Edwin Digweed
Good Morning, Midnight (Reginald Hill Edition)Edwin Digweed is Detective Sergeant Edgar Wield’s partner and friend, whose practical responsibilities at an antiquarian bookdealers’ symposium briefly shape his appearance in the narrative. His morning is governed by preparations at the Golden Fleece Hotel, while the account also shows his attentiveness to Wield and his increasingly impatient wait for lunch.
Identity and Responsibilities
Digweed is a member of the Yorkshire Antiquarian Bookdealers Association. As the member closest to the action when the association’s annual symposium is about to begin at the Golden Fleece Hotel that evening, he takes charge of ensuring everything is ready for the delegates. The work requires him to leave before Wield’s morning off is over, making the symposium a concrete professional obligation rather than a casual appointment.
Partnership with Wield
Digweed would have liked to share a lie-in with his partner, Wield, but his preparations prevent it. At breakfast, he notices that Wield seems less cheerful and assumes his own unavoidable absence is responsible. He apologizes again and invites Wield to stop by at the road end so they can have lunch together, offering to pay. Wield accepts warmly. The exchange presents Digweed as considerate, though his explanation for Wield’s subdued mood is mistaken: Wield is actually thinking about the report of Palinurus Maciver’s death at Moscow House.
The Wait at the Hotel
Later, Digweed emerges from the bar unnoticed and sees Wield acknowledging Doreen, Tom Uglow’s lass from the village. He responds to Wield’s joking suggestion about her with some irritation, then turns the conversation toward getting her to prepare sandwiches. When the food still has not arrived twenty minutes later, Digweed grumbles about the delay and decides to speak to the manager. He is beginning to rise when a young waiter bursts out of the lift; the manager calls after him to use the service lift, and the waiter strides toward the main exit without looking back. The interruption cuts across Digweed’s attempt to resolve the lunch delay, leaving his practical impatience as the scene’s small comic counterpoint.
