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Dalziel & Pascoe #12
One Small Step
In the year 2010 a French astronaut, one of an international space team from the Federated States of Europe, becomes the first man to be murdered on the moon. Retired Detective-Superintendent Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe are required to investigate. The author also wrote "Bones and Silence".
112 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
79 people are currently reading
271 people want to read
About the author
Reginald Hill
157 books501 followersReginald Charles Hill was a contemporary English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.
After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 30, 2023
Published in 1990, this novella jumps out of the chronology of the Dalziel and Pascoe, and projects forward to a world where Dalziel is retired and bedridden with gout and Pascoe is lead investigator for the European Federation. Pascoe recruits his old mentor to help investigate a murder on the moon amongst a mixed crew of Europeans - allowing Dalziel to exhibit his politically incorrect style across multiple national stereotypes. Good fun.
February 6, 2017
I'd give this a solid 3.5stars.
I love Reginald Hill & the Dalziel & Pascoe series. This novella set 20yrs in the future is a fun and curious flight of fancy where the dynamic duo solve a murder on the moon! I'm a little split on this one as the idea of Dalziel in space is a little out there and I didn't like the corruption Pascoe's moral code. Neither seemed believable. That said it still an entertaining story.
I love Reginald Hill & the Dalziel & Pascoe series. This novella set 20yrs in the future is a fun and curious flight of fancy where the dynamic duo solve a murder on the moon! I'm a little split on this one as the idea of Dalziel in space is a little out there and I didn't like the corruption Pascoe's moral code. Neither seemed believable. That said it still an entertaining story.
December 4, 2022
( Format : Audiobook )
"It's a tightrope, lad."
A fun novella in the Dalziel and Pascoe series, set in 2010 (then 20 years in the future). Concerned that the two detectives are at only half the speed of their readers, author Reginald Hill leaps them forward to a the when Pascoe is high in the chain of command whilst Dalziel is retired, languishing in bed and suffering from gout.He's persuaded by his old companion to accompany him on one last investigation: that of a Frenchman murdered as he steps onto the moon.
I am a big fan of the series and love the way Hill experiments with different genres and writing styles whilst still maintaining the basic integrity of his characters. This foray into comedic S.F. Is probably one of his least successful but still a great read, especially as it is performed by the excellent Jonathan Keeble.
"It's a tightrope, lad."
A fun novella in the Dalziel and Pascoe series, set in 2010 (then 20 years in the future). Concerned that the two detectives are at only half the speed of their readers, author Reginald Hill leaps them forward to a the when Pascoe is high in the chain of command whilst Dalziel is retired, languishing in bed and suffering from gout.He's persuaded by his old companion to accompany him on one last investigation: that of a Frenchman murdered as he steps onto the moon.
I am a big fan of the series and love the way Hill experiments with different genres and writing styles whilst still maintaining the basic integrity of his characters. This foray into comedic S.F. Is probably one of his least successful but still a great read, especially as it is performed by the excellent Jonathan Keeble.
September 28, 2023
Dalziel and Pascoe In Space
In this mystery it's far in the future where Pascoe occupies an important position in the interaction community and has been r OK OKecruited to investigate a suspicious death on a space ship. He recruits Dalziel to assist him and they're off but this time Pascoe is the boss. They eventually get their man with Dalziel showing that he has retained his talent as a detective.
In this mystery it's far in the future where Pascoe occupies an important position in the interaction community and has been r OK OKecruited to investigate a suspicious death on a space ship. He recruits Dalziel to assist him and they're off but this time Pascoe is the boss. They eventually get their man with Dalziel showing that he has retained his talent as a detective.
August 17, 2022
I wanted to like this more than I did, the mystery seems to be secondary to the gags about stereotypes. But it’s the characters I love and there is some good character development that couldn’t be seen without the time skip.
Also no spoilers but the ending left something of a bad taste in my mouth.
Also no spoilers but the ending left something of a bad taste in my mouth.
February 26, 2024
Weird Dalziel and Pasco short story as the duo (Andy pulled out of retirement) go and investigate a murder on the the moon. It was an interesting premise which worked as a short story but I'm not sure it could have been sustained for a full size novel.
May 12, 2017
A very amusing irreverent Reginald Hill novella
August 8, 2023
A silly slim novel about a mystery set on the moon in the future. Fun as a character study but doesn't add much to the series.
March 7, 2024
This is very short, and not really book 12 at all. It is cast in the future and not a very bright one. I'd honestly just skip it.
December 21, 2024
The only thing I didn't like about it is that it was too short! Dalziel and Pascoe in the future solve a murder on the moon. This is my second reading. April 2020 and December 2024
September 17, 2012
I'm afraid the idea was better than the execution with this one. This is the idea:
Each Dalziel & Pascoe novel takes place a few months after the last. Pascoe meets Ellie, they get married, they have a baby who is still, at most at this point in the series, pre-school age. But the world around them ages along with their author. Each novel takes place at around the time the novel itself is written, so technology, politics, current events, and social mores are contemporary instead of, as with the Sue Grafton Alphabet series, stuck within a few years of Book #1 (in this case that would have been a kind of Life on Mars in the early 1970s). So, for a lark to celebrate 20 years (when the book was published in 1990), why not send Andy and Peter to do their stuff 20 years in the future, and age them not quite as much as that?
The execution:
First, it didn't help that Hill made the thing so political, since it was hard to buy into given nothing that he predicted came true. No Soviet resurgence, no internecine fighting amongst European powers (at least not like what he describes). And then he misses completely the rise of Islamism, and the economic and political advance of China. He could have made the set up of the mystery more of a personal kind of thing, and then it would have been more insulated against the ravages of time. I was prepared to grant him a lunar base for the sake of the story, but it was a bit tough since the other stuff was so off the mark.
Second, I was kind of put off by the illos. Andy and Peter looked nothing like themselves, and the women seemed drawn from a rather sexist eye.
Third, the mystery was dumb.
Fourth, I didn't like the implications for either character. They didn't act like themselves, which was the worst of it.
So, overall, meh. I'm really hoping that the next one will be a pick me up, two disappointments in a row, not so good.
Each Dalziel & Pascoe novel takes place a few months after the last. Pascoe meets Ellie, they get married, they have a baby who is still, at most at this point in the series, pre-school age. But the world around them ages along with their author. Each novel takes place at around the time the novel itself is written, so technology, politics, current events, and social mores are contemporary instead of, as with the Sue Grafton Alphabet series, stuck within a few years of Book #1 (in this case that would have been a kind of Life on Mars in the early 1970s). So, for a lark to celebrate 20 years (when the book was published in 1990), why not send Andy and Peter to do their stuff 20 years in the future, and age them not quite as much as that?
The execution:
First, it didn't help that Hill made the thing so political, since it was hard to buy into given nothing that he predicted came true. No Soviet resurgence, no internecine fighting amongst European powers (at least not like what he describes). And then he misses completely the rise of Islamism, and the economic and political advance of China. He could have made the set up of the mystery more of a personal kind of thing, and then it would have been more insulated against the ravages of time. I was prepared to grant him a lunar base for the sake of the story, but it was a bit tough since the other stuff was so off the mark.
Second, I was kind of put off by the illos. Andy and Peter looked nothing like themselves, and the women seemed drawn from a rather sexist eye.
Third, the mystery was dumb.
Fourth, I didn't like the implications for either character. They didn't act like themselves, which was the worst of it.
So, overall, meh. I'm really hoping that the next one will be a pick me up, two disappointments in a row, not so good.
April 19, 2020
This is a short book (a novella?) set in 2010, which was twenty years in the future when it was first published. Pascoe is now a very senior policeman and Dalziel is retired so the dynamic is a bit different.
In 1996 it was reprinted in the collection "Asking for the moon"
In 1996 it was reprinted in the collection "Asking for the moon"
May 26, 2008
A Novella in the Pascoe and Dalziel series, set in 2010.
November 17, 2019
Reginald Hill having a bit of fun. I'm not keen on short stories generally, mainly because there's no time to get attached to the characters. Luckily I love Dalziel and Pascoe from the other books.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews