Peter Lovesey Books

"Detective Inspector Peter Diamond is caught up in the most difficult investigation of his career - the murder of his wife. Found in one of Bath's parks, she has been shot. Mad with grief, Diamond finds himself under suspicion and decides that a little independent action is called for."--publisher.

The concluding installment of the Peter Diamond series marks the end of an era for crime fiction fans. Esteemed author Peter Lovesey weaves a gripping narrative that promises to deliver the same intricate plotting and engaging characters that have defined the series. As readers follow Diamond's final investigation, they can expect a blend of suspense and emotional depth, solidifying Lovesey's legacy in the genre.

When convicted murderer John Mountjoy escapes prison, he heads straight for Bath, kidnaps the daughter of an Assistant Chief Constable and demands an audience with the policeman who originally arrested him--Peter Diamond--to proclaim his innocence. Now an unemployed, ex-policeman, Diamond agrees to meet with him for one reason--Mountjoy might actually be innocent.

Multi-award-winning author Peter Lovesey returns with a twisting tale that will delight fans of the series and draw in anyone who loves pitch-perfect traditional British crime fiction.

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. . .

Bertie (the future King Edward VII) has a princely appetite for tasty morsels of all kinds. With glorious food and glamorous women equally appealing, it's not surprising that he visits Paris every year, with a modest retinue of some 30 faithful servants. The year 1889, however, marks his most eventful trip. First, he is he introduced to the can-can - that deliciously vulgar new sensation in which he takes, of course, a purely scholarly interest. And second, a murder at a fashionable nightclub allows him to exercise his beloved sleuthing skills, poking the royal nose into showgirls' dressing rooms and all manner of backstage intrigues. With Sarah Bernhardt and Toulouse-Lautrec acting as a dual Dr. Watson, His Highness cannot fail to find a solution to the crime - though no bets as to whether it's the right one. Delightfully humorous . . . no one is more fun than Bertie - Associated Press Tongue-in-cheek satire and wry humor along with an intriguing, entertaining mystery - Booklist

A classic from the delightful Sergeant Cribb series, set in Victorian London

The twenty-first novel in the highly acclaimed Peter Diamond series sees the much loved detective investigating a TV production company plagued by 'misfortune'.

The Bloodhounds of Bath is a society that meets in a crypt to discuss crime novels. To their latest recruit they are simply a gaggle of dotty misfits, until one of them reveals that he is in possession of one of the world's most valuable stamps, recently stonlen from the Postal Museum. Then theft is overtaken by murder when the corpse of one of the Bloodhounds is found in a locked houseboat, with the only key in the possession of a man with a perfect alibi. Burly detective Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad in Bath, finds himself embroiled in a mystery that in more than one sense evokes the classic crime puzzles of John Dickson Carr.

Otis Joy is a very good vicar who has attracted record-breaking congregations and has the respect and admiration of his parishioners. But what the parishioners of the contented village of Foxford do not know is that their priest is a murderer.

The second 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, Prince of Wales, is delighted to be invited by Lady Amelia, a recently widowed young woman, to Desborough Hall for a week-long shooting party. The eleven other motley guests include a poet, a chaplain, and an Amazon explorer. The party promises a week of shooting, socializing, and feasting, but these expectations are soon shattered as one of the guests collapses face first into her dessert and dies before the night is out. At first, this death is believed to be an accident, and the party continues with their hunting plans for the week. But when another guest turns up dead the very next day, Bertie realizes that the deaths cannot be coincidence.

& 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.

Rosie Bell and Antonia Ashton were coworkers in the operations room of the 651 Squadron during World War II. Now the war is over, and the women have settled down to domestic life . . . unhappily. And it is headstrong and practical Antonia, who formulates the perfect scheme to eliminate both mates!

A Peter Diamond Mystery, also introducing Hen Mallin, from Peter Lovesey's award-winning series

The stunning whodunnit from the award-winning Peter Diamond series.

A reissue from the delighful Sergeant Cribb series, set in Victorian London

The 50th anniversary collector's edition of legendary British mystery author Peter Lovesey's debut, handsomely reissued in hardcover with an introduction from bestselling author Jeffery Deaver. London, 1879. Crowds have gathered at Islington's chilly Agricultural Hall to place their bets on who will become the next world champion in a six-day, 500-mile speedwalking race, the “wobble.” When one of the highly favored contenders dies under suspicious circumstances, Sergeant Cribb also has a race on his hands—to pursue a ruthless murderer. Fifty years ago, Wobble to Death launched the writing career of one of the world’s greatest crime fiction writers. Since its initial publication, Peter Lovesey has written forty novels and six short story collections, and has become one of three living writers to receive both the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and the Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement. There is no better place to dive into Lovesey's legendary oeuvre than with this sparkling debut.

The new Peter Diamond case has the eminent detective in pursuit of a murderer after a theft at an auction house goes wrong

A twisty collection of short stories from the master of classic crime fiction, Peter Lovesey, one of which stars his most popular creation, Peter Diamond

A reissue from the delighful Sergeant Cribb series, set in Victorian London

A reissue from the delighful Sergeant Cribb series, set in Victorian London

A Peter Diamond mystery from the master of crime fiction

Alice is too young to have known her father, for he was hanged for murder in 1945–and that was twenty years ago. He was an American serviceman stationed in Somerset when the skull was discovered in the cider barrel. And it was he who was found guilty of the crime. Now Alice has returned to find out what really happened. Searching out Theo, the man whose evidence had determined her father’s fate, Alice persuades him to revisit the farm where the murder took place. But the horrors of the past take on a frightening immediacy when another murder is committed...

A Peter Diamond case in which the Bath detective solves a perplexing case with an international reach

Murderous portents lie in the astral plane, and deadly reckonings wreak havoc in the human heart in this collection of sixteen original stories by such masterly mystery writers as Lawrence Block, Peter Lovesey, Peter Tremayne, Jon L. Breen, Edward Marston, Bill Crider, Simon Brett, and the internationally acclaimed Anne Perry.

"A Peter Diamond investigation." "First published in England in 1991"--T.p. verso. Includes sneak preview of author's Stagestruck.

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.

"Through a particularly tragic 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 brutal some of the other runners are. As race day draws closer, an undocumented Albanian man named Spiro makes a run for freedom on the other side of town, escaping the chain gang that has held him hostage and its murderous foreman, who is known to his charges as The Finisher. The Finisher has killed for disobedience before, and Spiro knows there's a target on his back as he tries to lose himself in the genteel medieval city of Bath. 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-disappeared without a trace. Was Diamond a spectator to the prelude to a murder?"-- Provided by publisher

The twentieth in the much-praised Peter Diamond series, Diamond and the Eye sets the Detective Superintendent against an interfering private eye

“The chase, which includes a friendly Sumo wrestler and adventures in Japan, is a pleasure to follow, and Lovesey makes the relationship between tough cop and troubled child wholly beguiling.”—Los Angeles Times Fired from the police force for insubordination, Peter Diamond is reduced to working as a security guard at Harrod’s. Turns out he can’t even hold that job—he gets fired after finding an abandoned Japanese girl in the store after closing. “Naomi,” as he calls her, exhibits strong signs of autism, and he devotes himself to communicating with her in order to glean her identity and return her to her rightful home. Weeks later, a Japanese woman appears out of the blue to claim the little girl, and it appears as though Diamond’s job is done. If only that were true. Armed only with only Naomi’s drawings as clues, Diamond races to track down her kidnappers and save her life.

In this installment of the Peter Diamond series, the detective delves into the mysterious troubles surrounding a TV production company, where a string of 'misfortunes' raises suspicions. As he navigates the world of entertainment, Diamond must unravel the truth behind the incidents, blending his investigative skills with the complexities of the industry. This novel promises a mix of intrigue and character-driven storytelling, characteristic of the series.

A gripping new standalone novel from a consistently excellent crime author.

From the author of the highly popular Peter Diamond series comes this thrilling tale of mystery, mayhem and murder most foul.

Peter Diamond investigates a mystery of the past in the latest case for the brilliant Bath detective

As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline. The problem is that she's the daughter of notorious crime baron, Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. And Ben's father George is Bath's Deputy Chief Constable. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are set in place 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?

Set in Victorian London, the story features the beloved Sergeant Cribb as he navigates a gripping and explosive plot. The narrative combines elements of mystery and historical intrigue, showcasing the vibrant atmosphere of the era while delving into complex characters and engaging twists. Readers can expect a captivating blend of crime-solving and period detail that highlights the challenges and societal norms of the time.

Peter Diamond's tenth case is a perfect piece of superbly entertaining crime fiction from a master of the genre.

It is 1886 and the greatest of all jockeys, Fed Archer, has put his gun to his head and shot himself. An inquest is arranged with indecent haste. His mind was unhinged by typhoid, say the jury, despite conflicting evidence. The Prince is suspicious. He admired Archer. He knows the Turf better than anyone on that jury and he has personal experience of typhoid. When he learns that Archer’s last words were, “Are they coming?” he decides on action. He will turn his unique talents to solving the mystery and tell us in his inimitable fashion how he does it.

The spiritualist movement has captivated a segment of society: manifestations, the occult, and “sensitives” are in vogue. But the séance sites seem to be targeted for burglaries. Then, while Cribb is on the case, someone murders the medium. There was a great vogue for table-turning and getting in touch with the dead in Victorian times and this lent itself to fraud, at the very least. It seemed inevitable that Cribb and Thackeray should take part in a séance at some stage. They come to it indirectly, following an art theft. The owner, Dr Probert, has also been dabbling in the occult. When murder is done, the two detectives find themselves rubbing shoulder with some eccentric suspects, and a rather convincing medium.

“This entertaining period mystery, set in Victorian England, is lively, lurid, amusing.”— Publishers Weekly “These are humorous novels and the humour is character-based . . . mixed with the absurdities of the English class-system. . . . Cribb was the first of the new-wave Victorian crime-fighters and is arguably still the best.”— Sherlock Holmes Magazine The second Sergeant Cribb mystery is set in the world of Victorian bare-fisted pugilism—an illegal sport. Constable Jago is sent, undercover, to Radstock Hall by Sergeant Cribb, who suspects that when fighters who train there lose, they are murdered.

In the small hours of a Sunday morning in the city of Bath a policeman on beat duty is shot dead by an unseen gunman, the third killing of an officer in Somerset in a matter of weeks. The emergency services are summoned. Ambitious to arrest the Somerset Sniper, the duty inspector, Ken Lockton, seals the crime scene, which is confined by the river on one side and a massive retaining wall on the other. He discovers the murder weapon in a garden and is himself attacked and left for dead. Enter Peter Diamond, Bath's burly CID chief. Middle-aged and not built for action, he pits himself and his team against the killer in a hunt that will test his physical powers to the limit.

A fiendishly clever Hen Mallin mystery, from the award-winning Peter Lovesey

Eighteen delightful holiday short stories by some of your favorite Soho Crime authors! This captivating collection—which features bestselling, and award-winning authors—contains laughs aplenty, the most hardboiled of holiday noir, and heartwarming reminders of the spirit of the season. Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Niccolò Machiavelli sets out to save an Italian city. Sherlock Holmes’s one-time nemesis Irene Adler finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. And other adventures that will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe, from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat to the streets of Thailand.

Butchers And Other Stories Of Crime 16 stories: Butchers * Vandals * The Corder Figure * Private Gorman’s Luck * The Secret Lover * Did You Tell Daddy? * The Bathroom * Arabella’s Answer * How Mr Smith Traced His Ancestors * Fall-Out * Belly Dance * Trace of Spice * The Virgin and the Bull * The Staring Man * Woman and Home * The Locked Room

A collection of eighteen mystery stories.

Fischer-Crime-Classic des Monats "Mord auf hoher See: Wenn ein Zahnarzt auf Spurensuche geht". Krimi-couch Im Jahre 1921 führt eine leidenschaftliche Affäre einen Londoner Zahnarzt und seine Geliebte an Bord der ›Mauretania‹, die in die Staaten ausläuft. An Bord gibt er sich als ‚Mr. Dew’ aus, als falschen Inspektor, der seinerzeit den berüchtigten Dr. Crippen verhaftete. Als an Bord ein Mord geschieht, soll ‚Inspektor Dew’ den Fall rasch aufklären.

Man schreibt das Jahr 1879. Ein skrupelloser Veranstalter setzt eine Prämie von fünfhundert Pfund für den Sieger im Sechs-Tage-Wettgehen in Islington aus. Aber er schickt keine durchtrainierten Sportler an den Start, sondern traurige, ausgemergelte Typen - außer dem Champion und dessen Herausforderer. Runde um Runde müssen sie in der von Gaslicht schwach erleuchteten Halle drehen - bis der Champion plötzlich tot zusammenbricht... Und während die Polizei fieberhaft nach dem Mörder sucht, schließen die Zuschauer immer höhere Wetten auf den eventuellen Sieger ab. Denn eines ist sicher: Der Mörder wird ein zweites Mal zuschlagen. Mit diesem Erstlingroman gewann Peter Lovesey der ersten Preis für den besten Kriminalroman im großen Macmillan-Wettbewerb.

In den Varietés des viktorianischen London passieren merkwürdige Dinge: Bellotti, der auf rollenden Fässern tanzt, hat einen geheimnisvollen Unfall; die Pinkus-Schwestern fallen vom Trapez; Albert, der "starke Mann", wird von seinem Hund, mit dem er auftritt, plötzlich gebissen ... Was steckt hinter diesen merkwürdigen Unfällen, die für alle Artisten das Ende ihrer Karriere bedeuten? Ein Fall für Cribb und Thackeray von Scotland Yard, denen bei ihren Nachforschungen im Künstlermilieu oft Hören und Sehen vergeht!

Geschäfte in Baku/Mitten im Leben/Ein Sommer mit Wölfen/Abschied auf Englisch - bk425; Verlag "Das Beste"; Alexander Nemow/Nancy Rossi/Farley Mowat/Peter Lovesey; Paperback; 1985

Im Jahr 1921 begibt sich ein Londoner Zahnarzt, der sich als falscher Inspektor ausgibt, auf die Mauretania. Während einer Affäre wird er mit einem Mordfall konfrontiert und muss diesen schnell aufklären.

Jansonův rozsudek - Robert Ludlum / Winter's end - John Rickards / Nádraží Waterloo - Emily Grayson / Námořník - Peter Lovesey

Tři detektivní příběhy zasazené dobově do pozdně viktoriánské doby a využívající charakteristického dobového koloritu a společenských vztahů: 1. Tři muži ve člunu (o mrtvole nemluvě); 2. Detektiv v lamé šortkách; 3. Voskové figuríny. Doslov překladatele Miroslava Jindry „O podivných třech mužích ve člunu, ilegálních pěstních zápasech, krásné travičce a samolibém katovi, ale vlastně o něčem zcela jiném“.

Kalifornská vyšetřovatelka Kathryn Danceová, specialistka na psychologii zločinců, byla po profesní chybě přeřazena na nižší pozici a nyní se účastní rutinního vyšetřování požáru v oblíbeném country podniku Zapadákov, kde uhořelo několik lidí. Jako expertka na řeč těla rychle zjistí, že to nebyl obyčejný požár. Šestadvacetiletá Nora, žijící v Londýně a píšící detektivky, dostane nečekané pozvání na předsvatební rozlučku své bývalé přítelkyně Clare, se kterou se deset let neviděla. Spolu s dalšími přáteli se ocitá v podivném domě uprostřed lesů, kde od první chvíle lituje, že pozvání přijala. Po těžkém zranění skončí v nemocnici a snaží se vzpomenout, co se o víkendu stalo. Zloděj aut Danny Stapleton se dostane do problémů poté, co v kufru ukradeného BMW objeví podivný nález. V nedalekém Chichesteru zmizela učitelka, ale brzy byla nalezena její náhrada, Tom Standforth, který okouzluje dívky. Inspektor Peter Diamond se snaží spojit tyto dvě události. Veřejné obhájkyni Sally Baynardové je přidělen případ, který soudí její bývalý manžel, a má zastupovat psa jménem Sherman, který se ocitl uprostřed rozvodového sporu. Sally se však potýká s množstvím případů, péčí o stárnoucí matku a otázkami ohledně vlastního osobního života.

Zátišie: Casey Marshallovú zrazí auto, vinník z miesta činu ujde a Casey skončí v hlbokom bezvedomí v nemocnici... Pytliakov syn: Mladý správca lesa Mike Bowditch sa dozvedá, že jeho otec - alkoholik bol obvinený z vraždy a je na úteku... Dieťa šťasteny: Bez jasných plánov do budúcnosti sa Maeve rozhodne nasadnúť do svojho veterána a vyraziť naprieč Spojenými štátmi na juh. Auto jej však v polovici cesty vypovie službu... Smrtonosný vrch: Šéfa kriminálky Petra Diamonda čaká neľahké vyšetrovane dvoch prípadov. Na malebnom vŕšku nájdu v zemi ľudskú kosť a potom aj celú kostru - bez hlavy.

1. V Los Angeles Times nastali ťažké časy, redakcia musí prepúšťať a medzi prvými je skúsený redaktor krimirubriky Jack McEvoy. Pred odchodom sa rozhodne napísať článok, ktorý by mohol zmeniť novinársky svet. Vyberá si však riskantnú tému: vraždu belošky v černošskej štvrti. Jack netuší, že zločin, ktorý skúma, je oveľa závažnejší než obyčajná vražda narkomanky a jeho život je v ohrození. 2. Evie Flynnová, tridsaťdvaročná žena bez jasného životného cieľa, sa cíti ako postrach rodiny. Jej nudný život sa zmení po tragickej smrti obľúbenej tety, ktorá jej zanechala kaviareň na pláži v malebnom Cornwalli. Evie sa musí rozhodnúť, ako s touto nečakanou dedičstvom naloží. 3. Na Kráľovskom divadle v Bathu sa diváci ocitnú v napätí, keď hlavná predstaviteľka, bývalá popová hviezda Clarion Calhounová, zrazu odmieta vystúpiť. Po jej zvláštnom správaní a nejasnom úmrtí kostymérky je povolaný detektív Peter Diamond, ktorý sa, aj keď nemá rád divadlo, musí ujať vyšetrovania. 4. Elsa Murphyová, pochádzajúca z nešťastnej rodiny, sníva o tom, že sa stane zdravotnou sestrou a pomôže tým, ktorí sú na tom ešte horšie. Po rokoch sa ocitá v afganskej dedine, kde čelí nebezpečenstvu a stretáva silné miestne ženy, s ktorými uzatvára hlboké priateľstvo.