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. It starts with a phone call asking for help. But where it ends is a very different story. Gina Wolfe is searching for her missing husband, believed dead, and thinks Superintendent Dalziel can help. What neither realize is that there are others on the same trail. A tabloid hack with some awkward questions about an ambitious MP's father. The honourable member'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 just how much difference a day makes!

New Dalziel and Pascoe novel from Britain's finest male crime writer: 'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction' Tom Hiney, Observer In the Beginning was the Word! A man drowns. Another dies in a motorbike crash. Two accidents! yet in a pair of so-called Dialogues sent to the Mid-Yorkshire Gazette as entries in a short story competition, someone seems to be claiming responsibility for the deaths. In Mid-Yorkshire CID the word is heard but not believed. But when the story is leaked to television and a third indisputable murder takes place, Dalziel and Pascoe find themselves playing a game no-one knows the rules of against an opponent known only as the Wordman.

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!

'Hill's wit is the constant, ironic foil to his vision, and to call this a mere crime novel is to say Everest is a nice little hill' Frances Hegarty, Mail on Sunday A ravaged wood, a man in uniform long dead — this is not a World War One battlefield, but Wanwood House, a pharmaceutical research centre. Peter Pascoe attends his grandmother's funeral, and scattering her ashes leads him too into wartorn woods in search of his great-grandfather who fought and died in Passchendaele. Seeing the wood for the trees is the problem for Andy Dalziel when he finds himself fancying an animal rights activist, depite her possible complicity in a murderous assault and her appalling taste in whisky. A mind-bending puzzle leading us on the wild side of the pastoral.

'Luminously written, thrilling, unexpectedly erudite, and beautifully structured' Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail When Ellie Pascoe finds herself under threat, the men in her life assume it's because she's married to a cop. But while they trawl after shoals of red herrings, Ellie is blasted off course with a motley crew of women on a voyage of discovery whose perils make Scylla and Charybdis look like a pair of Barbie dolls. Irish arms, Colombian drugs, and men who will stop at nothing, create a tidal wave which threatens to sweep her away. She heads out of town in search of haven, but instead finds herself at the very edge of the storm in a remote clifftop house undermined by the sea. Fat Andy eventually smells a Security Service rat and comes steaming to the rescue, but for once it's too little, too late. Ellie's on her own (apart from her Middle England friend, Daphne; an octogenarian aid-worker and her vapid secretary; a gorgeous South American money launderer; an ancient crone; and a female cop who gets up her nose) and must reach deep down into her reserves to find the strength to survive.