A Clubbable Woman

Dalziel and Pascoe, Book 1

By: Reginald Hill

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

The first book in the "outstanding" British police procedural series—the basis for the long-running BBC series featuring the Yorkshire detective duo (The New York Times).

Reginald Hill "raised the classical British mystery to new heights" when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them "the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction" (Toronto Star). The Gold Dagger Award-winning series was adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC.

Mary Connon froze out her husband, Sam, long ago. She likes the attention of other men—like the fellow members of Sam's rugby club. Naturally, when she's found dead in her sitting room with a hole in her head, Sam is a suspect. If only he hadn't suffered a dizzying scrum injury that's left everything a blur. He isn't sure that he didn't kill her. But Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, Peter Pascoe, are looking outside the unhappy home. Because it seems everyone within spitting distance of the suburban femme fatale—from prying neighbors to spurned lovers to jealous wives—wanted Mary dead. As the field of play expands, so do the motives . . .

©1970 The Estate of Reginald Hill (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Narration Issues

The story is not Hill's strongest, but worth a read/listen as the beginning of an excellent series. The narrator does an excellent job with voices, but puts peculiar emphasis on the last syllable of each non-dialogue sentence (as mentioned in other reviews). This made the audiobook nearly incomprehensible to my ear. Some listeners might not be bothered by this, I recommend making use of the sample (I foolishly did not). Personally, my strong preference is for the Colin Buchanan versions that were previously available.

excellent narration

excellent rendition of the characters just the way you would imagine them if you could hear them speaking.

Stupid book title and cover, good book

Completely ignore the badly chosen title and cover image; the woman is not clubbed to death with a telephone. It took me a long time to not be bothered by the narrator and it was sometimes not clear which character was narrating, if anyone. The book held my interest and the plot was compelling; there were some neat surprises. It is a good listen! But the author had trouble ending it. Editor should have cut it off quicker. ✂️

A British Cozy mystery

This isn’t a fast action, edgy of your seat mystery. No amateur sleuths and the police aren’t incompetent. I came across this title when looking for suggestions of police procedural mysteries with a little humor. I wouldn’t say it had humor, but neither was it dark and intense.

Excellent writing spoiled by the wrong narrator

The writing of this novel is far superior to that of so many of the mysteries I have listened to. It’s sophisticated with well developed characters. Written in 1970, it’s remarks about women and the casual attitude toward adultery are hard to listen to. But it’s main drawback is the narrator. He’s perfectly fine when he is performing the dialogue. But when he is telling the story, he ends every sentence on an upbeat. It’s quite annoying to my ear. I want to continue, but I’m not sure I can.