Skeleton-in-Waiting: A Crime Novel (The Princess Louise Mysteries) - Softcover

Dickinson, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1497684420 ISBN 13: 9781497684423

Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller, 2015

Synopsis

A New York Times Notable Book: CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson revisits his alternate British monarchy, ensnaring the imagined royal family in a dark conspiracy of kidnapping, politics, scandal, and murder

Britain’s beloved Princess Louise is a grown woman now, married to commoner Piers Chandler and enchanted by their infant son, Davy. While visiting a certain Mrs. Walsh—a mysterious old woman claiming to be a royal relation, a Romanov who escaped the terror of the Russian Revolution—Louise and little Davy are nearly taken captive by would-be kidnappers. Through pluck and quick thinking, Her Royal Highness avoids the unthinkable, but Mrs. Walsh is killed in the melee, leaving her secrets unspoken and her mysteries unsolved.
 
Not easily daunted, the young princess turns to her husband for help in unraveling the tangled truth about the murdered Mrs. Walsh—a hunt that soon leads them to Tashkent, the teeming capital city of Uzbekistan, where they hope to find answers. But some doors to the past are opened only at gravest risk to life and limb—even for those of royal blood.
 
Bringing back many of the unforgettable characters from his acclaimed King and Joker, Dickinson’s Skeleton-in-Waiting is yet another majestic thriller from a true master mystery novelist, offering further proof that this author has few equals among crime fiction royalty.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Dickinson was born in Africa but raised and educated in England. From 1952 to 1969 he was on the editorial staff of Punch, and since then earned his living writing fiction of various kinds for children and adults. His books have been published in several languages throughout the world.
 
The author of twenty-one crime and mystery novels for adults, Dickinson was the first to win the Gold Dagger Award of the Crime Writers’ Association for two books running: The Glass-Sided Ants Nest (1968) and The Old English Peepshow (1969). Dickinson was shortlisted nine times for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for children’s literature and was the first author to win it twice.
 
Dickinson served as chairman of the Society of Authors and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2009 for services to literature. Peter Dickinson died on December 16, 2015, at the age of eighty-eight.
 
 

From Publishers Weekly:

The sequel to Dickinson's King and Joker brings readers back into the lives of his fictional but convincing British royal family during a crucial period: October 1987 through September 1988. The focus is on Princess Louise, her husband Piers Chandler and their infant son David. Subtly, the author hints at danger when the princess meets Mrs. Walsh, a woman claiming to be a Romanov who escaped during the Russian Revolution. At Walsh's apartment, Louise and baby David are trapped by kidnappers, and she comports herself admirably until rescue comes. But the mysterious Mrs. Walsh, and another Russian on the scene, are killed, leaving the princess determined to learn the secrets that died with them. Thus Louise accompanies Piers to Tashkent and finds out what Walsh had strived to conceal about her past. A superb stylist, the author evokes empathy for the ruling family, especially HRH and her commoner spouse--righteous, regal, and human as any real-life exponent of the arduous royal life.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1497684420
• ISBN 13: 9781497684423
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154