Ten years since it was first published in hardback, and now for the first time in mass market paperback, this volume of short stories by the cream of British crime writing talent celebrates 75 years of the quintessential Detection Club. The Detection Club represents the cream of British crime writing talent. Founded on the cusp of the 1930s, the Club's first President was G.K. Chesterton, and since then the mantle of Presidency has passed to some of the most significant names inthe history of crime fiction, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Julian Symons. The Club meets three times a year - to dine, to plot, and to exchange ideas. This anthology includes eleven new stories by the Best of British: Robert Barnard, Lyndsey Davis, Colin Dexter, Clare Francis, Robert Goddard, John Harvey, Reginald Hill, P.D. James, H.R.F. Keating, Michael Ridpath and Margaret Yorke, and has been edited by the Club's President, Simon Brett. Among the authors are a number of bestsellers, as well as winners of both Diamond and Gold Daggers. This outstanding collection is a must for crime lovers everywhere. P.D. James * The Part-Time Job Michael Ridpath * Partnership Track H.R.F. Keating * A Toothbrush John Harvey * The Sun, the Moon and the Stars Lindsey Davis * 'Going Anywhere Nice?' Colin Dexter * Between the Lines Robert Barnard * The Life-lie Margaret Yorke * The Woman from Marlow Robert Goddard * Toupee for a Bald Tyre Clare Francis * The Holiday Reginald Hill * Fool of Myself

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 Christmassy crime collection – the perfect gift this winter! “Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo’s trademark humour� Daily Mirror ‘This collection… showcases both Hill’s virtuosity and his continual experimentation with the genre … these stories will make a perfect Christmas present for mystery fiction aficionados’ Guardian 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. ‘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

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...

'Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace' Sunday Times Joe Sixsmith is going west, though only as far the Llanffugiol Choral Festival in Wales. But his plans are interrupted when they happen upon a burning house with a mysterious woman trapped inside. Joe risks life and limb to rescue the woman, only to be roped in to the investigation by the police officer in charge. Suddenly surrounded by a bevy of suspicious characters, he soon realizes that this case is much more than just arson. Aided by little more than his acute instinct for truth, Joe moves forward over the space of a single weekend to uncover crimes which have been buried for years.

A fast-moving, stunning new stand-alone psychological thriller from the award-winning author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series.
Wolf Hadda's life has been a fairytale. From humble origins as a woodcutter's son, he has risen to become a hugely successful entrepreneur, happily married to the girl of his dreams. But knock on the door one morning ends it all.
Universally reviled, thrown into prison while protesting his innocence, abandoned by friends and family, Wolf retreats into silence. Seven years later prison psychiatrist Alva Ozigbo makes the breakthrough. Wolf begins to talk and under her guidance gets parole, returning to his rundown family home in rural Cumbria. But there's a mysterious period in Wolf's youth when he disappeared from home and was known to his employers as the Woodcutter. And now the Woodcutter is back, looking for the truth -- and with the truth, revenge. Can Alva intervene before his pursuit of vengeance takes him to a place from which he can never come back . . . ?

"From the Hardcover edition."

Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel investigates a murder close to home in this first crime novel featuring the much-loved detective team of Dalziel and Pascoe. 'So far out in front that he need not bother looking over his shoulder' Sunday Telegraph Home from the rugby club after taking a nasty knock in a match, Sam Connon finds his wife more uncommunicative than usual. After passing out on his bed for a few hours, he comes downstairs to discover communication has been cut off forever - by a hole in the middle of her forehead. Andy Dalziel, a long-standing member of the club, wants to run the murder investigation along his own lines. But DS Peter Pascoe's loyalties lie elsewhere and he has quite different ideas about how the case should proceed...

'Hill is an instinctive and complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday Fifteen years ago they moved everyone out of Dendale. They needed a new reservoir and an old community seemed a cheap price to pay. But four inhabitants of the valley could not be moved, for nobody knew where they were: three little girls who had gone missing, and the prime suspect in their disappearance, Benny Lightfoot. This was Andy Dalziel's worst case and now he looks set to relive it. Another child goes missing in the next valley, and old fears arise as someone sprays the deadly message on Danby bridge: BENNY'S BACK!

'One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists' The Times '[Reginald Hill] keeps one on the edge of one's wits throughout a bitterly enthralling detection thriller' Sunday Times Where better for a hitman to retire than in the Lake District, where the air is healthy and the scenery spectacular? And when Jaymith meets attractive young widow, Anya Wilson, he can't believe his luck. But Jaysmith soon discovers that settling down to the quiet life is not as easy as it seems. His old employers aren't keen to lose him, his past is always lying in wait, and when Anya introduces him to her family, Jaysmith realizes there's no way out. He's back in business, and it makes little difference that this time it's to defend, not destroy. However you wrap it up, his one accessible talent is the Long Kill.

'Killing the Lawyers...is entertaining, sly, jokey...cynical, well written, and teems with sparkly dialogue - all the virtues we expect from Hill' Marcel Berlins The Times Joe Sixsmith, Luton's premier PI, is naturally on the side of the Law... Trouble is, the Law isn't always ready to return the compliment. When Joe turns to the town's top law firm for help in a dispute, he is subjected to nothing but abuse. He walks out, vowing to have vengeance. Then someone starts killing the partners one by one, and Joe is the main suspect. At the same time as facing murder charges, Joe is trying to discover who is threatening top athlete Zak Oto. Everyone looks suspicious, from her ex-con minder, Starbright Jones, to her own family. But Joe knows he's getting close when someone starts trying to kill him...

'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...

A Christmassy crime collection - the perfect gift this winter! 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. 'Fast paced and packed with the Yorkshire duo's trademark humour' The Times '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

'Deplorably readable' Observer Everyone knew about the kind of films they showed at the Calliope Club - once the Residents' Association and the local Women's Group had given them some free publicity. But when Peter Pascoe's dentist suggests that one film in particular is more than just good clean dirty fun, the inspector begins to make a few discreet inquiries. Before they bear fruit, though, the dentist has been accused of having sex with an underage patient, the cinema has been wrecked and its elderly owner murdered. Superintendent Dalziel expects no more from professional men who watch blue films. But Pascoe has a hunch that this time Dalziel is way off target...

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.

The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular police duo and stars of the BBC TV series, in a new psychological thriller. Gina Wolfe is searching for her missing husband, believed dead, and hopes Superintendent Andy Dalziel can help. What neither realize is that there are others on the same trail. A tabloid hack with some awkward enquiries about an ambitious MP's father. The politician's secretary who shares his suspicions. The ruthless entrepreneur in question - and the two henchmen out to make sure the past stays in the past. Four stories, two mismatched detectives trying to figure it all out, and 24 hours in which to do it: Dalziel and Pascoe are about to learn the hard way exactly how much difference a day makes...

Another excellent Dalziel and Pascoe story from the master of the British crime novel Three old men die on a stormy November night: one by deliberate violence, one in a road accident and one by an unknown cause. Inspector Pascoe is called in to investigate the first death, but when the dying words of the accident victim suggest that a drunken Superintendent Dalziel had been behind the wheel, the integrity of the entire Mid-Yorkshire constabulary is called into question. Helped by the bright but wayward DC Seymour, hindered by ‘Maggie’s Moron’, the half-witted Constable Hector, Peter Pascoe enters the twilight and vulnerable world of the senior citizen – to discover that the beckoning darkness at the end of the tunnel holds few comforts.

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 3rd book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

'Humour and topicality along a cold enigmatic trail of murder' Observer Life is on the up for Patrick Aldermann: his Great Aunt Florence has collapsed into her rose bed leaving him Rosemont House with its splendid gardens. But when his boss, 'Dandy' Dick Elgood, suggests to Peter Pascoe that Aldermann is a murderer - then later retracts the accusation - the detective inspector is left with a thorny problem. Not only have the police already dug up some interesting information about Aldermann's beautiful wife; it also appears that his rapid promotion has been helped by the convenient deaths of some of his colleagues...

'So far out in front that he need not bother looking over his shoulder' Sunday Telegraph The balding policeman on Trudi Adamson's doorstep brings the worst news possible: her husband Trent has been burned to death in a freak car accident. Suddenly a widow after years of marriage, Trudi soon discovers there's a lot she didn't know about her late husband. Why did he resign from his job without telling her? And where is all his money? As shock piles upon shock, Trudi is forced to re-examine her belief in Trent, and ultimately in herself. Compelled to leave the cosy nest of her old life, she is out in the open and fighting for her survival.

'Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace' Sunday Times Joe Sixsmith is going west, though only as far the Llanffugiol Choral Festival in Wales. But his plans are interrupted when they happen upon a burning house with a mysterious woman trapped inside. Joe risks life and limb to rescue the woman, only to be roped in to the investigation by the police officer in charge. Suddenly surrounded by a bevy of suspicious characters, he soon realizes that this case is much more than just arson. Aided by little more than his acute instinct for truth, Joe moves forward over the space of a single weekend to uncover crimes which have been buried for years.

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. Caught in a huge Semtex explosion, it seems the only thing preventing Superintendent Andy Dalziel from death is his size - and sheer bloody-mindedness. An injured DCI Peter Pascoe is convinced there's a conspiracy at work, despite the security services concluding the blast was in fact an accident. Who, then, are the mysterious Knights Templar with their gruesome acts of vengeance? And what of a hit-and-run on one of Pascoe's colleagues? And, most importantly, will Dalziel ever wake up to hear the truth...?

All is not well at Holm Coultram College. All is not well at Holm Coultram College: lecturers having affairs with students, witches' sabbaths, a body buried under a statue. Detective Superintendent Dalziel, despite his cynical view of academics, doesn't feel murder fits in here - let alone a rash of killings. But when he and DS Pascoe are sent to investigate a disinterred corpse at Holm Coultram College, that's exactly what they find...

'Altogether an enjoyable performance, one of Mr Hill's best' Financial Times When Mary Dinwoodie is found choked in a ditch following a night out with her boyfriend, a mysterious caller phones the local paper with a quotation from Hamlet. The career of the Yorkshire Choker is underway. If Superintendent Dalziel is unimpressed by the literary phone calls, he is downright angry when Sergeant Wield calls in a clairvoyant. Linguists, psychiatrists, mediums - it's all a load of nonsense as far as he is concerned, designed to make a fool of him. And meanwhile the Choker strikes again - and again...

A stunning new psychological thriller set in past and present-day Cumbria from the award-winning author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series.
Things move slowly in the tiny village of Illthwaite, but that's about to change with the arrival of two strangers. Sam Flood is a young Australian post-grad en route to Cambridge. Miguel Madero is a Spanish historian in flight from a seminary. They have nothing in common and no connection, except that they both want to dig up bits of the past that some people would rather keep buried. Sam is looking for information about her grandmother who left Illthwaite courtesy of the child migrant scheme four decades earlier. The past Mig is interested in is more than four centuries old.
They meet in the village pub, the Stranger House, a remnant of the old Illthwaite Priory. They can find nothing to agree on. Sam believes that anything that can't be explained by math isn't worth explaining; Mig sees ghosts; Sam is a fun-loving, experienced young woman; Mig is a 26-year-old virgin. But once their paths cross, they become increasingly entangled as they pursue what at first seem to be separate quests, finding out the hard way who to trust and who to fear in this ancient village.
The action is fast, there are clashes physical and metaphysical, and shocks natural and supernatural, as the tension mounts to an explosive climax. But fans of Reginald Hill's will not be surprised to find a few laughs along the way. And very loyal fans might even recognize a ghost from the very distant past. . . .

"From the Hardcover edition."

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 he knows who the culprit is. After all, he's seen him with his own eyes. But what exactly does he see? And is he mistaken? Peter Pascoe certainly thinks so. To make matters worse, he's being pestered by an anonymous letter-writer who is planning suicide and has chosen to confide in Dalziel. The local Mystery Plays should provide a welcome distraction as Dalziel's been cast as God. Unfortunately, the other lead is a local builder who also happens to be the chief suspect in some recent disappearances that might actually be murders...