Reginald Hill. Exit Lines (1984)

     Reginald Hill. Exit Lines (1984) Saw this on TV first, with some plot simplifications. A police procedural with a difference: the cops are a mixed lot, just like real people. But the writing is merely workmanlike, Pascoe’s private life has no organic relation to the rest of the tale (one could argue it’s there to expand the theme of old age), and a good deal of the “realism” seems forced and gratuitous. A pleasant entertainment, but not an engaging one; I feel no urge to find more Dalziel & Pascoe stories, but I won’t turn them down if they turn up. Three old men die on the same night, one in a road accident that involves Dalziel, one killed in the course of a robbery, and one seems to be an accident until Pascoe’s nosing around reveals it’s really a murder, but not one whose solution gives much joy. ** (2004)