The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill - review

I recently finished reading the latest mystery to be written by one of the genre’s stars, Reginald Hill. The Woodcutter is a stand-alone thriller, set mostly in Cumbria, where Hill now lives, and it tells the story of the rise, fall and renaissance of a remarkable character called Wolf Hadda.

Hadda, the son of a woodcutter, who falls for a glamorous young woman called Imogen. She is the daughter of the local squire, but despite the gap in class and wealth, they are strongly attracted to each other. She challenges him to win her devotion, and he leaves in mysterious circumstances, returning only when his fortune has been made. But what happened during his absence? A short section at the start of the book provides some, but not all, of the explanation. Imogen doesn’t ask too many questions – she marries him, and for a while, all goes well. Hadda’s business empire prospers, he seems to be the man who has everything. But one day, his world falls apart when he is accused of disgraceful crimes.

Hadda loses everything – his fortune, his family, his friends. He is crippled and thought unlikely to survive. But against the odds, he battles on, assisted by a sympathetic psychiatrist, a likeable woman called Alva. Finally, he is released from prison and he returns to his old hunting ground in Cumbria, where he is further aided by Luke, the local vicar. By now his wife has married again – to his former lawyer, the rascally Toby Estover. How will Hadda react – and will he seek to extract vengeance from those who tried to destroy him?

This book seems to follow the pattern of The Count of Monte Cristo, but it isn’t a straightforward revenge thriller by any means. In due course, the narrative veers off in an unexpected direction. Hill keeps his readers on their toes, defying them to guess what will happen next. I certainly did not foresee a startling twist involving Imogen, but I did think that Hadda had some of the same appeal as Hill’s greatest creation, Andy Dalziel. This is a splendidly entertaining book, which I thoroughly recommend.

Reginald Hill

In discussing Peter Robinson yesterday, I mentioned that he and I first met at a CWA Northern Chapter meeting. At it was at the inaugural lunch of the Chapter, in Borougbridge, back in 1987, that I first met one of the finest crime writers of the last forty years. Reginald Hill has, since then, been something of an inspiration to me.

I’d read some of Reg’s books before that first meeting, and I enjoyed the way he combined intricate plotting with witty characterisation. He was, and will no doubt remain, best known for his books about Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, but his other books should definitely not be overlooked. For example, a thriller that originally appeared under the pen-name of Patrick Ruell, The Only Game, is a terrific piece of work that I certainly recommend.

As a writer, he has gone from strength to strength. Bones and Silence was a magnificent piece of work, but arguably he topped it with On Beulah Height. And then, some might say (and I would agree) that Dialogues of the Dead is even better. He is extraordinarily prolific, yet he remains committed to quality of story. His short fiction is superb, and I’ll write about this on another occasion.

Reg and his wife Pat are invariably good company, and I suffered with them as the original Yorkshire TV series of Dalziel and Pascoe, starring the comedians Hale and Pace, proved to be distinctly underwhelming. Happily, the BBC made a much better fist of it, and I had the happy experience of attending the preview at the RSA in London of the very first episode, ‘A Clubbable Woman’.

I’ve been reading Reg’s latest novel over the last couple of weeks, and a review will appear here shortly. The book is called The Woodcutter, and it doesn’t feature Dalziel and Pascoe. But the central character does have some of Fat Andy’s charisma, as well as one or two dark secrets.