Product Description

'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!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #543446 in Books
• Published on: 1987-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 287 pages

From Amazon.com
Splitting a main character into two parts that compliment and confound each other has worked well for mystery writers from Conan Doyle to Rex Stout (and for non-mystery writers such as Patrick O'Brian in his Aubrey/Maturin sea stories). Reginald Hill's unique contributions to this form are his books about two policemen in an unnamed city in Northern England, Detectives Dalziel (pronounced "Dee-al" in the TV version) and Pascoe. Both get to show off their strengths and shortcomings in this wonderfully macabre second book in the series; Dalziel's brawn and instinct meets Pascoe's intellect as the two investigate pornographic "snuff" films in which the actors really wind up dead.

Review
'One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists' The Times 'Celebrated for putting a spin on the classic murder mystery' Independent 'So far out in front that he need not bother looking over his shoulder' Sunday Telegraph

From the Back Cover
"First-rate entertainment."
--The Sunday Times (London)

"Mr. Hill refines his own talent to the highest levels of mystery fiction."
--Dallas Morning News

"Reginald Hill has raised the classical British mystery to new heights."
--The New York Times Book Review