A Cure for All Diseases

A Cure for All Diseases
Reginald Hill

The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular police duo and stars of the long-running BBC TV series, in a new psychological thriller.Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God wasn't ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks' care under a tender nurse.Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town.Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort – none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate – with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all…

REGINALD HILL

A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES

A Dalziel and Pascoe novel

in six volumes

Copyright (#u59003b9b-0c4f-5e4c-8c34-06aa4adbc1f4)

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.

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

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

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2008

Copyright © Reginald Hill 2008

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

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007252695

Ebook edition © JULY 2015 ISBN: 9780007292738

Version: 2018-06-27

Dedication (#u59003b9b-0c4f-5e4c-8c34-06aa4adbc1f4)

To Janeites everywhere

Epigraph (#u59003b9b-0c4f-5e4c-8c34-06aa4adbc1f4)

and in particular to those who ten years ago in San Francisco made me so very welcome at the Jane Austen Society of North America’s AGM, of which the theme was Sanditon – a new direction?, and during which the seeds of this present novel were sown. I hope that my fellow Janeites will approve the direction in which I have moved her unfinished story; or, if they hesitate approval, that they will perhaps recall the advice printed on a sweat shirt presented to me (with what pertinence I never quite grasped) after my talk to the AGM

– run mad as often as you chuse, but do not faint –

and at least agree that though in places I may have run a little mad, so far I have not fainted!

The Sea air & Sea Bathing together were nearly infallible, one or the other of them being a match for every Disorder, of the Stomach, the Lungs or the Blood; They were anti-spasmodic, anti-pulmonary, anti-sceptic, anti-bilious & anti-rheumatic. Nobody could catch cold by the Sea, Nobody wanted appetite by the Sea, Nobody wanted Spirits, Nobody wanted strength. – They were healing, softening, relaxing – fortifying & bracing – seemingly just as was wanted – sometimes one, sometimes the other.

Jane Austen, Sanditon

Then Sir Bedivere cried: Ah my lord Arthur, what shall become of me, now ye go from me and leave me here alone among mine enemies? Comfort thyself, said the king, and do as well as thou mayst, for in me is no trust to trust in; for I will into the vale of Avilion to heal me of my grievous wound: and if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul.

Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur

We all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici

Contents

Title Page (#ufb2c7e91-6f6a-5fb4-88ec-a818c1d3f820)

Copyright (#ulink_4a1dbe7f-515c-5583-b8c2-53fa9981d126)

Dedication (#ulink_771f96f5-90d6-5d1e-b38b-a9259affdf4b)

Epigraph (#ulink_1443e7d8-f7b9-5da4-b8ad-324d6c603e8c)

Volume the First (#ulink_8bbc6fb5-d619-57b2-b5fd-680d17abca61)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_680c8248-672d-59c5-b2d6-de664071a997)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_4237d7bb-c330-55c5-8dfc-936cdfeb140e)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_6c313554-0e3e-5564-bbce-e20becf4fa5c)

Chapter 4 (#ulink_beb258e8-e3db-50e8-a117-a97ed1e14aff)

Chapter 5 (#ulink_6a6116cb-2654-548f-8ebe-27469d5034d8)

Chapter 6 (#ulink_e81f702d-bf18-56fb-ac45-741353e3dffe)

Chapter 7 (#ulink_3f2788dd-c8dc-58f6-a789-b0b60a59bd08)

Chapter 8 (#ulink_c68e0ea3-f8aa-5003-b4b8-28ca0db758f9)

Chapter 9 (#ulink_5ffb8a51-bf88-5a75-a0d1-d262150bf931)

Chapter 10 (#ulink_2251f2ed-ace5-515a-a171-a389771bdb8d)

Chapter 11 (#ulink_40e75fd1-8644-5dd2-a667-c54ae625a6e7)

Chapter 12 (#ulink_e20c45db-3e5e-5a4c-9e66-6ab95dba2f19)

Chapter 13 (#ulink_c9c60708-d12e-5d17-a930-c5eb3b93ca95)