Showing results by author "Reginald Hill" in All Categories

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?

Wolf Hadda's life was a fairytale - successful businessman and adored husband. But a knock on the door one morning ends it all. Universally reviled, thrown into prison, Wolf retreats into silence. Seven years later Wolf begins to talk to the prison psychiatrist and receives parole to return home. But there's a mysterious period in Wolf's past when he was known as the Woodcutter. Now the Woodcutter is back, looking for truth and revenge...

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.

It starts with a phone call to Superintendent Dalziel from an old friend asking for help. But where it ends is a very different story. Gina Wolfe has come to Mid-Yorkshire in search of her missing husband, believed dead. Her fiance, Commander Mick Purdy of the Met, thinks Dalziel should be able to take care of the job. What none of them realize is how events set in motion decades ago will come to a violent head on this otherwise ordinary summer's day.

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 wanted Mary dead.

Like father like son....But heredity seems to have gone a gene too far when Pal Maciver's suicide in a locked room exactly mirrors that of his father 10 years earlier. In each case, accusing fingers point towards Pal's stepmother, the beautiful, enigmatic Kay Kafka. But she turns out to have a formidable champion: Mid-Yorkshire's own super-heavyweight, Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel.

Convalescing in Sandytown, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood 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.

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.

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.

Caught in the blast of a huge Semtex explosion, the only things preventing Superintendent Andy Dalziel from stepping through Death's door might be his own size and indomitable willpower. As he lies on a hospital bed, it falls on DCI Peter Pascoe to seek justice for Andy. The security services have written it off as an accident: the terrorist suspects have paid for their clumsiness with their lives. Who, then, are the Knights Templar, a shadowy group exacting summary public justice on their enemies?

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.

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 years, the Stranger House has stood in the village of Illthwaite, offering refuge to travellers. People like Sam, a brilliant young mathematician, who believes that anything that can't be explained by maths isn't worth explaining. And Miguel, a historian running from a priests' seminary, who sees ghosts. Sam is an experienced young woman, Miguel a 26-year-old virgin.

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.

A sweltering summer spells bad news for the private detective business. Thieves and philanderers take the month off and the only swingers in town are the ones to be found on the 19th hole of the Royal Hoo Golf Course. The civilized reputation of the 'Hoo' is in trouble, however. Shocking allegations of cheating have been directed at one of its leading members, Chris Porphyry. When Chris turns to Joe Sixsmith, PI, he's more than willing to help - well, he hasn't got any other clients.

Three times Detective Chief Inspector Pascoe has wrongly accused dead-pan joker Franny Roote. This time he's determined to leave no gravestone unturned as he tries to prove that the ex-con and aspiring academic is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. But over his investigation looms the huge form of Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel.

Can it be true? Has the Fat Man really sung? Caught in the blast of a huge Semtex explosion, the only thing preventing Superintendent Andy Dalziel from stepping through Death's door might be his own size (and indomitable willpower). As he lies on a hospital bed, it falls on DCI Peter Pascoe to seek justice for Andy. Who, then, are the Templars, a shadowy group known to exact summary justice on their enemies? Pascoe is certain of a conspiracy. But if the plot is complex, the climax will prove astounding.

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.

A 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.

Reginald Hill’s first Dalziel and Pascoe novel. When Connon got back from the Rugby Club, his wife was even more uncommunicative than usual. Five hours later, when she still hadn’t moved, Connon noticed that the front of her head had been caved in. Superintendent Dalziel knew exactly what went on down at the clubhouse, but Sergeant Pascoe had a few ideas of his own.