Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Clubbable Woman | 1970 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 2 | An Advancement of Learning | 1971 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 3 | Ruling Passion | 1973 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 4 | An April Shroud | 1975 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 5 | A Pinch of Snuff | 1978 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 6 | A Killing Kindness | 1980 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 7 | Deadheads | 1983 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 8 | Exit Lines | 1984 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 9 | Child’s Play | 1986 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 10 | Under World | 1988 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 11 | Bones and Silence | 1990 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 12 | One Small Step | 1990 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 13 | Recalled to Life | 1992 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 14 | Pictures of Perfection | 1994 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 15 | The Wood Beyond | 1995 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 16 | On Beulah Height | 1998 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 17 | Arms and the Women | 1999 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 18 | Dialogues of the Dead | 2001 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 19 | Death’s Jest-Book | 2002 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 20 | Good Morning, Midnight | 2004 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 21 | Death Comes for the Fat Man / The Death of Dalziel | 2007 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 22 | The Last National Service Man | 2007 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 23 | A Cure for All Diseases / The Price of Butcher’s Meat | 2008 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
| 24 | Midnight Fugue | 2009 | Reginald Hill | Buy |
The Dalziel and Pascoe series by Reginald Hill is one of the most respected crime fiction series in British literature. Running from 1970 to 2009 across 24 novels, the books are set in the fictional Yorkshire region of Mid-Yorkshire and follow two detectives who could not be more different. Superintendent Andy Dalziel (pronounced “dee-ell”) is blunt, crude, and old-school, while Inspector Peter Pascoe is educated, sensitive, and modern. Their clashing personalities and contrasting methods give the series its energy.
The series grew more ambitious as it went on. The early books are fairly traditional police mysteries, but later novels like The Wood Beyond and On Beulah Height tackle bigger themes including war, memory, and loss. Hill wove in literary references and complex narrative structures without ever losing sight of the central crimes. Bones and Silence, the eleventh book, won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1990.
The BBC adapted the series into a television show starring Warren Clarke as Dalziel and Colin Buchanan as Pascoe. It ran for 12 series from 1996 to 2007 and brought the characters to a much wider audience. Readers should start with A Clubbable Woman, as the books follow the characters’ lives and careers in a roughly chronological progression.