| One Small Step | |
| Author: | Reginald Hill |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Dalziel and Pascoe series #12 |
| Genre: | Crime novella |
| Publisher: | Collins Crime Club |
| Pub Date: | 1 September 1990 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages: | 109 pp. |
| Isbn: | 0002322927 |
| Oclc: | 21520047 |
| Preceded By: | Bones and Silence |
| Followed By: | Recalled to Life |
One Small Step is a 1990 novella written by British writer Reginald Hill featuring the detective characters Dalziel and Pascoe. It is set in 2010, many years after the other Dalziel and Pascoe stories, and involves the detectives investigating the first murder on the Moon.
One Small Step was originally published separately in 1990. In 1996, it was included, along with three other Dalziel and Pascoe stories, in the collection Asking for the Moon.[1]
In May 2010, Emile Lemarque, a French astronaut, is killed by a short circuit in his urine collection device at the moment he steps onto the surface of the Moon. Retired Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel and his former colleague Peter Pascoe, now the UK Commissioner in the Eurofed Department of Justice, fly to the Moon to investigate Lemarque's death as a murder.
Reviewing the American edition of Asking for the Moon in 1996, Publishers Weekly called One Small Step "an almost absurd swansong for the mismatched twosome".[2] Reviewing Asking for the Moon for Booklist, Emily Melton called One Small Step "an intriguing but somewhat hokey piece of futuristic folderol".[3] Crime novelist and critic Martin Edwards described One Small Step as "a slight disappointment".[4]
. Reginald Hill. Asking for the Moon. New York, London. Foul Play Press (W. W. Norton & Company). 1996. 0-88150-382-7.