Hill, Reginald 1936- (Reginald Charles Hill, Dick Morland, Patrick Ruell, Charles Underhill)

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Hill, Reginald 1936- (Reginald Charles Hill, Dick Morland, Patrick Ruell, Charles Underhill)

PERSONAL:

Born April 3, 1936, in West Hartlepool, England; son of Reginald and Isabel Hill; married Patricia Ruell, August 30, 1960. Education: St. Catherine's College, Oxford, B.A. (with honors), 1960.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Cumbria, England. Agent—A.P. Watt, 20 John St., London WL1N 2DR, England.

CAREER:

Worked as a secondary school teacher in England, 1962-67; Doncaster College of Education, Doncaster, England, lecturer in English literature, 1967-82; full-time writer, 1980—. Military service: British Army Border Regiment, 1955-57.

MEMBER:

Crime Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Edgar Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, 1981, for The Spy's Wife; Gold Dagger Award for best novel of the year, Crime Writers Association, 1990, for Bones and Silence; Cartier Diamond Dagger, 1995, for lifetime contribution to crime writing; Macallan Short Story Dagger Award, Crime Writers Association, 1997.

WRITINGS:

CRIME NOVELS

Fell of Dark, Collins (London, England), 1971.

A Fairly Dangerous Thing, Collins (London, England), 1972, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1983.

A Very Good Hater, Collins (New York, NY), 1974, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1982.

Another Death in Venice, Collins (London, England), 1976.

The Spy's Wife, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1980.

Who Guards the Prince?, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1982.

Traitor's Blood, Collins (London, England), 1983, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1986.

No Man's Land, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1985.

The Collaborators, Collins (London, England), 1987, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1989, Harper-Collins (London, England), 2005.

The Stranger House, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

"DALZIEL & PASCOE" SERIES

A Clubbable Woman, Collins (London, England), 1970, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1984.

An Advancement of Learning, Collins (London, England), 1971, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1985.

Ruling Passion, Collins (London, England), 1973, Harper (New York, NY), 1977, HarperCollins (London, England), 2004.

An April Shroud, Collins (London, England), 1975, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1986, Harper-Collins (London, England), 2004.

A Pinch of Snuff, Harper (New York, NY), 1978, HarperCollins (London, England), 2003.

A Killing Kindness, Collins (London, England), 1980, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1981, HarperCollins (London, England), 1999.

Deadheads, Collins (London, England), 1983, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1984, HarperCollins (London, England), 2003.

Exit Lines, Collins (London, England), 1984, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1985, HarperCollins (London, England), 2003.

Child's Play, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1987, HarperCollins (London, England), 2003.

Under World, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988, Harper-Collins (London, England), 2003.

Bones and Silence, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1990.

One Small Step, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1990.

Recalled to Life, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1992.

Pictures of Perfection, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1994.

The Wood Beyond, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1996.

Asking for the Moon (short stories), Dell (New York, NY), 1998.

On Beulah Height, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1998.

Arms and the Women, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1999.

Dialogues of the Dead, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Death's Jest-Book, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Good Morning, Midnight, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

The Death of Dalziel, HarperCollins (London, England), 2007, published as Death Comes for the Fat Man, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

"JOE SIXSMITH" SERIES

Blood Sympathy, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Born Guilty, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Killing the Lawyers, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Singing the Sadness, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 1999.

The Roar of the Butterflies, Avon Books (New York, NY), 2008.

ADVENTURE NOVELS UNDER PSEUDONYM PATRICK RUELL

The Castle of the Demon, Hutchinson (London, England), 1971, Hawthorne (New York, NY), 1972, published under name Reginald Hill as The Turning of the Tide, Severn House (Sutton, England), 1999.

Red Christmas, Hutchinson (London, England), 1972, Hawthorne (New York, NY), 1973.

Death Takes the Low Road, Hutchinson (London, England), 1974, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1987, published under name Reginald Hill as The Low Road, Severn House (London, England), 1998.

Urn Burial, Hutchinson (London, England), 1975, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1987, published under name Reginald Hill as Beyond the Bone, Severn House (Sutton, England), 2000.

The Long Kill, Methuen (New York, NY), 1986, published under name Reginald Hill, HarperCollins (London, England), 1998.

Death of a Dormouse, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1987, published under name Reginald Hill, HarperCollins (London, England), 1999.

Dream of Darkness, Methuen (New York, NY), 1989, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1990, published under name Reginald Hill, HarperCollins (London, England), 1997.

The Only Game, HarperCollins (London, England), 1991, published under name Reginald Hill, 1999.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS UNDER PSEUDONYM DICK MORLAND

Heart Clock, Faber & Faber (London, England), 1973, published as Matlock's System, Severn House (Sutton, England), 1996.

Albion! Albion! Faber & Faber (London, England), 1976, published under name Reginald Hill as Singleton's Law, Severn House (Sutton, England), 1997.

HISTORICAL ADVENTURE NOVELS UNDER PSEUDONYM CHARLES UNDERHILL

Captain Fantom: Being an Account of Sundry Adventures in the Life of Carlo Fantom, Soldier of Misfortune, Hard Man and Ravisher, Hutchinson (London, England), 1978, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1980.

The Forging of Fantom, Hutchinson (London, England), 1979.

OTHER

Crime Writers: Reflections on Crime Fiction (nonfiction), British Broadcasting Corporation (London, England), 1978.

Pascoe's Ghost and Other Brief Chronicles of Crime (short stories), Collins (London, England), 1979, Signet (New York, NY), 1989.

There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union: A Novella and Five Short Stories, Collins (London, England), 1987, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1988.

Also author of An Affair of Honour, a television script, 1972, and Ordinary Levels, a radio play, 1982. Contributor to books, including Murder Ink: The Mystery Reader's Companion, edited by Dilys Winn, Workman (New York, NY), 1977; Northern Blood, edited by Martin Edwards, Didsbury Press (London, England), 1992; and Master's Choice 2, edited by Lawrence Block, Berkley (New York, NY), 2000. Contributor to the Writer.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Long Kill was adapted for television as The Last Hit, 1993; the "Dalziel & Pascoe" characters have been adapted for a BBC television series, 1996—. Some of Hill's novels have been adapted as audiobooks.

SIDELIGHTS:

British author Reginald Hill is a former lecturer in English whose passion for writing crime novels became a full-time occupation in 1980. With a reputation for creating works with "shrewd, often witty characterization, authentic settings, and well-constructed plots," as a contributor in the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers remarked, Hill is best known for the characters Andy Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and Peter Pascoe, a pair of Yorkshire detectives who appear in a number of his procedural novels. In an interview on the Random House Web site, the author stated: "My books do not set out to be procedurals (which I take to be stories whose narrative structure is based on a detailed and accurate account from a detective's point of view of the investigation or crime)." Hill continued: "They are certainly ‘crime novels,’ and when I look at the great writers whose names appear on the genre's roll of honor, I am happy and flattered to figure somewhere among them. I try to live up to the genre's great traditions of offering a complex puzzle honestly solved."

Hill published A Clubbable Woman, the first work in his acclaimed "Dalziel & Pascoe" series, in 1970. Since then, he has produced more than twenty titles featuring the duo. "Dalziel is a wonderfully sly creation," observed Natasha Cooper in the London Times. "Superficially gross, foul-mouthed, sexist, greedy and thoughtless, he is revealed in book after book to see further than most and to have deep reservoirs of kindness." Nicknamed the "Fat Man," the outspoken Dalziel stands in contrast to his sensitive, mild-mannered partner. "Pascoe, edgy, ambivalent about his work, and far better educated than Dalziel, makes a terrific foil," Cooper noted. Over the course of three decades, "it's the fact that [Dalziel and Pascoe] are changing and developing that keeps them going for me, keeps them alive for me," Hill remarked in an interview on the HarperCollins Web site. "I never set out to write a series, but there's something nice about revisiting the characters," the author told Sarah Freeman in a Yorkshire Post article.

Among the most notable "Dalziel & Pascoe" novels are Deadheads, a "chilling … portrait of a psychopath," according to Time reviewer William A. Henry III, and Bones and Silence, which received the Gold Dagger Award for best novel in 1990. Centering on the reenactment of a medieval mystery play, Bones and Silence secures the author's reputation among writers "who produce solid stories of detection that succeed as first-rate novels exploring human character," remarked Publishers Weekly critic Sybil Steinberg.

Critics note that the success of the "Dalziel & Pascoe" works is due in part to Hill's skillful portrayal of his detectives' supporting cast. In Pictures of Perfection, for instance, Dalziel and Pascoe enlist the help of resourceful and trustworthy Edgar Wield, a gay police sergeant, to solve a string of crimes in a quiet English village. "This is an intelligent, stylish, scintillating, witty mystery that transcends its cozy trappings," noted Booklist contributor Emily Melton. Pascoe's wife, Ellie, plays a key role in Arms and the Women, "a delightfully quirky, literate, often explosively funny novel that actually extends the genre's range," a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented.

Hill's penchant for intricate puzzles and humorous wordplay is on display in Dialogues of the Dead, which concerns Dalziel and Pascoe's search for a literary-minded serial killer. "Hill's victims and perpetrator are closely enmeshed, and the novel is as entertainingly funny as it is exciting," observed Spectator critic Harriet Waugh. In Death's Jest-Book, a sequel of sorts to Dialogues of the Dead, Pascoe is haunted by an ex-convict he helped imprison. Hill "takes the classic British mystery to new levels of psychological suspense, character development, and literary mastery," wrote Library Journal reviewer Michele Leber. Pascoe and Dalziel are the victims of a terrorist bombing in Death Comes for the Fat Man. "The plot is complicated, but well-oiled and its pieces fit nicely together," remarked Allan Massie in Spectator. "Hill at his best is a masterly story-teller, and he is at his best here."

In addition to his works in the "Dalziel & Pascoe" series, Hill has published a number of popular mysteries featuring unconventional private investigator Joe Sixsmith, a balding, middle-aged black lathe operator. Sixsmith is "very different from the prototypical PI who's the American PI—the Marlow, the Sam Spade," Hill remarked in the HarperCollins interview, adding: "He's not cerebral; he doesn't make Sherlock Holmes type deductions. He is serendipic. He often stumbles upon things, partly by chance, and partly because people like him, which is a great asset in the PI business. You don't know how this guy does it, but he gets there in the end." Introduced in Blood Sympathy, described by Melton as "a wacky, witty story that's warm, charming, and highly entertaining," Sixsmith has also appeared in the critically acclaimed titles Killing the Lawyers and Singing the Sadness. "There is a lighter humorous air to the Joe Sixsmith novels, provided in large part by Joe himself, who is a character so imbued with good nature, that you can't help liking him," noted the HarperCollins contributor.

Hill has also produced a number of popular thrillers originally published under the pseudonym Patrick Ruell, including Beyond the Bone, as well as stand-alone novels such as The Stranger House. "Hill is a shoo-in for thoughtful entertainment," wrote Will Cohu in the Daily Telegraph. "He may write crime novels of one sort or another, but his work displays an eclectic, even eccentric, range of interests and unusual deftness in its description and characterisation—as well as a bawdy sense of humour."

With more than fifty books to his credit, Hill shows few signs of slowing down, though he admits the writing process is never easy. As he remarked in his Random House interview, "the more you get to know about your art, the more you find there is to know." He continued: "Now when I start thinking about a book, what gives me pause isn't the thought of all those pages. Like the trained marathon runner, I know I can do that. It's the variety of possibilities that lie before me, the need to select from an infinity of ways of telling my story the best way."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 276: British Mystery and Thriller Writers since 1960, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2003.

Magill, Frank N., editor, Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, Volume 2, Salem Press (Pasadena, CA), 1988.

St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1994, Emily Melton, review of Pictures of Perfection, p. 242; October 15, 1994, Emily Melton, review of Blood Sympathy, p. 404; May 15, 1995, Emily Melton, review of Born Guilty, p. 1633; March 15, 1996, Emily Melton, review of The Wood Beyond, p. 1244; October 15, 1996, Emily Melton, review of Asking for the Moon, p. 406; January 1, 1997, Emily Melton, review of Matlock's System, p. 826; May 15, 1998, Emily Melton, review of The Low Road, p. 1599; April 15, 1999, Bill Ott, review of On Beulah Height, p. 1459; April 15, 1999, Jenny McLarin, review of The Turning of the Tide, p. 1479; August, 1999, Emily Melton, review of Singing the Sadness, p. 2034; September 15, 1999, Emily Melton, review of Arms and the Women, p. 237; March 15, 2000, David Pitt, review of Beyond the Bone, p. 1333; April 1, 2001, Wilma Longstreet, review of Exit Lines, p. 1494; November 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review of Dialogues of the Dead, p. 557; September 15, 2003, Connie Fletcher, review of Death's Jest-Book, p. 215; September 1, 2004, Connie Fletcher, review of Good Morning, Midnight, p. 68; September 1, 2005, Allison Block, review of The Stranger House, p. 69; December 1, 2006, Connie Fletcher, review of Death Comes for the Fat Man, p. 26.

Daily Telegraph (London, England), July 23, 2005, Will Cohu, "A Writer's Life: Reginald Hill," p. 29.

Economist, July 19, 1997, review of Killing the Lawyers, p. 16.

Entertainment Weekly, December 12, 1997, Tom De Haven, review of The Wood Beyond, p. 78.

Evening Standard (London, England), March 19, 2007, Mark Sanderson, "Bowing out with a Bang," review of The Death of Dalziel, p. 38.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2001, review of Dialogues of the Dead, p. 1520; August 15, 2003, review of Death's Jest-Book, p. 1048; August 15, 2004, review of Good Morning, Midnight, p. 780; August 15, 2005, review of The Stranger House, p. 873; January 15, 2007, review of Death Comes for the Fat Man, p. 53.

Library Journal, August, 1999, Rex E. Klett, review of Singing the Sadness, p. 146; September 15, 1999, Patrick J. Wall, review of Arms and the Women, p. 116; January, 2002, Jane la Plante, review of Dialogues of the Dead, p. 158; September 15, 2003, Michele Leber, review of Death's Jest-Book, p. 96; June 1, 2004, Ann Kim, review of Good Morning, Midnight, p. 109; September 1, 2004, Michele Leber, review of Good Morning, Midnight, p. 125; September 15, 2005, Beth Lindsay, review of The Stranger House, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, June 29, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of Bones and Silence, p. 89; December 21, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of Dream of Darkness, p. 44; September 28, 1992, review of Recalled to Life, p. 68; April 5, 1993, review of The Only Game, p. 68; August 15, 1994, reviews of Blood Sympathy and Pictures of Perfection, p. 89; April 3, 1995, review of Born Guilty, p. 48; January 29, 1996, review of The Wood Beyond, p. 87; October 7, 1996, review of Asking for the Moon, p. 64; December 30, 1996, review of Matlock's System, p. 59; July 14, 1997, review of Killing the Lawyers, p. 68; May 11, 1998, review of On Beulah Height, p. 53; August 23, 1999, review of Singing the Sadness, p. 50; August 30, 1999, review of Arms and the Women, p. 56; December 17, 2001, review of Dialogues of the Dead, p. 67; September 1, 2003, review of Death's Jest-Book, p. 68; August 16, 2004, review of Good Morning, Midnight, p. 45; August 29, 2005, review of The Stranger House, p. 36; January 1, 2007, review of Death Comes for the Fat Man, p. 34.

Spectator, March 31, 2001, Harriet Waugh, review of Dialogues of the Dead, p. 46; November 2, 2002, "The End of Something Good," p. 66; March 17, 2007, Allan Massie, "Is He or Isn't He?"

Time, November 4, 1985, William A. Henry, review of An Advancement of Learning, p. 83; December 22, 1986, William A. Henry III, review of Child's Play, p. 76; August 17, 1987, William A. Henry, review of Death of a Dormouse, p. 64; August 8, 1988, William A. Henry, review of Under World, p. 74; September 24, 1990, William A. Henry, review of Bones and Silence, p. 91.

Times (London, England), September 30, 2000, Natasha Cooper, "Inside the Mind of a Crime Writer," p. 9.

Yorkshire Post, March 22, 2007, Sarah Freeman, "A Fresh Chapter Opens in a Life of Crime."