The Woodcutter - Tapa dura

"A consummate yarn spinner, Hill draws on myth and metaphor to embroider this tightly crafted tale."--The Age (Melbourne)

"Another gem from the creator of Dalziel and Pascoe. Rich characterisation, sparkling dialogue and wry humour flavour the text. . . . Verdict: exquisite"--Herald Sun (Australia)

"There is something of the fairytale about The Woodcutter, a big, fat mystery which has the enduring power of a myth. . . . The heights of the Dalziel & Pascoe series aside, Hill has never written a better book."--The Evening Standard (London)

"Reginald Hill's books are as good as crime fiction gets and this one is as good as he gets."--Literary Review

"He's lost none of his sardonic wit, punch and complexity... The result is an epic, unbeatable mystery."--Financial Times

"An outstanding novel of force and beauty."--The Times (London)

"His storytelling is always bewitching, his turns of phrase wonderful. . . . The Woodcutter is as much literary as crime novel, but always a page turner."--Keighley News (England)

"Hill's plotting...is brilliant, the jokes first-rate, the prose supple: it's his humble awe at the power of the English language that enables him to be a minor master of it."--Daily Telegraph (London)

"Hill combines an edgy tale of betrayal and revenge with the trappings of a modern-day fairy tale in this sly, enchanting stand-alone."--Publishers Weekly

"Reginald Hill...turns a contemporary crime of greed into a timeless morality tale....Hill's storytelling is its own delight, a fun house of shifting timelines and multiple perspectives."--New York Times Book Review on The Woodcutter

Imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Wolf Hadda, a Cumbrian woodcutter's son turned hugely successful entrepreneur, retreats into silence until a prison psychiatrist makes a breakthrough that, revisiting a mysterious period in his youth, draws out the vengeful Woodcutter. 25,000 first printing.