Born Guilty

By Reginald Hill

‘Few writers in the genre today have Hill’s gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace’ Donna Leon, Sunday Times

Hurrying out of St Monkey’s church one day, Joe Sixsmith stumbles across a boy’s corpse in a cardboard box and into more trouble than he’s ever known.

His casebook is full to bursting: retired colonial Mrs C. demands to know how the boy got there; Gallie, the Mutant from Outer Space, urges him to find the stranger nosing into her granddad’s past; while Butcher, that briefest of briefs, is hellbent on digging the dirt on a deputy head’s out-of-school activities.

Joe threads his way through the mean streets of Luton, fighting off cops, druggies and the matchmaking machinations of his Auntie Mirabelle. But there’s little joy to be found in the truth: that kids grow up fast, and that even the luckiest ones are born guilty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Sep 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9780007391905

Reginald Hill

Reginald Hill is a native of Cumbria and former resident of Yorkshire, the setting for his novels featuring Superintendent Dalziel and DCI Pascoe, ‘the best detective duo on the scene bar none’ (‘Daily Telegraph’). Their appearances have won him numerous awards including a CWA Gold Dagger and Lifetime Achievement award. They have also been adapted into a hugely popular BBC TV series.

Reviews for Born Guilty

[vivl_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!

[raizel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.