The Only Game

By Reginald Hill

‘One of Britain’s most consistently excellent crime novelists’ Marcel Berlins, The Times ‘[Reginald Hill] keeps one on the edge of one’s wits throughout a bitterly enthralling detection thriller’ Sunday Times

When a four-year-old child is abducted from an Essex kindergarten, Detective Inspector Dog Cicero soon realizes that this is no routine investigation.

Something about the child’s mother troubles him. Maybe it’s the fact that she comes from Derry, and Cicero’s Northern Ireland scars go deeper than his ruined face. But he can’t help feeling there’s more to it than that.

Soon Cicero finds the odds are stacked against him both personally and professionally – not that he will let that stop him. For he’s a gambling man, and when death’s the only game in town, a gambling man has got to play.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9780007391912

Reginald Hill

Reginald Hill is a native of Cumbria and former resident of Yorkshire, the setting for his novels featuring Superintendent Dalziel and DCI Pascoe, ‘the best detective duo on the scene bar none’ (‘Daily Telegraph’). Their appearances have won him numerous awards including a CWA Gold Dagger and Lifetime Achievement award. They have also been adapted into a hugely popular BBC TV series.

Reviews for The Only Game

[the7ken7petersen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a non-series Reginald Hill book; i.e. not a Dalziel and Pascoe, or Joe Sixsmith and, I was slightly disappointed. To be fair, I would probably have given a different author four, or even four and a half stars but, I know what a good writer is Mr. Hill.Our hero, 'Dog' Cicero, is that favourite of detective writers, a good rogue cop. He has, in his past, baggage from his time as a soldier in Northern Ireland, which, of course, plays a part in our drama. Dog is trying to rescue a kidnapped child. The problem is that MI5 are involved and they are more interested in capturing an IRA accountant than saving the child. Dog not only saves the boy but also falls for his mum and wants to save her too.The problems with this book are threefold; firstly, the story is a little clichéd, secondly, the end ties the loose ends just a little too neatly and, most inexcusable of all, Reg seems to have cast aside his humorous style.This could not be described as a bad book but, I was pleased that the ending leaves a return of Dog, as most unlikely.