Detective Constable Bowler, who, in a fit of paranomasia (wordplay, punning) has been nicknamed, "Hat," would like to date Ray (Raina) Pamona, the local reference librarian. She and her boss, Dee, have been assigned the onerous task of judging submissions to the local fiction story contest. Dee and Ray notice that two of the entries from the same writer bear striking resemblance to two recent unexplained deaths, and they wonder how the writer could have obtained such intimate details. They turn the stories over to Hat. Enter Superintendent Dalziel (pronounced "Dee-él" ) and DCI Pascoe. Dalziel is his usual fat, curmudgeonly self who mutters things like, " 'Don't want them blowflies from the media around till we know there's dead meat and it's not us,' " and " 'One thing you've got to say about George [another inspector], he's been real conscientious helping to break in his replacement. ' 'Thought we weren't getting a replacement, sir' [said Sergeant Wield]. 'That's what I mean,' " replied Dalziel. Andy Dalziel loves hiding his rapier-sharp mind behind crude talk and behavior, and he loves to deflate pompous egos, pretending to misunderstand their pedantries. When one expert adviser presents what he calls an "interesting" theory, Dalziel responds, "If you're waiting for a bus and a giraffe walks down the street, that's interesting. But it doesn't get you anywhere."DCI Peter Pascoe remains the perfect foil. Well-educated and refined, he's conscientious to a fault and impeccably polite even if he does have a snit on about an ex-convict he thinks might be the killer.
The detectives are soon in the midst of numerous investigations, as the "Wordman" so-named embarks on a killing spree, tantilizing the public and police by sending literate descriptive passages describing how the murders were accomplished.
All of Hill's books revel in paranomania ( a clinical obsession with word games), but in this one he has outdone himself. Virtually every page has some kind of pun, and it turns out the murderer was using the beginning and ending word entries of volumes of the OED to define his/her (believe me, you'll thank me for not revealing the gender of the murderer) next victim.
Hill is so erudite it can take your breath away, and how he can come up with phrases like the following defy my imagination: ...
The ending will astonish and surprise you.
