Pictures of Perfection

Pictures of Perfection
Reginald Hill

For suspense, ingenuity and sheer comic effrontery this takes the absolute, appetizing biscuit’ Sunday TimesHigh in the Mid-Yorkshire Dales stands the traditional village of Enscombe, seemingly untouched by the modern world. But contemporary life is about to intrude when the disappearance of a policeman brings Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel and DCI Peter Pascoe to its doors.As the detectives dig beneath the veneer of idyllic village life a new pattern emerges: of family feuds, ancient injuries, cheating and lies. And finally, as the community gathers for the traditional Squire’s Reckoning, it looks as if the simmering tensions will erupt in a bloody climax…

REGINALD HILL

PICTURES OF PERFECTION

A Dalziel and Pascoe novel

Pictures of perfection as you know make me sick and wicked

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_79302721-119d-5de3-a12f-1a81f3da64c7)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed

in it are the work of the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,

events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain

in 1994 by HarperCollinsPublishers

Copyright © Reginald Hill 1994

Reginald Hill asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780006490111

Ebook Edition © JULY 2015 ISBN: 9780007370313

Version: 2015-06-22

DEDICATION (#ulink_556ff3f6-80f8-5950-b3b3-a23d9cb350c4)

TO

THE QUEEN OF CRIME EDITORS,

ELIZABETH WALTER,

THIS WORK IS,

WITH HER GRACIOUS PERMISSION,

MOST AFFECTIONATELY

DEDICATED,

BY HER ADMIRING

AND GRATEFUL

FRIEND,

THE AUTHOR.

Nullum quod tetegit non ornavit

CONTENTS

Cover (#u39da09fb-c285-5a75-8aca-98aa6d619817)

Title Page (#u4c23840d-297f-51da-9db4-d99281278e2d)

Copyright (#u24d7a756-c081-5448-81fb-95dbb7eab915)

Dedication (#u574e92d9-e9c3-5bd3-a0a3-de706e860141)

Author’s Note (#u1be9a8df-3a34-587c-a2ec-29daeac6f360)

Volume the first (#u9f494239-a03d-584e-bcc2-0a71bb800bdc)

Prologue Being an Extract from the Draft of an Uncompleted History of Enscombe Parish by the Reverend Charles Fabian Cage, D.D. (Deceased) (#uf67c776c-dc52-5f9c-ab7c-645a1925e53c)

Chapter One (#u1ba3b8fc-ddd0-5d82-a94c-21540d4a575b)

Chapter Two (#ub2eca86a-6fd8-50ef-9668-95bc482e4808)

Chapter Three (#u73c9f8f2-610b-5ac0-8cfb-b5499f8d6ea0)