The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill

Reginald Hill’s latest novel, a psychological thriller of love, betrayal and revenge, opens thus: “Once upon a time I was living happily ever after.” Wolf Hadda, a character in his own fairy tale, is the son of a lowly woodcutter who spends his youth in the Cumbrian wilderness.

With shades of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, at 16 he falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the local squire. She sets him three seemingly impossible goals: “a fortune, an education, a social polish”. He disappears for five years. What happens during his absence is a mystery. He finally returns to claim his bride and they live happily ever after for 14 years. Then, on the day of their wedding anniversary, a wicked fairy changes everything. The story ends as a nightmare, the nightmare of being wrongly accused.

His home is raided. Accused of fraud and paedophilia, his fortune, his knighthood and his good name are snatched away. Universally reviled, assaulted and abandoned by his wife and friends, he is thrown into prison. Scarred in body and spirit, he insists he is innocent. He is helped by Elf, his sympathetic criminal psychiatrist, who has a fraught history of her own.

Bemused by this charismatic, complex man and sensing the “raw power seething beneath the surface”, she believes him to be in denial. After a long seven years he breaks his silence, admits all, gets parole and returns to his old cottage. Here, in the company of his faithful dog Sneck, who is as much a character as the mountains and lakes of Cumbria, he struggles to clear his name and plan his revenge. One day he sets off for Pillar Rock, where his love affair with his princess begins and ends.

After his release from prison, Elf continues to search for the truth. Being a deeply analytical, honest person, she is conscious of the gap between the personal and professional relationship she has with Wolf. She also becomes increasingly concerned with the question of privacy for prisoners, of medical confidentiality and the need for surveillance versus national security.

Hill, the erudite author of the award-winning Dalziel and Pascoe series, opens and closes his beguiling tale with quotations by Alexander Dumas, the key words being “revenge” and “wait and hope”, while the prologue probes the contemporary yet eternal dilemma: “When love and grim necessity meet there is only one winner.”