After studying English at Oxford University he worked as a teacher until 1980, when he retired in order to devote himself full-time to writing.
Hill is best known for his novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel (pronounced "dee-el"), Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. Adaptations of some of the books have been broadcast by the BBC in the Dalziel and Pascoe series, in which Dalziel was played by Warren Clarke, Pascoe by Colin Buchanan and Wield by David Royle.
His other novels include ones involving Joe Sixsmith, a Luton private detective, and others under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell. Dick Morland and Charles Underhill.