Joe Sixsmith rules the links | The Roar of the Butterflies

This is a great read | The Roar of the Butterflies | Reginald Hill

books:


	• The Roar of the Butterflies Reginald Hill Harper, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A tip of the hat to P.G. Wodehouse

Most readers know the extraordinary mystery writer, Reginald Hill, through his crackerjack Pascoe and Dalziel detective series. There are few crime stories out there with the same level of complexity and wit as the P&D books.
With "The Roar of the Butterflies," author Hill is plowing a different field. This much lighter and more broadly comedic book is part of the Joe Sixsmith series which has not been as widely sold in the U.S. as Hill's other books. Genuflecting frequently in the direction of P.G. Wodehouse, Hill's protagonist Sixsmith is a laid off factory worker who has set himself up as a private detective in the country town of Luton. Approached by the fair-haired scion of local aristocracy, Christian Porphyry, to sort out a cheating scandal at the local country club, the dumpy, middle-aged and slightly dim Sixsmith soon finds himself lavished with attention by A-list citizenry and attendant beautiful women that all seem connected to the relatively unimportant cheating incident at the golf club.
Regular fans of Reginald Hill may find "The Roar..." a little slow and simple at the outset, but give the book a chance as the story becomes more complex and substantive as it progresses. Hill may be doing homage to Wodehouse, but he is still the creator of Pascoe and Dalziel when all is said and done. And ultimately the story is another satisfying tale of justice served and heroism rewarded. Definitely a good read.

for more information click here

Joe Sixsmith rules the links

Well, actually Joe doesn't golf. He's just a guy trying to scratch out a living as a private investigator during a hot summer in the Midlands, without alienating his fiance. Suddenly his services are in demand from the well-born (Christian Porphyry, scion of the local gentry who's accused of cheating at golf) and the shadowy (the local crime czar known as "King Rat"), and Joe is sweating from more than the ambient air temperature.

But in typical Joe fashion, he doesn't overthink things. Joe just follows his nose and does the next logical thing in front of him - in this case visiting Porphyry's exclusive golf club under a dubious cover created by the client and dealing with what happens next. Joe's up against some very resourceful characters from high society to low. But he's not without resources, and he pulls off a few surprises of his own.

One of these days I will re-read this book to look for examples of Reginald Hill's clever wordplay, which I'm sure are there and which I know I missed while following the flow of the narrative. It was a good read and a great escape.

for more information click here

This is a great read

Reading The Roar of the Butterflies was most enjoyable. It was a satisfying read.

for more information click here

roar

Entertaining English mystery with an unlikely detective. Enjoyed the lingo, the settings, the character development.

So lightweight it almost floats away

The title of this book comes from a description of a golfer's woes by P. G. Wodehouse. This is one of the few books I know that seems lightweight when compared to any of Wodehouse's airy confections.

Most reader's probably know Reginald Hill from his excellent series about Superintendent (Fat Andy) Dalziel and his subordinate, the potentially high-flying Pascoe, who is steadily moving up in rank. If you are such a reader, forget all you know. Joe Sixsmith is neither a Dalziel nor a Pascoe. In fact, it's a bit hard for me to accept the notion that one man, Hill, actually wrote two such different series.

Sixsmith is not exactly a protagonist. He is a lucky drifter through the eddies and tides of the genre PI novel. He starts off in good approved form, sitting in his office without a client in sight and not doing much about that deplorable state. Into his office comes an unlikely client, who hires him and winds up the clockwork plot. A couple of hundred pages later, the ticking ends and we find Sixsmith triumphant, sort of, in his not too bright, not too active, lucky way.

It's fluff, but not bad fluff, although there is a melodramatic sequence near the end that applies a harder edge to the story than is absolutely necessary. Wodehouse could and did write crime stories that not only smiled but positively beamed from end to end. "The Roar of the Butterflies" would have been a better book if it, too, had smiled a little more.

This book offers a perfectly acceptable reading experience--provided that there is absolutely nothing else at hand. Three stars.

LEC/AM/8-08

for more information click here

Laid-off lathe operator-turned-private investigator Joe Sixsmith is suddenly very popular, and not just with the ladies. Though he doesn't know a putter from a nine iron, he's being implored to come to the rescue of one Christian Porphyry, the scion of the upper-crust family that owns the most exclusive country club in Luton. Porphyry faces expulsion for the heinous crime of cheating at golf.

Inexplicably, political boss/crime czar "King Rat" Ratcliffe is also interested in employing Joe, offering him some very attractive surveillance work in sunny Spain. But Sixsmith's more intrigued by the first case, especially when a possible witness to the alleged indiscretion mysteriously vanishes.

It's not unusual for Joe to feel out of his depth, but this time he feels out of his class too. Suddenly he faces a potentially fatal pummeling from a variety of sources?and is in grave peril of discovering just how dangerous a contact sport golf can be.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

hot