Reginald Hill

'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction' Observer

'Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo's trademark humour' Daily Mirror'These stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionados' Guardian'Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo's trademark humour' Daily Mirror'These stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionados' GuardianA vicar nailed to a tree in Yorkshire. The theft of a priceless artefact during a fire. A detective forced to tell the truth for 24 hours. A body hidden in a basement. From the restless streets of London to the wilds of the Lake District, displaying all his trademark humour, playfulness and clever plotting, this landmark collection brings together the very best of Reginald Hill's short stories for the first time, complete with a foreword from Val McDermid. PRAISE FOR REGINALD HILL'One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists'The Times'A real treat. The characters are deftly drawn, the plot constantly delivers, surprises and the assured narrative demonstrates again what a terrific writer he is'Observer'Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories intertwining'Ian Rankin'The finest male English contemporary crime writer'Val McDermid

A fantastic mystery short story collection, the perfect Christmas gift for crime fiction lovers A beloved detective dies in a fire Sherlock Holmes takes a trip to Italy A disastrous case of mistaken identity From his well-loved detective duo, DCI Dalziel and DI Pascoe to his own reimagining of Sherlock Holmes, Reginald Hill’s unforgettable characters and unique blend of humour and suspense make him one of Britain’s greatest crime writers. Complete with a foreword by Mick Herron, this collection of short stories showcases the very best of this iconic mystery writer.

A fantastic mystery short story collection, the perfect Christmas gift for crime fiction lovers

'Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duoâ??s trademark humourâ?? Daily Mirror â?? These stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionadosâ?? Guardian

A Yorkshire cop's reunion with old friends is marred by murder in this mystery by "the finest male English contemporary crime writer" (Val McDermid). With his longtime girlfriend, Ellie, detective Peter Pascoe is off to Thornton Lacey for an exciting weekend reunion with a few of his college friends. However, upon arrival, he finds no cause for celebration. Instead, there's been a triple homicide, and one of his friends--the chief suspect--is missing. Pascoe is eager to assist with the case, but the local constabulary doesn't seem to welcome outside help. Meanwhile, Pascoe's superior, the incorrigibly rude Andy Dalziel, needs him back home to find the culprit behind a series of burglaries. Torn between two cases and two jurisdictions, Pascoe knows he must solve these cases quickly--if not for a sense of loyalty to his friends or duty to his job, then at least for his own sanity. Ruling Passion is the 3rd book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. Praise for Ruling Passion "Recipe for a winner: combine the best elements of the gritty procedural with a protagonist reminiscent of Dick Francis, then add a gallery of three-dimensional town-and-country characters and repartee worthy of Rex Stout." --Kirkus Reviews

Yorkshire's detective duo descends into the kinky world of underground films in an "undeniably lively" mystery of murder and illusion (Kirkus Reviews). Reginald Hill "raised the classical British mystery to new heights" when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them "the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction" (Toronto Star). Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award-winning series is now available as ebooks. What's playing at the Calliope Club may draw a furtive crowd, but as far as the CID's Andrew Dalziel can tell it's all perfectly legal. His partner, Peter Pascoe, begs to differ. From what he hears, an actress's violent ordeal on film looked all too real. When she turns up unharmed, it appears his suspicions were wrong . . . if Andrew and Peter can trust what they see. Because if this dirty business is well and good, why has the film in question vanished? Why has the theater been set ablaze? And why has its proprietor been beaten to death? For answers, Yorkshire's finest are being led into the dark, where someone's bent for pain, pleasure, and murder is just beginning to unreel. A Pinch of Snuff is the 5th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A detective is drawn to a newly widowed woman in this "darkly funny" British murder mystery in the Gold Dagger Award-winning series (Kirkus Reviews). With his partner away on a honeymoon, Yorkshire detective Andrew Dalziel tries to beat the blues by taking a vacation of his own. But after getting caught in a torrential rain and running into a funeral procession, he winds up accompanying a crowd of upper-class mourners to a crumbling country house. Dalziel isn't known for his elegant manners, but he has bigger problems than not fitting in: The owner of the home has died under unusual circumstances, and soon more bodies are turning up. And while Dalziel finds himself undeniably attracted to the widow, he knows that she, and everyone in the family, is a suspect. "Hill's high standards of humor and civilized characterization are intact here, and justice and ambiguity are served in satisfactory fashion." --Publishers Weekly Praise for Reginald Hill "Hill's polished, sophisticated novels are intelligently written and permeated with his sly and delightful sense of humor . . . Enjoyable as much for their characters as for their complicated, suspenseful mystery plots." --The Christian Science Monitor

From Internationally bestselling and Diamond Dagger award-winning mystery author Reginald Hill, "A master of the British police procedural" (Tampa Tribune), comes a riveting novel of suspense featuring Yorkshire cops Andy Dalziel and Peter PascoeAndy Dalziel, back at work after a long convalescence, is finding it harder to get back in the swing than he anticipated. It doesn't help when he manages to skip a day and sets out for a Monday morning meeting on Sunday. So when old acquaintance Commander Mick Purdy of the Met asks him to help Gina Wolfe, who has come to Mid-Yorkshire in search of a husband missing for seven years, he is glad of what seems like a harmless diversion to get his hand back in. But things soon start getting serious. Gina's husband was a DI under strain after the death of their young daughter and under suspicion after serious leaks from a case he was working. Is he in fugue, or is he in flight? Or was he simply removed from command by the subject of the enquiry, entrepreneur Goldie Gidman, who has worked his way up from East End loan shark to City financier. A major political contributor and father to a rising young MP, Gidman himself is under the scrutiny of a left-wing tabloid journalist. And up in Yorkshire, Gina is being shadowed by two ruthless henchman from Gidman's past. Taking place within the space of a single October Sunday and alternating between mid-Yorkshire and London, Midnight Fugue is a complex, action-packed, page-turning story that builds to a dramatic conclusion and one last surprise.

The first book in the "outstanding" British police procedural series--the basis for the long-running BBC series featuring the Yorkshire detective duo (The New York Times). Reginald Hill "raised the classical British mystery to new heights" when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them "the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction" (Toronto Star). Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award-winning series is now available as ebooks. Mary Connon froze out her husband, Sam, long ago. She likes the attention of other men--like the fellow members of Sam's rugby club. Naturally, when she's found dead in her sitting room with a hole in her head, Sam is a suspect. If only he hadn't suffered a dizzying scrum injury that's left everything a blur. He isn't sure that he didn't kill her. But Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, Peter Pascoe, are looking outside the unhappy home. Because it seems everyone within spitting distance of the suburban femme fatale--from prying neighbors to spurned lovers to jealous wives--wanted Mary dead. As the field of play expands, so do the motives . . . A Clubbable Woman is the 1st book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The “master of . . . cerebral puzzle mysteries” sends his Yorkshire detectives back to college to be taught a lesson in murder (The New York Times). Reginald Hill “raised the classical British mystery to new heights” when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them “the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction” (Toronto Star). Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as ebooks. If Alison Girling, former principal of England’s Holm Coultram College, died in an avalanche in Austria, why has her skeleton been unearthed on campus? While no love is lost between conservative detective Andrew Dalziel and the entirety of Liberal Arts, his attention to the grim discovery must be paid. But when he and Peter Pascoe scour the ivory tower for answers, they discover that the shady faculty and creepy student body have more to bury than just one corpse. Try two--and counting. As Pascoe is sidelined by an old college flame, Dalziel’s suspicions of academia are becoming dire. Because the deeper he digs for secrets, the dirtier they get in this “steadily, edgily amusing . . . dark comedy” (Kirkus Reviews). An Advancement of Learning is the 2nd book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Bestselling and Diamond Dagger award-winning mystery writer Reginald Hill sets up a battle of wills between determined cops Andy Dalziel and DCI Peter Pascoe and an elusive and ingenious villain in a "dazzling" novel of psychological suspense (New York Times Book Review). Three times Yorkshire policeman Peter Pascoe has wrongly accused ex-con Franny Roote of a crime, only to have Roote walk free. Now Roote is sending out strange and threatening letters and Pascoe fears there is worse to come. This time he's determined to get his man. Meanwhile, Pascoe's colleague Edgar Wield rides to the rescue of a boy in danger and in return, the boy tips him off about the heist of a priceless treasure. Soon Wield is torn between protecting the lad and doing his duty. Over all this activity broods the huge form of Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel. As trouble builds, Dalziel discovers that omniscience can be more trouble than it's worth.

From bestselling and award-winning crime writer Reginald Hill, a "chilling, frightening, page-turning tale" featuring Yorkshire coppers Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, "that won't let you go, even when you finally put it down." (Providence Journal). Caught in the blast of a huge explosion, Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel lies on a hospital bed, with only a life support system and his indomitable will between him and the Great Beyond. Meanwhile, his colleague, Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe, is determined to find those responsible. Ignoring his own injuries, the advice of his friends, and the pleas of his wife, Pascoe follows a winding trail to the Templars, a mysterious group that believes the only way to fight terrorism is through terror. Where the arm of the law cannot reach, their work begins. Soon Pascoe comes to suspect that they may have support and sympathy in high places, from men ready to accept the death of a policeman or of any other innocent bystander as regrettable but unavoidable collateral damage. From the streets of Manchester to the Yorkshire countryside, Pascoe searches for the truth. And above it all, like a huge zeppelin threatening to break from its moorings, hovers the disembodied spirit of Andy Dalziel.

"A complex and deeply satisfying tale...one part traditional English whodunit and one part shadowy corporate thriller." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)From Reginald Hill, acclaimed mystery writer and winner of the prestigious Diamond Dagger Award, comes a brilliant psychological story of a mysterious death that echoes one in the past. Prominent businessman Pal Maciver locked himself in his study and shot himself. It's an open-and-shut case, as far as Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel is concerned. Except... Maciver's father died in an almost identical manner ten years earlier, and "Fat Andy" was the investigating officer. Pal's strange and strained relationship with his beautiful, enigmatic stepmother, Kay Kafka, also raises warning flags. And the family's shady corporate dealings carry two apparent acts of self-slaughter far beyond the borders of Yorkshire, causing policeman Peter Pascoe to question his superior's reticence...and his motives.

Reginald Hill's "Dialogues of the Dead is a bridge that spans the classic English whodunit and the dark heart of contemporary crime fiction, the serial-killer novel.... The fertility of Hill's imagination, the range of his power, the sheer quality of his literary style never cease to delight." (Val McDermid)Normally, there would be nothing sinister about a death by drowning and a motorcycle fatality--had these tragic occurrences not been predicted before the fact in a pair of macabre "Dialogues" submitted to a Yorkshire short story competition. Yet the local police department is slow to act--until the arrival of a third Dialogue...and another corpse. A darkness is settling over a terrorized community, brought on by a genius fiend who hides clues to his horrific acts in complex riddles and brilliant wordplay. Now two seasoned CID investigators, Peter Pascoe and "Fat Andy" Dalziel, are racing against a clock whose every tick signals more blood and outrage, caught in the twisted game of a diabolical killer who is turning their jurisdiction into a slaughterhouse.