YMMV / Dalziel and Pascoe

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Patrick Alderman in Deadheads is either the world's greatest serial killer, or is spectacularly lucky.
• Complete Monster (series):
  • "The Wood Beyond": Captain Herbert Batty is a callous, smug Medical Corp officer focused only on his desire to create a new drug for the prestige it will bring him. Using World War I as a cover, Batty experimented on the wounded soldiers under his care, attempting to find the exact dosages needed to make anti-bacteria solutions out of lethal arsenic compounds, causing at least 23 deaths. Following Robert Pascoe stumbling onto his activities, Batty used his connections to have himself posted back in Yorkshire where he took over Wormwood House, his former family estate turned military hospital. Carrying on his experiments, Batty caused untold numbers of men to die in agony, passing off their deaths as result of infection and burying the surplus bodies in the woods. Murdering Robert Pascoe, Batty, just to twist the knife further, then framed him for desertion so to disgrace his family.
  • "Under Dark Stars": Michael Wheeler is a vicious, arrogant predator of vulnerable teenagers. Kidnapping 13-year-old Perdy, he horrifically abused her until she was brainwashed into believing his twisted ideology. Then, over four years, Wheeler used Perdy to help him abduct four boys whom he dismissed as "worthless scum". Imprisoning the children, Wheeler would put them through the same brutal abuses and punishments in an attempt to also recruit them. However, as they all kept resisting him, he simply ended up killing them, his latest victim being 14-year-old Jaimie Croft. Following his trial collapsing, Wheeler took to harassing Jaimie's parents with the secrets he'd tortured out of Jaimie and blaming them for their son's death, the strain of which drove Bridget Croft to kill herself. Focusing his attention on Dean Bennett, the one victim to escape him, Wheeler kidnapped Dean, determined to make him his latest victim.
• Genius Bonus: The novels frequently expect readers to recognize the significance of their extensive literary allusions, some of which (as in Death's Jest-Book) can be pretty obscure.
• Hollywood Homely: Wield, because no actor could be as sublimely ugly as the novels' Wield.
• Magnificent Bastard: "Death In The Family": Aahil Khan is a single-minded yet warm, paternal entrepreneur. Arriving in Yorkshire with nothing he worked his way up, becoming a successful businessman and a respected figure in Wetherton's Asian community. Capitalizing on his reputation Khan started a Hawallah business — an illegal global money trade that ran explicitly through trust — operating out of his legitimate contacts, planning to save enough money to send his grandchildren to the best schools and guarantee their futures. Tricked into trading money from a bank robbery, Khan's reputation and side business was ruined. Undeterred Khan organised a burglary to reimburse himself with the remaining stolen cash, and when this failed had his sons kidnap the surviving robber Imad Abdullah. His son's attempts to force him into giving them the money failing, taking over Khan apologised to Imad and thanked him for teaching his sons the limits of brute force. In a single conversation Khan convinced Imad into giving him the majority of the money, with Khan allowing him to keep £100,000 and then using his contacts to smuggle Imad abroad to safety, with Khan successfully covering everything up and getting away scot free.
• Retroactive Recognition: Gwen Evans in "A Clubbable Woman" is played by Andrée Bernard, who would later be best known for playing Liz Burton in Hollyoaks.

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