A PINCH OF SNUFF

Colin Buchanan has fun delivering an expert rendition of this early novel in Hill's popular Yorkshire police procedural series featuring Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Inspector Peter Pascoe. Buchanan, who plays Pascoe in the BBC television adaptation of the series, necessarily nails his own character. But he also offers subtle, interesting, often funny characterizations of the other players, including a joyously offensive Dalziel. And he brings an enormous North Country sex siren rather terrifyingly to life. The plot about sex films gone wrong and a dentist accused of seducing an underage patient is as complicated as it is entertaining, but Buchanan's clear narrative never lets us become confused. This one is pure pleasure. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2009]