RULING PASSION

Recipe for a winner: combine the best elements of the gritty procedural with a protagonist reminiscent of Dick Francis, then add a gallery of three-dimensional town-and-country characters and repartee worthy of Rex Stout. Reginald Hill—appearing in America at long last—is the chef, and Sgt. Peter Pascoe from Yorkshire is his hero, playing Archie Goodwin to the Nero Wolfe of incorrigibly racist, sexist, and obese Supt. Andy Dalziel. When Peter and longtime companion Ellie arrive for an Oxfordshire reunion with four old chums only to find three dead of shotgun wounds and one missing, Peter is forced to commute between the emotionally wracking murder investigation in Thornton Lacey and his Yorkshire legwork assignment for Dalziel: a series of increasingly violent burglaries. It may seem over-coincidental that the two lines of inquiry eventually dovetail, and the multiple killer's motive may seem a bit pale, but Hill's strong, warm narrative vaults up and over logical hurdles. And swaggering Dalziel—his nonstop insults, his laughable state of health, his occasional "outbreak of heart"—provides just enough amusement to put the blood, grief, and guilt in perspective. With the fades of Christie, Marsh, Creasey, et al., there've been murmurings about what the British mystery is coming to. Well, if this is what the British mystery is coming to, Rule Britannia and Glory Hallelujah.