A Clubbable Woman
Part 1 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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.
An Advancement of Learning
Part 2 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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.
Ruling Passion
Part 3 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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
An April Shroud
Part 4 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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 house 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.
A Pinch of Snuff
Part 5 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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. series in any order.
A Killing Kindness
Part 6 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. The CID's Andrew Dalziel prefers simple killers. Not a crackpot who fancies himself Hamlet and taunts authorities with lofty quotes from the Bard. Dubbed the Yorkshire Choker, he's already taken three lives in four weeks and promises more tragedy to come. To help nab the serial strangler, Peter Pascoe has enlisted the help of linguistics professors, psychologists, and psychics-all of it nonsense to the grounded Dalziel. But as the murders escalate, the motives become more tangled, and the killer's identity grows more elusive scene-by-crime-scene, Dalziel and Pascoe must do everything they can to bring down the curtain on the princely fiend.
Deadheads
Part 7 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. What's the secret of Patrick Aldermann's success? Well, he was bequeathed his aunt's gardened estate after her sudden death; his wife's wealthy father died leaving the couple a hefty inheritance; and several fatal mishaps among colleagues have allowed the milquetoast to rise in his company with alarming speed. His boss fears he's hired a serial killer-a suspicion that's compelled the CID's Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe to investigate. Is it possible the mild-mannered accountant, whose only real side passion seems to be roses, has a thorny edge? If yes, then who's the next deadhead to be pruned from Aldermann's perfect life?
Exit Lines
Part 8 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. On the same night, three old men are offed: One is found in the icy rain sputtering the name "Polly" before expiring; another mumbles "Charley" after being beaten in his bathtub; and most alarmingly, the final words of the third, a cyclist knocked off the road by a drunk driver, implicate Superintendent Andrew Dalziel in the fatal hit and run. Bearing the brunt of three seemingly disparate investigations while proving his partner's innocence, Peter Pascoe follows a confounding trail that leads to one victim's family secrets, a shady retirement community, and corruption within the CID's ranks that's putting more than Dalziel's already dicey reputation in peril.
Child's Play
Part 9 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as ebooks. Gwendoline Huby's passing has left her relatives more aggrieved than grieving. The wealthy and dotty widow has bequeathed the bulk of her fortune to her son, Alexander, missing in action since World War II. Then a stranger appears at the funeral claiming, against all odds, to be the phantom benefactor. Imposter or rightful heir? For Dalziel and Pascoe, a prickly situation is made even more so when Alexander is murdered. But when a second body turns up-this time in the CID's parking lot-the Yorkshire detectives can't fathom a connection. Until they dare to look a little deeper into the Hubys' family plot.
Underworld
Part 10 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. Colin Farr has returned to Burrthorpe-and to judgmental whispers. His father had once been implicated in the disappearance of a little girl, and his apparent suicide confirmed the suspicions. Defensive, troubled, and handsome, Colin's only comfort is with his protective and infatuated tutor, Ellie, wife of Inspector Peter Pascoe. But their increasingly questionable relationship isn't all that's testing Pascoe's patience. So is solving the crime that's plaguing Colin's family history. But when another murder rocks the mining town, and all clues point to Colin, Pascoe and Dalziel must descend into the darkest depths of Burrthorpe to unearth its secrets.
Bones and Silence
Part 11 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Superintendent Andrew Dalziel, while drunk, has witnessed a woman being fatally shot-but her husband claims it was an accident, and everyone seems to be buying his story. His partner, Pascoe, meanwhile, is looking into chatty letters from an anonymous sender who says her resolution for the new year is to commit suicide.
In the midst of all this, Dalziel is participating in a locally produced medieval mystery play-and has been cast in the role of God. Playing opposite him, as Lucifer, is the very man he suspects of murder . . .
One Small Step
Part 12 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. When astronaut Emile Lemarque takes an accidental-and televised-fatal fall from his lunar module, he stirs up more than moon dust. It's the far-flung future, and Peter Pascoe, now UK Commissioner in the Eurofed, believes Emile has made history-as the first man to be murdered on the moon. How can Pascoe prove it was sabotage when the six-person crew of the Europa agrees it was just a tragic systems failure? By bringing his old mentor, Andrew Dalziel, out of retirement to help him. Shooting for the moon, they embark on an investigation with international consequences. This time, they must do it nearly three hundred million miles from home.
Recalled to Life
Part 13 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as ebooks. It was a cold-blooded murder committed in one of Yorkshire's country estates. The conspirators: Sir Ralph Mickledore and his lover, American nanny Cissy Kohler. The victim: Mickledore's hapless wife. Mickledore's execution for the open-and-shut case made headlines. Thirty years later, so has Cissy's parole in light of new testimony suggesting her innocence. But when the witness whose long-suppressed evidence is murdered, Dalziel and Pascoe realize the damage done by the fatal affair isn't over. But whose secrets will prove more revealing? Those buried with Mickledore and his wife a generation ago? Or those Cissy is holding on to for dear life?
Pictures of Perfection
Part 14 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. It's the Day of Reckoning in the village of Enscombe, a two-day celebration among locals to feast and to pay old debts. When Enscombe's constable vanishes, it's time for Dalziel and Pascoe to upend the party. At first they're confronted with what appear to be only niggling hiccups in the enclave: break-ins, a vicar with a lustful bent, and family feuds. But as Enscombe's past comes into focus, the investigators begin to see a bigger crack in the picture-perfect village. Now, in this season when misdeeds must not go unpunished, reckoning will indeed be paid. And it may already be too late for Dalziel and Pascoe to change the course of local history. series in any order.
Asking for the Moon
Part 16 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
The first story explores the chilling start of the Dalziel and Pascoe partnership. In another, they investigate the fate of a woman no one has seen for a year-except her brother, who claims he is being haunted by her ghost. Then the detectives keep vigil at an isolated farmhouse, waiting to see what is making things go bump in the night. Finally, we take a jump in time to the twenty-first century and the partners' last case: the first man murdered on the moon.
On Beulah Height
Part 17 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as eBooks. It's been fifteen years since three girls were abducted from Dendale. Just as long since the village was flooded to create a reservoir. Haunted by the cold case, Andrew Dalziel believes the truth was submerged forever. But now, with a drought, the ruins of Dendale are reemerging-along with its mysteries. And as if by a terrible twist of fate, another child has vanished from a nearby hamlet. For Dalziel to finally solve an unspeakable crime, he must once again stir the dread of a still-traumatized community-and all its secrets.
Arms and the Women
Part 18 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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. Ellie Pascoe is a novelist, former campus radical, overprotective mother-and as an inspector's wife, on high alert of suspicious behavior. When she thwarts an abduction plot, her husband, Peter, and his partner, Andrew Dalziel, assume a link to one of their past cases. An attack on Ellie's best friend, Daphne, and a series of threatening letters from Ellie's foiled kidnappers prove them wrong. Packed off to an isolated seaside safe place, Ellie, Daphne, and their bodyguard, DC Shirley Novello, aren't about to lie in wait for the culprits' next move. They're on the offensive. No matter how calculated their plot of retaliation is, they have no idea just how desperately someone wants Ellie out of the picture. Or how insanely epic the reasons are. Arms and the Women is the 19th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Dialogues of the Dead
Part 19 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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 who's every tick signals more blood and outrage, caught in the twisted game of a diabolical killer who is turning their jurisdiction into a slaughterhouse.
Death's Jest-Book
Part 20 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Sometimes a monster can hide behind a mask of civilized, urbane intelligence.
Sometimes the most terrible of crimes can go undetected and unpunished.
Sometimes Death has a wicked sense of humor ...
Good Morning, Midnight
Part 21 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
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.
Death Comes for the Fat Man
Part 22 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Not for a second did Pascoe admit the possibility of death. Dalziel was indestructible. Dalziel is, and was, and forever shall be, world without end, amen ... Chief constables might come and chief constables might go, but Fat Andy went on forever.
Barreling his way into an investigation of possible terrorist activities, Superintendent Andy Dalziel is caught in the blast of a huge explosion at a video shop-and only "Fat Andy's" considerable bulk prevents his colleague, Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe, from suffering a similar fate. Now Dalziel lies on a hospital bed barely clinging to life, while Pascoe remains determined to find those responsible.
But the truth is not always cut-and-dried, and sometimes those who are sworn to terror's destruction are even more dangerous than the foe they wish to annihilate.
The Price of Butcher's Meat
Part 23 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Internationally bestselling and Diamond Dagger Award-winning mystery writer Reginald Hill sets this mystery in the seaside resort of Sandytown, where Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel is recovering from a bomb blast while solving a local murder in this "deeply satisfying whodunit" (Entertainment Weekly). Having narrowly survived injuries sustained when he was caught in a huge explosion, Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel is still on leave from the Yorkshire police department, recuperating at the Avalon Clinic in the quaint seaside resort of Sandytown. But he soon begins to suspect that those outside the convalescent home have just as many problems as the residents. There's a psychiatrist with more to hide than his patients, a pair of powerful landowners with very different plans for putting the resort on the map, and a man from Dalziel's past who ought to be dead. When someone actually does turn up dead, and under the most macabre circumstances, Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe is called onto the scene. Together again, Dalziel and Pascoe investigate a baffling and complex case as further corpses make it increasingly hard for Sandytown to justify its claim to be "Home of the Healthy Holiday." But it's certainly been put on the map. From charred corpses to Jane Austen allusions, The Price of Butcher's Meat is a police procedural with something for everyone as it "offers an intellectually satisfying mystery, deep character studies and witty social commentary clothed in elegant, literate prose" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).
Midnight Fugue
Part 24 of the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Reginald Hill, award-winning author of The Price of Butcher's Meat and Death Comes for the Fat Man, returns with Midnight Fugue, a riveting new crime novel featuring Yorkshire coppers Dalziel and Pascoe as they tackle the case of a detective who went missing seven years ago under suspicious circumstances. Taking place within the space of a single October Sunday and alternating between Mid-Yorkshire and London, Midnight Fugue is a riveting, complex mystery that builds to a dramatic, twisting conclusion.