A Fairly Dangerous Thing

Book excerpt: An “unerring bawdy comedy” of criminally bad behavior by the author of the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries (Sunday Telegraph). Best known for his Dalziel and Pascoe novels, which were adapted into a hit BBC series, Reginald Hill proves himself to be a “master of form and style . . . grace and wit” in his stand-alone novels as well—now available as ebooks (The New York Times). Joseph Askern, English teacher in a village day school has three preoccupations: his fantasies about women that are quite unbecoming for such a proper gentleman; a hopelessly delinquent student; and a near obsessive fascination with the history of the noble estate of Averingerett. Unluckily for Joseph, they are all about to collide. The filching father of the troubled pupil has engaged a call girl for her services in blackmail. The scheme: Joseph must aide in the master heist of the stately home (since he knows the place so well) or his immodest, career-ending indiscretion will go public—with pictures! Unable to wriggle free, Joseph agrees to navigate the caper. But getting into Averingerett isn’t the problem. It’s getting out that will be more dangerous, unexpected, and scandalous than Joseph imagined.