Ruling Passion is a 1973 crime novel by Reginald Hill, the third novel in the Dalziel and Pascoe series. The novel opens with Detective Peter Pascoe arriving at what should have been a reunion of old friends. Instead he walks in on the scene of a grisly triple-murder. To solve the crime, Pascoe needs both his superior officer, Andy Dalziel and his romantic partnerâÂÂand Dalziel's feminist antagonistâÂÂElli.