Born Guilty

The dust cover describes Joe Sixsmith as "quite possibly Britain's only black, balding, middle-aged, laid-off lathe operator-turned-private-eye." He is part of a choir and after rehearsal one night he discovers a body in a box in a graveyard. He also is trying to discover if a young woman's grandfather is a Nazi war criminal ( he isn't, he's only a murderer) and check out whether there has been inappropriate behavior by someone in a position of authority at a school. All while doing his best to avoid his Aunt and decide for himself if he is interested in the woman that his Aunt wants him to date. It's a fun read and I didn't guess any of the mysteries.

I enjoyed every minute of reading this. Joe Sixsmith is a great character, and the combination of humour and action-packed, intelligent mystery, along with extremely likeable and well-drawn characters, made this an absolute joy. I particularly liked Joe's relationship with Whitey - his imagined conversations with the cat were hilarious. Hurrah for Reginald Hill!

It took me a while to get into this. I couldn't really remember what the first in this series was like and wasn't quite sure what to make of this for a while. In the end I found it gripping and very entertaining. The good thing about keeping track of the books you read is that you can look back and see what you thought about the first in the series.

it's a bit of a farce, a bit of a caper, a lot of a funny crime novel and mainly just very enjoyable to read.

This one never really struck me as farce or caper, it was more in the "quite amusing" vein, and I really shouldn't leave it 3.5 years before reading the next one!

Joe Sixsmith solves death of boy in box