Vault - Softcover

Lovesey, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751553638 ISBN 13: 9780751553635

Publisher: Sphere, 2014

Synopsis

When a severed hand from the vault of Bath Abbey Churchyard arrives on Peter Diamond's desk, he is delighted to hear that, far from being a medieval relic, it is from the 1980s. But the vault is part of the house where Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was written, and a fanatical American professor is thwarting their investigation. Events are complicated even further when the professor's wife goes missing . . . Highly suspicious of the professor, but unable to prove anything, Diamond concentrates on trying to identify the remains, with shocking result. But before he can get any further, the owner of Bath's largest antique emporium is brutally murdered - and the last person to see her alive was the Professor. With consummate skill, wit and ingenuity, Peter Lovesey has crafted a whodunnit of brilliant complexity.

About this title

Review:

Curmudgeonly Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond (The Last Detective, Bloodhounds, The Summons) is once again suffering fools (to which category he currently consigns Americans, antiques enthusiasts, and his immediate superiors) none too gladly. When a skeletal hand is found in the cellar of the abbey churchyard in Bath, Diamond is inclined to write the apparent crime off as the dusty wages of a long-forgotten sin. But then a skull turns up. And then Joe Dougan, mild-mannered American professor and avid literary tourist, unearths the startling fact that in the early 19th century that cellar belonged to the home Mary Shelley lived in as she was writing Frankenstein. Glorious fodder for the sensationally minded press and a monstrous headache for Diamond, who would prefer to cogitate upon the mystery in peace and quiet.

But it seems that the literary connection is as crucial as it is sensational. When Dougan's wife disappears and Peg Redbird, proprietress of the Noble and Nude antiques store, turns up dead after a heated conversation with the professor (in hot pursuit of Shelley's writing desk and sketchbook), Diamond has to wonder whether a thirst for knowledge also implies a thirst for blood. As Diamond immerses himself in Bath's cultural history, however, more and more suspects pop up, linking the long-dead bones in the cellar to Peg's very recent corpse. Author Peter Lovesey, with a nod and wink toward the conventions of traditional British mystery fiction, paints his characters with broad strokes: like the characters in a game of Clue, the suspects are easily labeled. Is it the spoiled heir who dunnit? What about the up-and-coming reporter? Or the cryptic puppeteer? Or (and this is really giving Diamond ulcers) the suave city councilor, who happens to be good friends with Diamond's boss? Lovesey tiptoes agilely just this side of caricature--and has a great deal of fun doing so.

Diamond himself is an enjoyable enough character, though his grouchiness seems to be missing some of the verve it had in earlier books. One might take issue with the novel's sense of pacing (at times funereal), and with Lovesey's narrative gimmick of switching occasionally to the murderer's perspective (too Gothic a trick for a relatively unexciting plot). These complaints, however, don't detract from an otherwise solid entry in the Superintendent Diamond series. --Kelly Flynn

About the Author:

Peter Lovesey was born in Middlesex and studied at Hampton Grammar School and Reading University, where he met his wife Jax. He won a competition with his first crime fiction novel, Wobble to Death, and has never looked back, with his numerous books winning and being shortlisted for nearly all the prizes in the international crime writing world. He was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and has been presented with Lifetime Achievement awards both in the UK and the US.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0751553638
• ISBN 13: 9780751553635
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320