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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
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. First Edition. Advance Reading Copy (ARC). First Edition, First Printing with full number line. Signed, without inscription, by author on the FULL title page. New unread Fine book without dust jacket as issued. All our books are bubble wrapped and shipped in a sturdy box with Delivery Confirmation. NO remainder mark, NO previous owner markings or inscriptions, NOT price clipped, NOT a Book Club Edition, NOT an Ex-Lib. Signed. Seller Inventory # 016659
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New dust jacket. New York: Soho Press, 1999. INSCRIBED / SIGNED by the AUTHOR directly on the title page. New and unread in a New dust jacket. The jacket is near PERFECT with only a tiny bit of very mild shelfwear. No chips, tears or creases. NOT price clipped ($23.00). NOT a remainder. Pages are fresh and crisp -- obviously never read. Bound in the original gray boards, with a black spine lettered in shiny silver. Fifth mystery in the award-winning Peter Diamond series. From the dust jacket: "Bath is a town layered in history: Roman, Medieval, Georgian. Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is a bluff, old-fashioned policeman. When he is presented with a skeletal hand, dug up in the course of renovations taking place in the vault under the Pump Room, he assumes it is merely of archaeological interest. But when the bones prove to be modern, Diamond must dig further. Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN was written in Bath, in the house right next door to the Pump Room vault. Could that fact have a bearing on a modern murder. or murders?". INSCRIBED / SIGNED by the AUTHOR. Hardcover. New/New dust jacket. 331pp. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping. Seller Inventory # 005834
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