Arms and the Women

Arms and the Women
Reginald Hill

‘Luminously written, thrilling, unexpectedly erudite, and beautifully structured’ Geoffrey Wansell, Daily MailWhen Ellie Pascoe finds herself under threat, her husband DCI Peter Pascoe and Superintendent Andy Dalziel assume it’s because she’s married to a cop.While they hunt down the source of the danger, Ellie heads out of town in search of a haven… only to get tangled up in a conspiracy involving Irish arms, Colombian drugs and men who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends.Dalziel eventually concludes the security services are involved, but by then it is too late. Ellie’s on her own – and must dig deep down into her reserves to survive…

REGINALD HILL

ARMS AND THE WOMEN

A Dalziel and Pascoe novel

Copyright (#ulink_62262ab0-e763-558b-9777-3a07454d1c9e)

Harper An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Copyright © Reginald Hill 2000

Extract from ‘Marina’ from the Collected Poems 1909–62 by T.S. Eliot (published by Faber and Faber Ltd) Reproduced by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd

Lines from ‘Girls’ by Stevie Smith from The Collected Poems of Stevie Smith (Penguin) © James McGibbon 1975

Extracts from The Englishman’s Flora by Geoffrey Grigson (Phoenix House 1987)

Extract from A Celtic Miscellany by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (Penguin 1971)

Reginald Hill asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780007313181

Ebook Edition © JULY 2015 ISBN: 9780007378548

Version: 2015-06-18

Dedication (#ulink_7abede52-2ed6-5caf-96b7-48c4ae4fa188)

This one’s for

those Six Proud Walkers

in whose company the sun always shines bright

Emmelien

Jane

Liz

Margaret

Mary

Teresa

who most Fridays of the year…on distant hills

Gliding apace, with shadows in their train,

Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed

Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly…

and, of course, laughing and talking and eating

almond slices,

with fondest greetings from

one of the trailing shadows!

Epigraph (#ulink_fd336c42-64a9-5288-bead-3e2922bc78d3)

What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling Questions, are not beyond all conjecture.

SIR THOMAS BROWNE: Urn Burial

With my own eyes I’ve seen the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in a pot, and when the young lads asked her, what do you want for yourself, Sibyl? she replied, I want to die.

PETRONIUS: The Satyricon

Girls! although I am a woman

I always try to appear human

STEVIE SMITH: Girls!

Contents

Cover Page (#u2f6ceb49-4ff5-5067-87bc-fae8a36833db)

Title Page (#u31ed8494-9bfa-5d58-adc5-6b9d991ade21)