Luton P.I. Joe Sixsmith is hired by a rising track star to find out who has been sending her threatening notes indicating that she has to throw an upcoming race or her family will be harmed. At the same time, he seems to keep stumbling over the bodies of murdered lawyers, all from one very posh law firm, and the cops badly want to arrest him for it. And to top things off, his car has been totaled and the insurance company only wants to pay out a pittance for it, even though it’s nearly a classic…. Reginald Hill’s Joe Sixsmith series is not as well known as his Dalziel and Pascoe books, but it’s a lot of fun to read; not a lot of high literary shenanigans here, but solid private eye stories in a colourful setting. I’ve been picking these books up as I find them and have been reading them out of order as a result, but that doesn’t seem to matter with this series; anyplace is a good jumping in spot to try. Recommended. ( )

I enjoyed this although not quite as much as the first two. Perhaps it was because there was less cat/human interaction--I'm not sure. It was still good fun and, while I had some vague ideas that correlated to some degree with the truth behind the various mysteries, the conclusion was nicely surprising. ( )

In some ways I like the Joe Sixsmith novels better than Dalziel & Pascoe, the humour remains but they are a little less wordy, firmly rooted perhaps in ordinary life. In this Joe seeks legal advice for motor accident only to get the brush-off and the said lawyers to get the fate indicated in the title. This naturally places Joe in the frame and requires some quick footwork by him to extricate himself. ( )