BORN GUILTY

Three cases for raffish Luton p.i. Joe Sixsmith (Blood Sympathy, 1994). First, he stumbles across a body in a cardboard box that's been considerately deposited in St. Monica's churchyard. Then, punk bankteller Galina Hatcher wants him to see why somebody's been skulking around her grandfather, accusing him of being an escaped war criminal. Finally, stammering Mavis Dalgety, estranged from her school chum Sally Eaglesfield, wonders whether something nasty's going on at those parties their teacher, Georgina Woodbine, has been inviting Sally to. Georgina's parties for her students, however, aren't nearly as dangerous as the one she and her husband, Supt. Edgar (Willie) Woodbine, gives for his boss, the new Chief Constable — a blowout in every sense of the word. Caught between singing Haydn's Creation and hovering at the fringes of a post-Thatcherite England that couldn't be further from Eden, Joe juggles clues, threats, and assaults with equal distinction. The two subplots outshine the murder, but even here there's a nice twist waiting at the end. Trust down-at-heels Joe to provide value for the money.