In the seventeenth installment in Peter Lovesey's timeless British detective series, Peter Diamond digs deep into Bath history to ferret out the secrets of one of its most famous (and scandalous) icons: Richard "Beau" Nash, who might have been the victim of a centuries-old murder. Bath, England: A wrecking crew is demolishing a row of townhouses in order to build a grocery store when they uncover a skeleton in one of the attics. The dead man is wearing authentic 1760s garb and on the floor next to it is a white tricorner hat—the ostentatious signature accessory of Beau Nash, one of Bath's most famous historical men-about-town, a fashion icon and incurable rake who, some say, ended up in a pauper's grave. Or did the Beau actually end up in a townhouse attic? The Beau Nash Society will be all in a tizzy when the truth is revealed to them. Chief Inspector Peter Diamond, who has been assigned to identify the remains, begins to fantasize about turning...

The Rosemary and Thyme series, to which this new Peter Lovesey story belongs, has been adapted for TV in the U.K., with Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris in the starring roles. In its first successful season, the show drew in seven million viewers with each episode. (It’s available in the U.S. on DVD.) Fans of Peter Lovesey’s other popular series, the Peter Diamond mysteries, won’t want to miss two new titles from Soho: The Circle and The Secret Hangman.

“Here’s another of those delightful Victorian mysteries, featuring Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of the Yard. This one deals with peculiar accidents in various music halls, mishaps of a kind that would ruin a performer’s career; and then there’s murder. . . . 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 Lovesey is the author of twenty-five highly praised mystery novels and has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Gold and Silver Daggers and the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England.

Skeletal remains are found in a cellar below Bath's Georgian tearooms. To Peter Diamond's delight they are not all of medaeival origin, a radius proves to be only twenty years old and bears the marks of a sharp weapon. While a police team painstakingly sift through the cellar looking for the rest of the body, Diamond is distracted by the search for a missing American tourist, the wife of an English Professor who has been behaving very oddly. What Diamond doesn't know is that the professor believes he is on the point of locating the diaries of Mary Shelley written whilst in Bath finishing the manuscript of FRANKENSTEIN. Suspecting the professor of disposing of his wife but unable to prove anything, Diamond concentrates on trying to identify whose remains have been found in the cellar, and by solid old-fashioned detection he does so with shocking result. But before he can begin to work out who might have been the killer, the owner of the city's largest 'antique' emporium is found brutally murdered and the last person known to have seen her alive is the Professor. With consummate skill, wit, erudition and ingenuity, Peter Lovesey has crafted a whodunnit of brilliant complexity and, finally, of total satisfaction.

"A treat....Lovesey's restraint, wit, and charming cast ensure him a place in the winners' circle."—Entertainment Weekly Van driver Bob Naylor, a jingle writer, joins the Chichester Writer’s Circle fearing that he will be shunned by literary snobs. Instead, he finds himself plunged into the midst of a circle of murder victims and murder suspects—including himself. The other members, enthusiastic but not necessarily talented, come from all walks of life and write all sorts of things: fantasy, household hints, even torrid romances, but there seems to be no common thread to tie the arson victims together. Inspector Henrietta Mallin, Peter Diamond’s partner from The House Sitter, is the investigator in charge of the case and with Bob’s help—and despite other would-be sleuths’ hindrance—she discovers the motive for the serial murders and the identifies the killer.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Inspector Henrietta "Hen" Mallin, an ingenious and acerbic sleuth who played a supporting role in Lovesey's Peter Diamond novel The House Sitter (2003), proves herself fully capable of carrying a story on her own when she takes over a serial murder case connected with the Chichester Writers' Circle, an eccentric amateur writers' group The chair of that group, an author hoping to make a splash with a work on unsolved mysteries, has already been arrested for the arson that killed an unscrupulous publisher who used a speaking invitation before the writers' group to lure his eager audience into a vanity publishing racket. But while the writer's incarcerated, a similar attempt is made on the life of an aspiring poet who's the group's newest member, followed by two more fatal fires. Lovesey's trademark dark humor and playfulness are very much in evidence, as he presents a crafty fair-play puzzle replete with quirky, three-dimensional characters. As with his classic Diamond novel, Bloodhounds, Lovesey employs the device of competing amateur detectives to good effect, increasing suspense and conveying valuable clues through their efforts. While there's every reason to believe Diamond has plenty of life left in him, traditional mystery fans will have no regrets if Lovesey's next few books continue to focus on Mallin. (June 7)From BooklistIn The House Sitter (2003), Inspector Diamond teamed up with Inspector Henrietta Mallin to solve a murder. Now it's Mallin who gets an assist from Diamond. A publisher of shaky repute has been murdered--incinerated in his own home. The chairman of a local writers' group is a prime suspect, but the other members of the group think he's innocent. They appoint the group's newcomer to spearhead their inquiries, and eventually (close to halfway through the book) Mallin applies her own unique gifts to the mystery. The pace may seem a tad languid for some readers, and it's certainly unusual for the star of a story to delay her appearance so long. But Lovesey's portrait of the Chichester Writers' Circle and its members is agreeable and amusing, and the mystery itself is engaging enough to keep us turning the pages. Mallin's potential as a series lead remains unrealized, but she's undeniably a strong and likable character. This isn't Lovesey's best novel, but when a writer is this accomplished, even a pedestrian offering is still pretty darn good. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Praise for the Sergeant Cribb Series: “Delightful Victorian mysteries. . . . [A] fine picture of vice, good mystery plotting, and fun.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Lively and well-plotted.”—The New York Times Beautiful Miriam Cromer seems confident that she will be acquitted of the murder of her husband’s assistant despite her confession. She blames her husband although he has an alibi. It’s up to Cribb and Thackeray to discover what really happened. Peter Lovesey is the author of over twenty-five novels. He has received many CWA Awards and the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Chichester, England.

Synopsis:“Here’s another of those delightful Victorian mysteries, featuring Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of the Yard. This one deals with peculiar accidents in various music halls, mishaps of a kind that would ruin a performer’s career; and then there’s murder. . . . Fine picture of period vice, good mystery plotting, and fun.”—San Francisco ChronicleA 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 Lovesey is the author of twenty-five highly praised mystery novels and has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Gold and Silver Daggers and the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England.Biography:Peter Lovesey is the author of 26 highly praised mystery novels and has been awarded the CWA Gold, Silver, and Diamond Daggers (for Lifetime Achievement) as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England.

In the sixteenth entry of Peter Lovesey's timeless police procedural series, Peter Diamond wrestles with his own moral compass, struggling to protect police prestige while debating what it means to do right by a serial killer. Two police officers are about to head home after a long night shift when they receive one last call. En route to investigate, the patrol car spins off the road, killing one of the exhausted cops and leaving the other in critical condition. Detective Peter Diamond is assigned to look into the case. His supervisor is desperately hoping Diamond will not discover the officers were at fault. Instead, Diamond discovers something even worse—a civilian on a motorized tricycle was involved in the crash and has been lying on the side of the road for hours. Diamond administers CPR, but the man's fate is unclear. Meanwhile, Diamond has become suspicious of the civilian victim and begins a private inquiry that leads to a trail of uninvestigated deaths....