The Dalziel and Pascoe series: where to start

[mrissa]

I am a great fan of Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe mystery series. It is perhaps the only series I have read as an adult on a more or less completely random basis, grabbing things from the library as they became available, filling in with purchases what the library did not have. That was the first time. I went back and reread them recently for

Comments

[desperance]

As it happens, "A Pinch of Snuff" was the first that I read. And if Reg hadn't been a friend, I might not have read any more. But he was, so I tried again, and came home with "Deadheads". Which I loved to little pieces, because reasons undiscussable here. And then I was up and rollin'. Tho' I still haven't read all the early ones.

[mrissa]

To me the early ones are a question of how fast a reader you are and how enthusiastic. Some of the later ones are really great, but if you went without A Pinch of Snuff forever, well.

[swan_tower]

I am torn between starting with Arms and the Women and Exit Lines, the latter on the principle that I'm now intensely curious to see how Child's Play reads without any later knowledge. (I would probably go chronologically from Exit Lines forward, skipping Asking for the Moon, because mystery short stories, yeah.)

[mrissa]

That would be interesting, but you shouldn't feel obliged to do it just because it would interest me, obviously.

[swan_tower]

Since my own interest is already playing a role, you are in the clear. :-)