Pictures of Perfection
(1994)
1994 Collins blurb:
High
in the
Mid-Yorkshire dales stands the
Against these crimes the Law offers little defence. But when a policeman goes missing, leaving only a handful of bizarre clues, DCI Peter Pascoe gets worried. Andy Dalziel thinks he’s just overreacting until the normally phlegmatic Sergeant Wield also shows signs of changing his first impression of village life.
Over two eventful days a new pattern emerges, of lust and lying, of family feuds and ancient injuries, of frustrated desires and unbalanced minds. Finally, inevitably, everything comes to a bloody climax at the Squire’s Reckoning, when the villagers gather each Lady Day to feast and gossip and pay old debts. Not even the presence of the Mid-Yorkshire CID trio can change the course of history, though one of them is to find the course of his own personal history changed for ever.
Once more Reginald Hill has found new territory to bring beneath the banner of crime fiction, not by force but by gentle persuasion, showing us that as well as death, deceit and violence, faith, hope and love are native here too.
My review:
The book lives up to its title, for this tale of villages under threat from “progression” is indeed perfect, in humour and plotting. A village is under threat from developers who see it only as a means of making money, and the villagers are forced to consider selling their School in order to save the Green, or the Green in order to save the School—either of which would destroy the village. Into this situation comes crime: the local bobby, P.C. Harold Bendish, vanishes, and Pascoe and Wield arrive to investigate such matters as nude policemen, statues of marble fauns sporting police helmets, thefts of worthless items, forgery and illicit affairs. We know from the very beginning that everything will end disastrously—but Hill manages to pull the carpet out from under the reader, and ends…perfectly.