Singing the Sadness — Reginald Hill

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

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, but now his vocal cords are too singed for singing. He's been retained by two very interested parties to uncover the identity of the young woman, a trail that threatens to reveal dark secrets, scandal and sordid doings behind the closed doors of the small town of Llanffugiol.

Joe is not up to any more heroics, unintentional though they 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.