Reginald Hill

When Mary Dinwoodie is found choked in a ditch following a night out with her boyfriend, a mysterious caller phones the local paper with a quotation from Hamlet. The career of the Yorkshire Choker is underway.If Superintendent Dalziel is unimpressed by the literary phone calls, he is downright angry when Sergeant Wield calls in a clairvoyant.Linguists, psychiatrists, mediums - it's all a load of nonsense as far as he is concerned, designed to make a fool of him.And meanwhile the Choker strikes again - and again...

A Killing Kindness

Amanda Wells

My typical objection to these books is the prejudice shown by the main characters in terms of heavy sexism (usually). This time I was excited to see an unexpected bit of progress in the form of gay sergeant Wield, who's perspective we are shown and who's life is pretty normal - unusual for the time in a mainstream book (from the limited books I've read produced in this era).

Alas the slurs thrown at the Romany people cancel out any sense of progress overall... So if you're looking to read this book, and get mad about the assumptions and prejudices towards travellers and the like, perhaps give it a miss. 

That aside (I seem to say that alot in reviews of detective fiction written pre-2000...) the plot was engaging and I hadn't figured it out ahead of when it all came together. Adding the new perspective of Sgt. Wield was great - (view spoiler)[ although it had me worried he was going to be bumped off (he wasn't) -  (hide spoiler)] and I'm hoping we get more of him in the next few. Dalziel was a little harder to get my head around this time though, so perhaps we'll get more of his insights in the next book.

A Killing Kindness

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