins in an innocuous manner before taking a darker turn. The conclusion is all the more effective for being understated, and it’s difficult to imagine a reader who won’t be entertained by such a diverting tale, and who won’t hope that there’s a sixth Sixsmith is in the offing.
(
Rafe McGregor
Rafe's own site - www.rafemcgregor.co.uk)
Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online
