Winner of the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year...'Reginald Hill is on stunning form...the climax is devastating' Marcel Berlins, The Times When Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel witnesses a bizarre murder across the street from his own back garden, he is quite sure who the culprit is. After all, he's got to believe what he sees with his own eyes. But what exactly does he see? And is he mistaken? Peter Pascoe thinks so. Dalziel senses the doubters around him, which only strengthens his resolve. To make matters worse, he's being pestered by an anonymous letter-writer, threatening suicide. Worse still, Pascoe seems intent on reminding him of the fact. Meanwhile, the effervescent Eileen Chung is directing the Mystery Plays. And who does she have in mind for God? Daziel, of course. He shouldn't have too much difficulty acting the part...

From Publishers WeeklyDiamond Dagger winner Hill ties up some loose ends from his previous Dalziel/Pascoe book, Dialogues of the Dead (2002), in this gritty, witty psychological suspense novel, whose title evokes a work by 19th-century poet and dramatist Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Rising academic Franny Roote, in spite of time spent in jail for murder and as a suspect in three other crimes, seems on his way to assured literary fame, and he's been writing DCI Peter Pascoe to share the glad tidings. Roote, in his affectionate, eloquent missives, assures Pascoe that he doesn't hold a grudge-is even, perhaps, grateful-for the part Pascoe played in his incarceration, which ultimately led to his fulfilling new life. For Pascoe's part, however, the letters are filled with menace and mockery: every reference to Pascoe's wife and daughter, every suspicious circumstance recounted, convinces him that Roote is still a foul crook with vendetta on his agenda. Meanwhile, the burgeoning passion between Rye Pomona and DC "Hat" Bowler, following the grisly end of Dickie Dee, may unsettle readers of Dialogues of the Dead. With so many characters and circumstances that may not be as they appear, this is more of a "who-might-do-what" than a "whodunit." The simultaneous release of the mass market edition of Dialogues of the Dead is fortunate, as the uninitiated would be well advised to read it first. Those who do will want to grab the next volume immediately.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. FromHill, author of 20 Yorkshire police procedurals and winner of Britain's prestigious Diamond Dagger Award, goes a bit overboard in his latest, a 558-page thriller that is about 300 pages too long. Things get off to Hill's usual, promisingly bleak start: Yorkshire Detective Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe receives a series of creepily confiding letters, hinting at murder plans, from an ex-con sociopath Pascoe put away. The ex-con is enjoying a new scam as a quasi-academic, delivering a paper on an Elizabethan revenge tragedy, Death's Jest Book, at Cambridge. When the body of a don is discovered after a fire in the college, a crafty maze game ensues, with Pascoe pursuing the ex-con, who is stalking him. If readers can hold on to this plot line through the ornate subplots (one of which involves a Yorkshire cop who is dating a female serial killer), they will be rewarded with Hill's deft planting of suspense bombs. Mostly for the initiated Pascoe fan. Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God wasn't ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks' care under a tender nurse. Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, 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. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all!

A bomb couldn't kill Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel--but his convalescence at the Avalon Clinic in the quaint seaside resort of Sandytown ("Home of the Healthy Holiday") just might. Sneaking out to the local pub provides Fat Andy with a bit of necessary diversion, allowing him a pint or two on the sly, plus an update on the world of trouble outside the clinic--including the very different plans of a pair of powerful landowners for putting Sandytown more prominently on the map. But when a rather macabre murder calls Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe onto the scene, Fat Andy realizes that Avalon itself is no sanctuary from the lethal secrets of the local elite--or from the death tide that now, suddenly, is rising quite rapidly.

A special gift for Reginald Hill fans on Father's Day – the return of Joe Sixsmith in a beautifully packaged, witty new crime novel 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 those on the 19th hole of the Royal Hoo Golf Course. But now the reputation of the 'Hoo' is in jeopardy. Shocking allegations of cheating have been directed at leading member, Chris Porphyry. When Chris turns to Joe Sixsmith, PI, he's more than willing to help – only Joe hadn't counted on being French-kissed then dangled out of a window on the same day. Before long, though, Joe's on the trail of a conspiracy that starts with missing balls, and ends with murder...

'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction' Observer PI can mean many things, but can it really mean a balding, middle-aged lathe operator from a high rise in Luton? Joe Sixsmith thinks it can. His Aunt Mirabelle thinks you'd have to be crazy to hire him, and Joe's current clients certainly fit the bill. One's confessing to the brutal murder of his whole family; another thinks she's a witch. Next to them, the two heavies who believe Joe is hiding their illicit drugs seem almost normal. As Joe stumbles his way through bodies, gangsters and hostile police officers, he is protected by a combination of sheer luck and the help of a new lady friend. And soon it seems like he might just surpass everyone's expectations...

For suspense, ingenuity and sheer comic effrontery this takes the absolute, appetizing biscuit' Sunday Times High in the Mid-Yorkshire Dales stands the traditional village of Enscombe, seemingly untouched by the modern world. But contemporary life is about to intrude when the disappearance of a policeman brings Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel and DCI Peter Pascoe to its doors. As the detectives dig beneath the veneer of idyllic village life a new pattern emerges: of family feuds, ancient injuries, cheating and lies. And finally, as the community gathers for the traditional Squire's Reckoning, it looks as if the simmering tensions will erupt in a bloody climax...

Superintendent Dalziel falls for the recently bereaved Mrs Fielding's ample charms, and has to be rescued from a litter of fresh corpses by Inspector Pascoe. Superintendent Andy Dalziel's holiday runs into trouble when he gets marooned by flood water. Rescued and taken to nearby Lake House, he discovers all is not well: the owner has just died tragically and the family fortunes are in decline. He also finds himself drawn to attractive widow, Bonnie Fielding. But several more deaths are to follow. And by the time Pascoe gets involved, it looks like the normally hard-headed Dalziel might have compromised himself beyond redemption.