An April Shroud
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4.3 • 26 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A detective is drawn to a newly widowed woman in this “darkly funny” British murder mystery in the Gold Dagger Award–winning series (Kirkus Reviews).
With his partner away on a honeymoon, Yorkshire detective Andrew Dalziel tries to beat the blues by taking a vacation of his own. But after getting caught in a torrential rain and running into a funeral procession, he winds up accompanying a crowd of upper-class mourners to a crumbling country house.
Dalziel isn’t known for his elegant manners, but he has bigger problems than not fitting in: The owner of the home has died under unusual circumstances, and soon more bodies are turning up. And while Dalziel finds himself undeniably attracted to the widow, he knows that she, and everyone in the family, is a suspect.
“Hill’s high standards of humor and civilized characterization are intact here, and justice and ambiguity are served in satisfactory fashion.” —Publishers Weekly
Praise for Reginald Hill
“Hill’s polished, sophisticated novels are intelligently written and permeated with his sly and delightful sense of humor . . . Enjoyable as much for their characters as for their complicated, suspenseful mystery plots.” —The Christian Science Monitor
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fans of Hill's procedurals featuring Superintendent Dalziel and Inspector Pascoe may be startled at encountering Dalziel out of character. In the first U.S. publication of a 1975 work, Dalziel is mainly on his own, during Pascoe's honeymoon, and is, if not in love, at least in lust. Stranded in the country by heavy April rains, Dalziel is rescued by an odd funeral procesion led by new widow Bonnie Fielding. Dalziel is bothered by the mourners' casual airs and even more by the sensuously ripe Bonnie. Complications arise when he discovers the strange manner in which Bonnie's husband died, the possibility of an insurance scam, the mortal fear of Bonnie's father-in-law and the realization that all the Fieldings, including Bonnie, are suspects in a possible murder. The usually gruff, if not brutish, Dalziel begins an affair with Bonnie and when two more bodies are found he launches his own discreet investigation. Hill's high standards of humor and civilized characterization are intact here, and justice and ambiguity are served in satisfactory fashion.
