After a close encounter with a bomb, Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel recuperates at the Avalon Clinic in the quaint seaside resort of Sandytown. But soon he begins to suspect that those outside the convalescent home have just as many problems as the residents.

There's a psychiatrist with more to hide than his patients, a pair of powerful landowners with very different plans for putting the resort on the map, a Chinese acupuncturist with a Yorkshire accent, a skinny-dipping baronet and his ice-box sister, and a man from Dalziel's past who ought to be dead.

When someone actually does turn up dead, and under the most macabre circumstances, Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe is called onto the scene. Together again, Dalziel and Pascoe investigate a baffling and complex case as further corpses make it increasingly hard for Sandytown to justify its claim to be "Home of the Healthy Holiday." But it's certainly been put on the map. . . .

Customer Rating:
Summary: Hill is Master of Surprises
Comment: In the Price of Butchers' Meat, Reginald Hill proves, once again, to be a master of surprise in both plot and characters and in how the story is presented. To read and reread, with enjoyment!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Comment: I am another reader who has always looked forward to Reginald Hill's books. But what a disappointment! The beginning was so boring I had trouble trudging through it. I soldiered on because of faith in the writer, but things did not really improve. I disliked reading page after page of e-mails with the usual spelling mistakes (were they really necessary?). Dalziel's musings brought nothing new. And, like others, I dislike the character of Franny Roote. There was so much about him, and he was rather improbable.
To quote Dorothy Parker, "this is not a book to be taken lightly, it is to be thrown across the room with great force".

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Another ripoff, unfortunately
Comment: This book has appeared earlier as Cure for All Diseases, so if you bought that one, stay clear of this offering.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Good Read
Comment: Reginald Hill is one of my favorite authors. This book is a departure from his usual writing style. It took awhile to get beyond that, but the story, as always, was excellent. Loved it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Cure For All Diseases
Comment: I read this terrific Dalziel/Pascoe mystery a few months ago under its original British title (see above), and it is one of my favorite books in the long-running series. Reginald Hill's mysteries are consistently witty and intelligent, but in this one he introduces a new style of storytelling for his rotund Inspector Dalziel and the charming young woman who comes to his aid--emails and tape recordings. The first-person recordings are interspersed with regular third-person narrative to give us a fascinating, multimedia tale of murder and mayhem in a seaside health clinic.

If you're familiar with Andy Dalziel, you can just imagine his mood when he is sent to the hospital in Sandytown ("Home of the Healthy Holiday!") to recuperate from the injuries he received in his last adventure. He's so bored and frustrated that he actually welcomes the murder of a prominent local woman as a chance to bust out of his enforced confinement. The mystery is excellent, and the suspects are a colorful group of oddballs. But my favorite part of this book is Andy's relationship with Charlie, the clever girl who helps him solve the case. THE PRICE OF BUTCHER'S MEAT is sheer pleasure, start to finish. Highly Recommended.

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