Review of GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT by Reginald Hill

A DALZIEL AND PASCOE MYSTERY

HarperCollins, October 2004

It's a strange death, but it seems indisputable that it's a suicide. There's a locked door, a bare toe with a shotgun, and no extraneous fingerprints to be found. The only problem is, Pal Maciver has precisely duplicated the suicide of his father ten years earlier. Now, what kind of man would do that? Although his boss tells him to rule the death a suicide and turn over the case to the uniformed services, DCI Peter Pascoe senses something he can't quite put his finger on. There's the dead man's family--all weird and definitely equipped with both money and hatred. Then there are the little details of the case. Two glasses are clean while the others are dusty--and where is the bottle the dead man had been drinking from. When he learns that his boss had been in charge of the investigation of the father's suicide, Pascoe is even more torn.

Pascoe's investigation turns up sexual misdeeds, lies, and brushes on the corners of a large company that just might become the next recipient of the American Securities and Exchange Commission's attentions. Finally, even his boss, Detective Superintendent Dalziel, is forced to agree that there's something going on--and that they need to continue the investigation.

Author Reginald Hill spins an interesting take on the classic 'locked room' mystery. Readers know from the start that Pal's death was a suicide, but we're still pulled into the investigation--and the mystery that lurks beneath the mystery.

Hill tosses out plenty of hints of what Pascoe is likely to find, eventually. Too many hints, I thought. In fact, that might be the key weakness in an otherwise fascinating book--the reader knows too much, too soon, and spends too much time waiting for the police to catch up.

Still, GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT makes for an entertaining read as Pascoe and Dalziel try to game one another, each trying to bring about some hint of justice in their own way, but finding the other obstructing what they do.

Three Stars

Reviewed 10/05/05

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