Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness (UK 2015)

From the Publisher:
'Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace' Sunday Times

Joe Sixsmith is going west, though only as far the Llanffugiol Choral Festival in Wales. But his plans are interrupted when they happen upon a burning house with a mysterious woman trapped inside.

Joe risks life and limb to rescue the woman, only to be roped in to the investigation by the police officer in charge. Suddenly surrounded by a bevy of suspicious characters, he soon realizes that this case is much more than just arson.

Aided by little more than his acute instinct for truth, Joe moves forward over the space of a single weekend to uncover crimes which have been buried for years.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness. HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780007334834 (September, 2015), eBook, 0.43 MB (ca. 256 p.), £5.99.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness (UK 2010)

From the Publisher:
Joe Sixsmith is going west. But only as far as Wales where they keep a welcome in the hillside and the Boyling Corner Choir has been invited to the Llanffugiol Choral Festival. Trouble is, no one seems to have heard of Llanffugiol, and all they find on the hillside is a burning house with a mysterious woman trapped inside.

Soon Joe is surrounded by a whole bevy of suspicious characters, not to mention the kind of criminous confusion that turns into utter chaos when confronted with the famous Sixsmith detection technique.

Joe is no quitter, though. Doggedly, aided by little more than that instinct for truth which is his unique talent, he moves forward over the space of a single weekend to uncover crimes which have been buried for years.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness. HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780007334834 (April, 2010), 256 p., £7.99.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness (USA 2001)

From the Publisher:
Private investigator Joe Sixsmith, a former lathe operator whose skill at detection is part pure luck and part and uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, rushes into a burning cottage to save a young woman trapped inside. She's barely alive, nameless... and the subject of Joe's new mystery.

Joe is in Wales for a church choir festival. He's retained by two parties to uncover the identity of the young woman. Joe's not up to any more heroics, though his clients may be. But before a killer can be brought to justice, he may have to play hero one more time -- to save his own skin.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness. A Joe Sixsmith Mystery. Worldwide Library, ISBN 0373263716 (January, 2001), 256 p., $5.99.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
Joe Sixsmith is going west. But only as far as Wales where they keep a welcome in the hillside and the Boyling Corner Choir has been invited to compete in the Llanffugiol Choral Festival. Trouble is, no one seems to have heard of Llanffugiol. And instead of a welcome, all they find on the hillside is a burning house with a mysterious woman trapped inside.

Soon Joe is trapped by a whole bevy of suspicious characters, not to mention the kind of criminous confusion that turns into utter chaos when confronted with the famous Sixsmith detection technique.

Joe is no quitter, though. Doggedly, aided by little more than that instinct for truth which is his unique talent, he moves forward over the space of a single weekend to uncover crimes which have lain buried for years

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness. HarperCollins, ISBN 0006499023 (January, 2000), 251 p., £5.99.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Private investigator Joe Sixsmith, a former lathe operator whose skill at detection is part pure luck and part and uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, rushes into a burning cottage to save a young woman trapped inside. She's barely alive, nameless... and the subject of Joe's new mystery.

Joe is in Wales for a church choir festival. He's retained by two parties to uncover the identity of the young woman. Joe's not up to any more heroics, though his clients may be. But before a killer can be brought to justice, he may have to play hero one more time -- to save his own skin.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness. A Private Eye Joe Sixsmith Adventure. St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0312242387 (September, 1999), 251 p., $23.95.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
Joe Sixsmith is going west. But only as far as Wales where they keep a welcome in the hillside and the Boyling Corner Choir has been invited to the Llanfugiol Choral Festival. Trouble is, no one seems to have heard of Llanfugiol. And instead of a welcome, all they find on the hillside is a burning house with a mysterious woman trapped inside. Add to this in rapid succession an aggressively suspicious policeman, a patronizing headmaster, a drug-dealing student, a gang of disaffected locals bent on sabotaging the festival, and a caretaker's daughter who seems ready to go to extraordinary lengths to take care of Joe, and what we have is the kind of criminous confusion which the famous Sixsmith detective technique soon turns to utter chaos. But Joe is no quitter. Doggedly, aided by little more than that instinct for truth which is his unique talent, he moves forward over the spae of a single weekend to uncover crimes which have been buried for years. Written with all its predecessors' humour and verve, Singing the Sadness takes Joe Sixsmith into a new dimension where morality is blurred and even the light of truth is only a very faint glimmer on a very dark hillside.

Reginald Hill: Singing the Sadness. Collins Crime, ISBN 0002326086 (February, 1999), 251 p., £15.99.