''Recalled to Life'' is a 1992
crime novel by
Reginald Hill
Reginald Charles Hill FRSL (3 April 193612 January 2012) was an English crime writer and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.
Biography
Hill was born to a "very ordinary" family ...
, and part of the
Dalziel and Pascoe
Detective Superintendent Andrew "Andy" Dalziel and Detective Sergeant, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe are two fictional Yorkshire detectives featuring in a series of novels by Reginald Hill.
Characterisation and style
Dalziel is ...
series, set in Yorkshire.
The novel tells the story of Dalziel's re-investigation of the 1963 murder at a local manor, Mickledore Hall, and the crime is billed as the last of the golden age murders. The murder took place shortly before the story of the
Profumo affair
The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler be ...
broke, and during a weekend get together at the Hall.
The guests at Mickledore Hall that weekend included a government minister, a
CIA officer
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
who specialised in dirty tricks, a British diplomat with Royal connections, and the young American nanny charged with looking after the children of the house. The nanny, Cissy Kohler, was wrongly implicated in a murder committed by the local landowner, and has spent almost 30 years in prison as a result.
Following Cissy's release, Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel remains convinced of her guilt, but, investigating further, he begins to find his certainties being eroded. Not a state of affairs Dalziel is prepared to put up with, particularly as the reputation of his old mentor is on the line. Not to mention his own.
The title is a phrase from
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' ''
A Tale of Two Cities
''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in ...
'', referring to the long and unjust imprisonment of Dr Manette.
1992 British novels
Novels by Reginald Hill
Collins Crime Club books
Novels set in Yorkshire
{{1990s-crime-novel-stub