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    A Cure for All Diseases
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    A Cure for All Diseases
    Unavailable
    A Cure for All Diseases
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    A Cure for All Diseases

    Written by Reginald Hill

    Narrated by Colin Buchanan

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    A psychological thriller starring Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular police duo and stars of the long-running BBC TV series.

    Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God wasn't ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks' care under a tender nurse.

    Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town.

    Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort – none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate – with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 3, 2008
    ISBN9780007270637
    Unavailable
    A Cure for All Diseases
    Author

    Reginald Hill

    Reginald Hill is a native of Cumbria and former resident of Yorkshire, the setting for his novels featuring Superintendent Dalziel and DCI Pascoe, ‘the best detective duo on the scene bar none’ (‘Daily Telegraph’). Their appearances have won him numerous awards including a CWA Gold Dagger and Lifetime Achievement award. They have also been adapted into a hugely popular BBC TV series.

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    Reviews for A Cure for All Diseases

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      This is an enjoyable pastiche of the old-fashioned English detective story, clearly written with tongue firmly in cheek, but taken just seriously enough that the plot makes sense and the many twists and turns in the final chapters are at least possible, if not really plausible. And at 620 pages, it should be enough to keep you smiling through quite a lengthy journey.As Hill warns us in his dedicatory note, the location and most of the main characters are lifted from Jane Austen's unfinished last novel Sanditon, which, as you may remember, unfortunately breaks off before the first body is discovered. Possibly it would have been more fun to be allowed to work this out by ourselves, but either Hill or his publisher evidently decided that there was a danger that those unfortunate readers who don't have Austen's posthumous works at their fingertips might fail to realise how clever he had been. Even so, there are quite a few more buried jokes for Jane Austen fans to discover in the text, not to mention a send-up of some of the conventions of chick-lit.
    • 5/5
      It is thought that you can't keep a good man down, and that is what has happened with this book. Fat Andy Dalziel is back, and although he is physically not recovered from his close brush with death in the last book, his mind is still as razor-sharp as ever. In true Hill fashion this book is hilariously funny, but also poignant and touching as well. I read a lot of British police procedural series, and I have a lot that I really enjoy, and continue reading each time as new books come out, but the Dalziel and Pascoe series is by far my favourite. The writing is extremly intelligent, the characters are so realistic, and each book is very different from the others. The mysteries are very tricky, and believe me the series does not grow stale at all even though this is the 22 book in the series. Andy finds himself right in the middle of a family drama when he retires to a sea side convalescent home to recover from his grievous injuries. He gets drawn up into the action, and his remarkable intellect pushes him on untl he solves the mystery. He doesn't get drawn up into all the red herrings that even infallible Wieldy and perceptive Peter Pascoe fall for. I for one am so glad that Dalziel is back. He is a remarkable character, and one of my very favourites.
    • 5/5
      After barely surviving a terrorist blast Superintendent Andy Dalziel is convalescing at a swanky private clinic in the seaside resort of Sandytown in Yorkshire. He befriends another young visitor to the town, Charlotte (Charley) Heywood, who is the daughter of an old Rugby mate of Dalziel’s and a psychologist reviewing the benefits of alternative therapies. They are both keen observers of the people and happenings in the town and record their observations: Andy using a digital audio recorder provided by his doctor and Charley via a series of emails to her sister. As with all fairly closed communities there are a couple of prominent families whose lives seem to impact everyone in the town directly or indirectly and the same is true of Sandytown which is the setting for a soon to be opened alternative healing centre. When one of the town’s most prominent citizens is killed in a gruesome way a full police investigation, headed by Dalziel’s old partner Peter Pascoe, gears up but Andy and Charley’s continuing observations play a key role in the solving of the murder.

      This is, more than usually, a review specifically of the audio version of A Cure For All Diseases narrated by Jonathan Keeble. Because, regardless of how good the original content is, Keeble added a truly wonderful element that I don’t think could exist in the print version. His portrayal of the two main narrators of the story, ageing male Dalziel and young, somewhat excitable female Charley is truly magnificent and he rounds out the reading with an entire cast of minor players that are equally beautifully depicted. Coming back to my iPod each day became a real treat over the past week or so and I now have a sense of the anticipation people used to get as they ‘gathered round the wireless’ to hear the latest radio play in the days before television.

      The format and, to some extent, the content of this story is actually Hill’s homage to Jane Austen but I don’t think it matters all that much if you’re an Austen fan and can recognise what he’s done or not. Far more important is that it provides an interesting, different approach to the standard police procedural. As someone who has lamented the formulaic writing by other well-known authors of late I applaud both the decision to do try something new and the successful execution of that decision. About half of the story is told via the recorded observations of Charley and Dalziel and I thoroughly enjoyed their dual points of view, especially the brave inclusion of a significant narrative voice that wasn’t Dalziel or Pascoe. The rest of the story is told via a more traditional narrative but the two forms are pretty seamlessly integrated.

      There’s a strong undertone of humour through this book that I haven’t noticed in the series before (although I’ve not read a large number of them so maybe it has been present). Both Dalziel and Charley’s epistles are full of humour that suits their respective characters: Dalziel’s is coarse and reminiscent of a 1970’s comedian dripping with barely concealed sexual innuendo while Charley’s is full of the biting observations that a modern young woman might share with her friends in an online chat room. I found this added a very natural component to the characterisations and, particularly in the case of Dalziel, provided a layer of credibility to a character that I’ve struggled to believe in previously. He’s still all-seeing, all-knowing Fat Andy that nearly everyone is instantly afraid of, but the humorous monologue provides an insight into what makes him tick and because of it I cringed less and saw him as a more well-rounded character.

      The book isn’t the fastest paced story you’ll find, especially where the two narrative voices overlap and recount the same events from their different perspectives, but the relatively slow revelation of events allowed the myriad of characters to be more fully developed than would otherwise have been the case. Rather than being ‘filler’ content of the ‘a book must have 500 pages’ variety this was a highly nuanced building up of a picture of the town and its inhabitants and I was completely captivated. I have to admit the final conclusion bordered on contrived but I forgave this minor lapse in what was otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable read.

      Hill is to be congratulated for maintaining interest in his long-running series by trying something innovative with this book. I also admire the fact you don’t need to be a die hard fan of Dalziel and Pascoe to enjoy the book (although I doubt it hurts if you are). If you’re at all keen on audio books I’d highly recommend you relax and let Keeble’s narration spirit you away to Yorkshire for a few hours.
    • 2/5
      After 'The Death of Dalziel' ,which was a really wonderful read,it was to be expected that this sequel would be just as good. I was therefore looking forward to continuing in the same vein .Imagine my chagrin when,with short intervals in between,one was subjected to endless 'e -mails ' throughout virtually the first half of the book. Frankly they just got in the way of the story and I'm sure that it would have flowed much better if the book had been written without them.As Reginald Hill has demonstrated time and time again,he is an author who can write extremely well,but on a few occasions, he makes the most elementary mistakes in the construction of his books. With this one,which as I say,could have been a winner,he has failed completely I'm afraid.
    • 4/5
      A Cure for All Diseases (which is death, by the way) is both a clever update of Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon and a classic Dalziel and Pascoe murder mystery. And unlike P.D. James' recent effort, Death Comes to Pemberley, Hill fuses the two genres expertly and both modes work well.Following on from The Death of Dalziel, the Fat Man is booked into a swanky clinic in the seaside resort of Sandytown (now in Yorkshire, not Austen's original Sussex) to recuperate from his brush with death. To aid his mental recovery, Dalziel starts a diary on tape, recording his observations and personal reflections. This first person narration is countered by the misspelled, ungrammatical, chick lit-esque e-mails of Charlotte 'Charley' Heywood, who is staying with the Parkers in Sandytown. Now, I didn't like Charlotte in 'Another Lady's continuation of Sanditon, and I can't stand her here - everybody loves her, including Dalziel, because she's 'bright' and no doubt feisty, but actually she's little more than a contrived literary device. Making her a psychology student makes sense, though.Other characters from Austen's original make an appearance, in new forms and relationships, from the larger than life Lady Denham, who holds more than a few residents of Sandytown by the beach balls, to Sir Edward 'Teddy' Denham and 'Sid' Parker, no longer rivals for Charlotte's affection, shall we say. The Hollis family (Lady D's former in-laws) mentioned in passing by Austen are coloured in by Hill, and the doctor that Tom Parker is initially seeking when he overturns his carriage (Land Rover) becomes a faith healer called Gordon Godley. Renaming the Parkers' house 'Kyoto', instead of 'Trafalgar', is possibly one joke too far, however.Hill sets the scene with Austen's novel for the first three hundred pages, then Lady Denham meets a typically inventive end, and Pascoe and the team arrive in town to investigate. I haven't read (or watched) any Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries in years, but the gruff Yorkshire detective and his rather more refined sidekick are instantly familiar, not to mention all the ridiculous nicknames Dalziel gives his team ('Hat' Bowler and 'Ivor' Novello). Franny Roote, Pascoe's longstanding nemesis, also makes a reappearance in Sandytown, but is he a benign or a sinister presence?Reginald Hill has created another well plotted puzzler, combined with an inventive take on Austen's novel that is rather more sympathetic to the original than his twist on Emma ('Poor Emma'). I picked up on some of the clues, but failed to connect them and solve the mystery. I also love Hill's Yorkshire turn of phrase, and his vivid use of imagery - 'Lady D chatting away like an elephant dancing in that old Disney cartoon', and Dalziel appearing like 'the effigy of some oriental god paraded to bless the rice crop' are two of my favourites. I must start re-reading my old D+P mysteries again soon!
    • 5/5
      Incapacitated by what he refers to as "the big bang in Mill Street", Andy Dalziel finds that none of those who are near and dear to him want to take him on in his convalescence, and so he takes Ellie Pascoe's advice and books in at the Avalon in Sandytown. As we know the sea air is good for the health, and there is nothing like a seaside holiday for restoring health.Sandytown is dominated by three families: the Parkers, Denhams and Hollises, very much intertwined and wanting between them to turn the sleepy little seaside resort into something much grander with a 5 star hotel, clinics, and health resort. Just the thing for the convalescent. But under the apparently united front of the Sandytown Development Consortium simmer tensions that go back decades. And then they result in the death of Lady Denham herself. That's when Peter Pascoe and his team move in to investigate.But what of Andy Dalziel? He's supposedly on sick leave, but he desperately wants to be included, noticed, and consulted. Peter Pascoe on the other hand relishes the idea of running his own investigation yet again, but is he ready? How will he deal with Fat Andy sticking his nose in?This is a fascinating read, and for me, doing some thinking about it, and some research afterwards, paid off, and I felt like I'd struck gold. For one thing I think Reginald Hill must have really enjoyed writing it.There really are some things about this novel that I can't discuss, because, for the reader, working out what Hill has done here is part of the pleasure. This is another of those books that is not just crime fiction, but is also a literary work. It reveals a side of Reginald Hill that I hadn't known was there.Getting used to the multiple points of view that reveal the story takes some getting used to. First of all there are the emails that Charley Heywood is sending to her sister; then the voice of Dalziel himself talking into a recorder given to him by his doctor for therapy. These two voices dominate the first volume, the first third of the novel. Then later in the novel we see the story not only from these points of view, but also from those of the individuals in the investigating team.The structure of the novel is interesting too: A NOVEL in six volumes, it sees on the title page. And throughout, even on the title pages of each volume, Reginald Hill has left little clues like little Easter eggs. Get too complacent about them and you'll miss what he's up to.Reginald Hill dedicated this novel "To Janeites everywhere". He says this novel has been ten years in the making, from seeds sown when he visited the Jane Austen Society's of North America's AGM. Reginald Hill wrote this novel not only for crime fiction readers, for those eagerly awaiting the next Dalziel & Pascoe, but also for those who know their Jane Austen. My advice to you, dear reader, read everything.
    • 5/5
      A sequel to the Death of Dalziel, in which Dalziel goes to Sandytown to convalesce following his injuries. Naturally enough a murder occurs and Dalziel has to decide whether to lie low and let Pascoe run the enquiry or interfere. The scene is thus set for some classic Dalziel dialogue with the local Yorkshire characters. A thoroughly entertaining read which had me laughing out loud several times, but still managed to obscure the villain until the last few pages. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      This is the 23rd book in Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural series. Dalziel is recovering from the injuries he suffered in Death Comes for the Fat Man and winds up in the middle of a murder, in the sleepy sea side town of his convalescent home, far from his partner Pascoe and the rest of the police force. While cranky Dalziel is up to his usual mischief and the story is interesting the awkward transitions of the story telling devices, from Dalziel's recorded messages to himself to the e-mail exchanges of an amatuer sleuth to her sister, are confusing and a little annoying. While devoted fans will want to follow the antics of Dalziel and make sure he's still kicking and causing trouble after Death Comes for the Fat Man it is not as enthralling as Hill's earlier works.
    • 5/5
      I read a lot of books whose raison d'etre is to be funny. They occasionally raise a smile. Reginald Hill guarantees at least a couple of joyful explosions of real laughter in each book. If for no other reason, I would thoroughly recommend this book.Hill manages to write a light crime novel that says, "You know that this is rubbish, don't you?", and yet, at the same time, the story does grip and, in a strange world of suspended disbelief, makes sense too.Pascoe grows up in this book. He starts to stand upon his own two feet but still, Daziel is the one who gets to the truth in his usual bluff way. I thought, at one stage, that Hill had tired of his creations but the last few D&P books have been right at the top of the genre. Excellent fun.