“Peter Lovesey tosses off a real brain-banger in Bloodhounds, the fourth book in a challenging series . . . I am mad for these pyrotechnic teasers, and this one had my head spinning.”—The New York Times Book Review A rare stamp and a corpse are discovered in Bath within hours of each other. As he investigates, Inspector Peter Diamond discovers that both the person who found the stamp and the victim belong to the Bloodhounds, an elite group of mystery lovers, who now urge Diamond to bring the murderer to justice. But there’s a hitch: the body lies inside a padlocked houseboat and the only key is in the pocket of a man with an airtight alibi.
Peter Lovesey loves strong women, cerebral killers and diabolical puzzles—the very ingredients that make The House Sitter one of the most cunning mysteries in his Inspector Diamond series." —The New York Times Book Review The corpse of a beautiful woman, clad in only a bathing suit, is found strangled to death on a popular Sussex beach. When she is finally identified, it turns out she was a top profiler for the National Crime Faculty, who was working on the case of a serial killer. And though she was a Bath resident, the authorities don't want Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond to investigate the murder. How strange. What could they be trying to hide?
During World War II they were "plotters" for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, charting aircraft patterns in the Battle of Britain. Now, in grim postwar Britain, Rosie Bell and Antonia Ashton plot murder together. Poor and miserable, Rosie is married to civil servant Barry Bell - an abusive and philandering husband. Antonia married a Czech industrialist and has wealth without passion. In a chance reunion, the women scheme to rid themselves of their despised spouses. When the cunning Antonia seals Barry Bell's fate with a simple shove from the platform of the London Tube, the meeker Rosie is troubled by her part in the remainder of their homicidal plan. --Book jacket
The chief of the Bath murder squad finally gets his say in this revealing mini-autobiography of the star character in the “superb series” (Louise Penny, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache novels). Reader, you’re about to get the truth, the inside story, the stuff Peter Lovesey never discovered. . . . Longtime police detective Peter Diamond has kept his mouth shut ever since learning that some author had the nerve to use his stellar career as a model for a supposedly fictional mystery series. At first, he consulted a solicitor, but it was explained to him that the case would be expensive. So now he’s going to tell his own story, from his days as a dyslexic schoolboy to his start as a humble copper with the Met in the 1980s, and the many difficult cases he brilliantly cracked in Bath. It’s past time to hear from the real detective behind the “impatient, belligerent, cunning, insightful, foul, laugh-out-loud funny” character, as Louise Penny put it—and who gave Peter Lovesey his Diamond Dagger Award and Mystery Writers of America Grand Master status. “Lovesey is a wizard at mixing character-driven comedy with realistic-to-grim suspense.” —The Wall Street Journal “The enduring draw of the Peter Diamond books derives both from the beguiling Bath cityscape and the brusque character of Diamond himself.” —NPR “What’ll it be today? A knotty puzzle mystery? A fast-paced police procedural? Something more high-toned, with a bit of wit? With the British author Peter Lovesey, there’s no need to make those agonizing decisions, because his books have it all.” —The New York Times Book Review
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Peter Lovesey presents a collection of short fiction spanning fifty years, including the first story he ever published and three brand-new stories. More than fifty years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey’s lifelong passion for short form crime fiction. On the occasion of his hundredth short story, Peter Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection, eighteen yarns of mystery, melancholy, and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theater, a monastery, and the book publishing industry. The collection includes the career-launching story, as well as three never-before-published works. And surprising the author himself, the irascible Bath detective, Peter Diamond, "bulldozed his way" into this volume.
“The Summons is a classic.” —The Economist John Mountjoy has escaped from prison and kidnapped the chief constable’s daughter. The only person he’ll parley with is Detective Peter Diamond, who arrested him four years earlier for the murder of a young journalist. Mountjoy, who still maintains his innocence, has a simple request for Diamond. All the detective has to do is find the real killer and clear Mountjoy’s name, and the hostage will be free to go. But in the intervening four years, the trail has gone cold and memories have turned hazy, making the hunt for the killer even more complicated the second time around. Will Diamond get to the bottom of the cold case before another life is lost?
Sarah Jordan, beautiful and clever, is a PhD researcher at a New York university. After Sarah had conquered her childhood arachnophobia, her fear turned into fascination and spiders became the focus of her studies. Captivated by their ritual of mating and death, she watches as they stalk their prey with chilling precision. Slowly, she comes to discover the spider within her. Attracted by her beauty and intrigued by her strange area of expertise, a documentary production team groom a reluctant Sarah into a TV personality. On the giant nylon web built for her in the studio, she begins to feel strangely exhilarated, thrillingly powerful. Sarah Jordan is a woman gripped by a strange and terrible metamorphosis. Love and fear, courage and perversity, violence and neurosis are spun together to create a sinister spider's web. Thread by thread, this realistic and compelling novel builds to a bizarre and horrifying conclusion.
Peter Diamond, the Bath detective brilliant at rooting out murder, is peeved at being diverted to Professional Standards to enquire into a police car accident. Arriving late at the scene, he discovers an extra victim thrown onto an embankment - unconscious and unnoticed. Diamond administers CPR, but no one can say whether the elderly tricyclist will pull through. But why had the man been out in the middle of the night with an urn containing human ashes? Diamond's suspicions grow after he identifies the accident victim as Ivor Pellegrini, a well-known local eccentric and railway enthusiast. A search of Pellegrini's workshop proves beyond question that he is involved in a series of uninvestigated deaths
“Peter Lovesey is the real deal. A top master of the police procedural British subgenre, he's an ace at spinning out teasingly slow plot revelations . . . crisp prose and humane characterizations.” —The Seattle Times On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with the group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss Georgina is a member. She resolves to sideline Diamond, but matters don’t pan out in accordance with her plans.
“A treat . . . Lovesey’s restraint, wit, and charming cast ensure him a place in the winner’s circle.” —Entertainment Weekly At the urging of his daughter, Bob Naylor joins the Chichester Writer’s Circle. But instead of exploring his budding talents as an amateur poet, Bob soon finds himself in the middle of something sinister. The vanity-press publisher who recently visited and critiqued the group was killed in an arson fire, and Maurice, the group’s leader, is the prime suspect. Because Bob is new to the group and not under suspicion, he is recruited to prove Maurice’s innocence, putting his own life at risk. The murderer is not done, and more people will die as Inspector Henrietta Mallin scrambles to pinpoint the killer.
A puzzler of a tale about a dead bookshop owner, a priceless cache of first editions, and a deadly secret taken to the grave. It’s no mystery who killed Robert Ripple, owner of Precious Finds Bookstore in Pokesville, Pennsylvania. It was Agatha Christie—or rather, a large carton of valuable Christie hardcovers that the not-so-young Ripple was attempting to lift when his heart gave out. The real question is why the so-called Friends of England, who meet regularly in the back room of Ripple’s literary emporium, are so eager to keep the place open after its proprietor’s death. Certainly it must have something to do with the Friends’ past lives as the associates of a slain New York mobster. Whatever their plan is, they’ll need the help of Tanya Tripp, Ripple’s recently hired and completely unsuspecting assistant, if they want to pull it off. But despite her trustworthy appearance, Tanya may well be hatching a scheme of her own. For over four decades, Peter Lovesey has occupied an honored place as one of crime fiction’s best and brightest. With Remaindered, he offers his readers a delectable tidbit about books and those who live—and die—for them. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.
The third and final entry of the Bertie Prince of Wales mystery series, featuring future King Edward VII, Albert Edward, as an amateur sleuth solving suspicious murders in Victorian England. Bertie, amateur sleuth and the Crown Prince of Wales, loves food and women. This is why Bertie enjoys his frequent trips to Paris, a city that is known not only as the City of Lights, but also as the city of romance and fine cuisine. In 1891, however, Bertie’s yearly Paris vacation becomes much more eventful than he had anticipated when, soon after his arrival, he learns that the future son-in-law of his old friend, Jules d’ Agincourt, was recently murdered at the Moulin Rouge. Unable to resist practicing his detective skills, Bertie resolves to assist the Sûreté, the French police force, in solving the ongoing case. He enlists the help of the reluctant Sarah Bernhardt, renowned actress and Bertie’s long-time friend, and together, Bertie and Sarah travel around Paris following possible leads, questioning witnesses, and even apprehending the murder weapon. When the Sûreté discovers that the victim’s fiancée has a much older lover who was present at the scene of the murder, they immediately arrest him on the suspicion that the murder was a crime of passion. Bertie’s instincts tell him that this man is innocent, but the Sûreté is convinced he is the killer. With the threat of the guillotine looming over the innocent man’s head, it is up to Bertie to find the real killer and close the case before it is too late.
“The threads of Peter Lovesey’s new Peter Diamond mystery, Upon a Dark Night, twist up so neatly they make a perfect hangman’s noose—another triumph of plotting from this master of the classic puzzle form.”—The New York Times Book Review A young woman is dumped, injured and unconscious, in a private hospital’s parking lot. She is an amnesiac with no memory prior to her discovery by hospital personnel. Detective Inspector Peter Diamond of the Bath homicide squad is unwilling to become involved. He has other, more important cases to solve: A woman has plunged to her death from the roof of a local landmark while half the young people of Bath partied below, and an elderly farmer has shot himself. Are these apparent suicides what they seem, or are there sinister forces at work? And might the amnesiac woman hold the key to both cases?
Peter Lovesey, MWA Grand Master and titan of the English detective novel, returns readers to Bath with the eighteenth mystery in his critically acclaimed Peter Diamond series. As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline, the daughter of notorious crime baron Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. The problem is that Ben’s father, George, is the Deputy Chief Constable. A more uncomfortable set of in-laws would be hard to imagine. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are arranged before the career-obsessed DCC can step in. Peter Diamond, Bath’s head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Ordered to be discreet, he packs a gun and a guest list in his best suit and must somehow cope with potential killers, gang rivals, warring parents, bossy photographers and straying bridesmaids. The laid-back Joe Irving seems oblivious to the danger he is in from rival gang leaders, while Brace can’t wait for the day to end. Will the photo session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving’s speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon?
“Next to Jane Austen, Peter Lovesey is the writer the tourist board of Bath, England, extols most proudly . . . The enduring draw of the Peter Diamond books derives both from the beguiling Bath cityscape and the brusque character of Diamond himself.” —NPR PC Harry Trasker is the third policeman in the Bath area to be shot dead in less than twelve weeks. The assassinations are the work of a sniper who seems to be everywhere and nowhere at once, always a step ahead.The younger detectives od their best with what little evidence he leaves, but they're no match for this murderer and his merciless agenda. When Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond is assigned to the case, he begins to find curious connections between the dead officers after talking to their widows. But then a chilling encounter with the killer leaves Diamond in the lurch and the sniper in the wind. Things get even more complicated when the evidence starts to suggest that the killer might be one of Britain's finest--a theory unpopular among Diamond's colleagues. Can Diamond manage to capture an elusive and increasingly dangerous killer while keeping his team from losing faith in him?
“If you've never read any of [Lovesey’s] 20-plus books, this wickedly clever, beautifully written story of a murderous clergyman who earns our sympathy while dramatically whittling down his flock should make you an instant convert.”—Chicago Tribune After years spent saving souls, Otis Joy, the rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Foxford, Wiltshire, has found a new calling: ending lives. His young French wife? Anaphylactic shock, what a shame. The bishop? Fell into a quarry. Tragic. It’s not Joy’s fault, really—not that he’s concerned about repentance or absolution these days. He just doesn’t want his other little secret—embezzling church funds to finance a fancy yacht—to be discovered. But when the husband of the new church secretary, Rachel Jansen, turns up dead, it isn’t long before the village starts to gossip and the local constable gets involved. As it turns out, God isn’t the only one who’s always watching.
Introducing Victorian England’s most illustrious amateur sleuth (if not necessarily its most adept): Bertie, Prince of Wales, who can’t help but poke his royal nose into a suspicious-sounding circumstance. Bertie, Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII, is a charismatic but self-indulgent man who enjoys the finer things in life, including dining, flirting, and flitting from party to party with his entire thirty-person staff in tow. But the fun and games come to a tragic halt when Bertie hears the shocking news that his friend the legendary jockey Fred Archer, known as the Tinman, has taken his own life. Bertie has his doubts that it was in fact suicide, especially considering the Tinman's ominous final words: “Are they coming?” Bertie resolves to discover the truth, looking for new suspects and evidence on a quest that will take him through some of the most disreputable parts of London, much to the dismay of his mother, Queen Victoria.
On the 50th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, Peter Lovesey, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and titan of the British detective novel, returns to the subject of his very first mystery—running. Through a particularly ill-fated series of events, couch potato Maeve Kelly, an elementary school teacher whose mother always assured her “curvy” girls shouldn’t waste their time trying to be fit, has been forced to sign up for the Other Half, Bath’s springtime half marathon. The training is brutal, but she must disprove her mother and collect pledges for her aunt’s beloved charity. What Maeve doesn’t know is just how vicious some of the other runners are. Meanwhile, Detective Peter Diamond is tasked with crowd control on the raucous day of the race—and catches sight of a violent criminal he put away a decade ago, and who very much seems to be up to his old tricks now that he is paroled. Diamond’s hackles are already up when he learns that one of the runners never crossed the finish line and disappeared without a trace. Was Diamond a spectator to murder?
“Lovesey’s best yet.” —H.R.F. Keating, The Times Brighton, 1882: Albert Moscrop spends his holiday peering at beachgoers through a telescope, piecing together disarmingly trivial observations into a compelling drama for his own amusement. A keen student of human nature, Moscrop concentrates his interest on one particular family—the Protheros, especially the beautiful Zena Prothero, whose husband appears to take her for granted. Moscrop gradually moves into the circle of the Prothero family, only to become involved in a sensational murder. All of Brighton is horrified by the gruesome crime, and the local police seek the help of Scotland Yard’s Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray, who soon find themselves challenged by the strangest case of their careers, one as mystifying as it is macabre.
One of the late-Victorian murder mysteries investigated by Sgt Cribb. In a case which links Jerome K. Jerome with Jack the Ripper, Harriet Shaw takes a midnight dip in the Thames, near Henley, and witnesses a killing. She and Cribb follow a trail upriver to Oxford, where a second drowning occurs.
Rudolf Hess was the most closely guarded prisoner in the world. Forty-five years after his capture in Scotland on a supposed peace mission he was still in Spandau Prison. Why was it necessary to keep him there so long? He was a Nazi -- but one with a damaging tale to tell. If anyone can reach him it is Berlin correspondent Red Goodbody, known for his foolhardiness, but also for his daring and panache. The fear is that the stability of Western Europe may be undermined by what Hess can reveal; and so both the KGB and MI5 move into action to protect the extraordinary secret of Spandau.
The Circle When Bob Naylor plucks up courage to join his local writers' circle, he is nervous. But while he is prepared for some naked ambition, he doesn't know it will include murder...The death of publisher Edgar Blacker propels Bob and his fellow authors straight into the middle of a detective story. They are excited by the prospect, but Detective Henrietta Mallin is determined not to let these amateur sleuths muddy the waters as she prepares to unravel the sinister secret of the circle. Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose Beware of long-lost friends, sleepy cats, and Santa's grotto. Think twice about gypsy curses, squawking parrots, and peach-coloured thermal underwear, for any one of them can confound your expectations and shatter a cosy world. Peter Lovesey prescribes fifteen fiendishly clever stories featuring the man in the street, along with the ever-popular detectives Peter Diamond and self-important Bertie, Prince of Wales.
Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond investigates when a skeletal hand is dug up in the course of renovations, next door to the house that Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein.
“Absolutely riveting . . . A masterpiece. I defy anyone to foresee the outcome.”—Ruth Rendell The year is 1921. A passionate affair between voracious romance reader Alma Webster and her dentist, Walter Baranov, has led to his wife’s murder. The lovers take flight aboard the Mauretania and the dentist takes the name of Inspector Dew, the detective who arrested the notorious wifekiller Dr. Crippen. But, in a disquieting twist, a murder occurs aboard ship and the captain invites “Inspector Dew” to investigate.
“At once charming, chilling and convincing as if it had unfolded in the Police Intelligence column of April, 1888.” —TIME London, 1888. Though the beautiful Miriam Cromer has confessed to the murder of her husband’s assistant, she is still confident of her acquittal. But then she is sentenced to hang. She blames her husband, but he has an alibi. Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray must discover what really happened at Park Lodge on 12th March, 1888, and quickly.
Fine picture of period vice, good mystery plotting, and fun.” —San Francisco Chronicle A sadistic practical joker is haunting the popular music halls of London, interfering with the actors and interrupting their acts by orchestrating humiliating disasters that take place in view of the audience. A trapeze artist misses her timing when the trapeze ropes are shortened. A comedian who invites the audience to sing along with him finds the words of his song “shamefully” altered. Mustard has been applied to a sword swallower’s blade. A singer’s costume has been rigged. The girl in a magician’s box is trapped. Then the mischief escalates to murder. Or was murder intended all along? That indomitable detective team, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of Scotland Yard, must track down the elusive criminal.
Peter Diamond, the Bath detective brilliant at rooting out murder, is peeved at being diverted to Professional Standards to enquire into a police car accident. Arriving late at the scene, he discovers an extra victim thrown onto an embankment - unconscious and unnoticed. Diamond administers CPR, but no one can say whether the elderly tricyclist will pull through. But why had the man been out in the middle of the night with an urn containing human ashes? Diamond 's suspicions grow after he identifies the accident victim as Ivor Pellegrini, a well-known local eccentric and railway enthusiast. A search of Pellegrini's workshop proves beyond question that he is involved in a series of uninvestigated deaths. While Pellegrini lingers on life support, Diamond wrestles with the appalling possibility that he has saved the life of a serial killer. . .
Summoned at night, Peter Diamond is collected from his West London flat by two policemen who drive him to bath, where once he headed the murder squad. Out of touch in his retirement, he knows nothing of an audacious escape from Albany Prison. Four years before, he investigated the bizarre murder of a Swedish woman journalist. Now the convicted murderer is at large. Worse, he has already kidnapped the Assistant Chief Constable's daughter. His demand? That the case be re-examined. He will deal only with Diamond. In reopening this matter, Diamond faces a challenge that makes huge demands on his patience, to work with the senior policemen he scorns, and courage, to deal with the violent man he sent down.
“Lovesey goes from strength to strength. A really entertaining extravaganza, judged to a nicety.” —The Times London, 1884: A series of bomb blasts in public places is causing mayhem throughout the city. Even Scotland Yard’s CID office becomes a target, throwing suspicion on Constable Thackeray. The primary suspects are Irish terrorists seeking independence, but could the villain be someone else? A beautiful Irish woman? An American athlete? Sergeant Cribb reluctantly enrolls in a bomb-making course and infiltrates the Dynamite Party. Based on the real events in London between 1884 - 1885, the story had its own resonance ninety years on.
The thirteenth book in the award-winning Peter Diamond series, from Peter Lovesey. Peter Diamond, head of Bath CID, takes a city break in Vienna, where his favourite film, The Third Man, was set, but everything goes wrong and his companion, Paloma, calls a halt to their relationship. Meanwhile, strange things are happening to jobbing musician Mel Farran, who finds himself scouted by methods closer to the spy world than the concert platform. The chance of joining a once-famous string quartet in a residency at Bath Spa University is too tempting for Mel to refuse. Then a body is found in the city canal, and the only clue to the dead woman's identity is the tattoo of a musical note on one of her teeth. For Diamond, who wouldn't know a Stradivarius from a French horn, the investigation is his most demanding ever. Three mysterious deaths need to be probed while his own personal life is in free fall... Peter Lovesey has been hailed by the critics as 'superlative', 'a master of the genre', 'never puts a foot wrong' and the Peter Diamond series as 'one of the most enjoyable police series around'. This new case for the greatly loved detective will bring new praise and much satisfaction for his legions of fans.
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