Review: MOTIVES FOR MURDER, Martin Edwards (edit)

• this edition published by Sphere 2016
• ISBN 978-0-7515-6615-4
• edited by Martin Edwards
• 375 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

Members of London's famed Detection Club have joined together to honor Peter Lovesey, winner multiple times of the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger, and Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.

He has also won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best Novel, as well as Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He is the creator of Victorian sleuths Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray, Inspector Peter Diamond, and the almost true-to-life Bertie Prince of Wales.

The Detection Club was founded in 1930 by Anthony Berkeley. Its first Honorary President was G.K. Chesterton, to be succeeded by such luminaries as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Julian Symons, and H. R. F. Keating. The current President, Martin Edwards, has edited this collection of new stories. Motives for Murder contains new stories to honor Peter Lovesey by some of the greatest names in current crime writing.


My Take

With an introduction by Martin Edwards who edited this collection, a foreword by Len Deighton, a final response by Peter Lovesey himself  this is a lovely collection of specially written short stories honoring Peter's 80th birthday.

Like so many of the contributors I remember reading Peter's debut novel WOBBLE TO DEATH, and have followed his writing over the years, both in his various series, and his stand alone novels.

Reviewed on this blog are
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE
4.5, THE HEADHUNTERS
4.8, THE TOOTH TATTOO
4.7, DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN
4.7, THE STONE WIFE
4.5, ANOTHER ONE GOES TONIGHT 
and I read a great many before that.

Many of the contributors paid homage by setting their story in one of the settings that Peter has used.

If, like me, you like crime fiction short stories, you'll enjoy this collection.


My rating: 4.5

Review: ANOTHER ONE GOES TONIGHT, Peter Lovesey - audio book

• from Audible
• Narrated by: Peter Wickham
• Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins 
• • Series: Peter Diamond, Book 16
• Unabridged Audiobook

 Synopis (Audible)

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....

My Take

Another intriguing read from a master story teller.

Peter Diamond is delegated to assist a Professional Standards team after a police car is involved in a serious accident just at the end of its shift. The station has received a call about a naked man and the squad car is on its way to investigate when the driver swerves to avoid hitting an object. It rolls, the young driver is killed, and his passenger seriously wounded. There are many other things that Diamond would rather be doing than investigating colleagues.

However near the scene he discovers an elderly man, also seriously injured, presumably hit by the police car, and he begins to take a personal interest. But what was he doing out at that hour of the morning? The more Diamond and his team investigate, the more intriguing it becomes, especially after they work out that a number of elderly people have met untimely ends, albeit from supposedly natural causes.

The narration by Peter Wickham is particularly adept, with good distinguishing between characters.

I've been following this prolific British crime fiction author since 1972 when I was hooked by his debut novel WOBBLE TO DEATH. Check him out on Wikipedia.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE
4.5, THE HEADHUNTERS
4.8, THE TOOTH TATTOO
4.7, DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN
4.7, THE STONE WIFE


 

Review: THE STONE WIFE, Peter Lovesey

• This edition published in 2014 by Soho Press
• ISBN 978-1-61695-393-5
• 358 pages
• source: my local library
• #14 in the Peter Diamond series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

At an auction house in Bath, England, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale. At the height of what turns into very competitive bidding, there is a holdup attempt by three masked raiders who are trying to steal the stone. They shoot and kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the female figure carved in the stone as the Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The masked would-be thieves flee, leaving the stone behind.

Peter Diamond and his team are assigned to investigate, and the stone is moved into Diamond's office so he can research its origins. The carving causes such difficulties that he starts to think it has jinxed him. Meanwhile, as Diamond's leads take him to Chaucer's house in Somerset, his intrepid colleague Ingeborg goes undercover to try to track down the source of the handgun used in the fatal murder.

My take

Another good read from Peter Lovesey with a sprinkling of humour.

When a would-be buyer of a massive stone carving thought to be of the Wife of Bath is shot dead in the middle of the auction, Peter Diamond becomes the temporary custodian of the carving. She squats on her "ambler" in the corner of his office, and occasionally he finds himself talking to her.

The investigation into the murder takes Diamond and his team into some very strange territory indeed. The victim is an English professor, not particularly well-liked by his students or colleagues. There is no shortage of possible suspects: the victim's wife former husband is an extremely wealthy property developer; then there is an ambitious academic who would never become professor while the victim was alive; and what about the "fixer" who supplied the gun? 

I really like the way Lovesey can create an interesting plot with lots of red herrings from almost nothing.

Looking for cracking British crime fiction? Then try Peter Lovesey.

My rating : 4.7


I've also read
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE
4.5, THE HEADHUNTERS
4.8, THE TOOTH TATTOO
4.7, DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN

Review: DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN, Peter Lovesey

• first published in Great Britain in 2015 by Sphere
• ISBN 978-0-7515-5887-6
• 377 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

A nightmare discovery in the boot of a stolen BMW plunges car thief Danny Stapleton into the worst trouble of his life. What links his misfortune to the mysterious disappearance of an art teacher at a private school for girls in Chichester?

Orders from above push Peter Diamond of Bath CID into investigating a police corruption case in the Chichester force, and he soon finds himself reluctantly dealing with spirited schoolgirls, eccentric artists and his formidable old colleague, Hen Mallin.

My Take

Peter Diamond's boss Georgina Dallymore has been asked by colleague Archie Hahn to investigate corruption charges against one of his DCIs. Hen Mallin has already been suspended and Hahn wants to know what he should do next. He is expecting Dallymore to really rubber stamp his decision at the same time as making what appears to be an impartial investigation.

Georgina takes Peter Diamond to Chichester with her to assist in the investigation. She really likes the sound of Dallymore & Diamond, detectives, but she lives in false hope if she thinks she can control Peter Diamond. What she doesn't realise is how he manipulates her.  Instead of focussing on Mallin's lapse Peter tries to work out how the body came to be in the boot of the BMW and that leads him to the real cause of why Hen Mallin has been suspended.

There are lots of tongue-in-cheek moments in this novel which made it a delight to read. Even the title is tarred with an ironic brush.

And I see there is another Peter Diamond title to look for this year.

My rating: 4.7


I've also read
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE
4.5, THE HEADHUNTERS
4.8, THE TOOTH TATTOO

The Peter Diamond series (Fantastic Fiction)
1. The Last Detective (1991)
2. Diamond Solitaire (1992)
3. The Summons (1995)
4. Bloodhounds (1996)
5. Upon A Dark Night (1997)
6. The Vault (1999)
7. Diamond Dust (2002)
8. The House Sitter (2003)
9. The Secret Hangman (2007)
10. Skeleton Hill (2009)
11. Stagestruck (2011)
12. Cop to Corpse (2012)
13. The Tooth Tattoo (2013)
14. The Stone Wife (2014)
15. Down Among the Dead Men (2015)
16. Another One Goes Tonight (2016)
 
Inspector Hen Mallin Investigation
1. The Circle (2005)
2. The Headhunters (2008) 

Review: THE TOOTH TATTOO, Peter Lovesey

• this edition published by Sphere Great Britain 2013
• ISBN 978-0-7515-5061-0
• 389 pages
• #13 in the Peter Diamond series

Synopsis (author's website)

Peter Diamond, head of Bath’s CID, takes a city break in Vienna, where his favourite film, The Third Man, was set, but everything goes wrong and his companion Paloma calls a halt to their relationship.

Meanwhile, strange things are happening to jobbing musician Mel Farran, who finds himself scouted by methods closer to the spy world than the concert platform. The chance of joining a once-famous string quartet in a residency at Bath Spa University is too tempting for Mel to refuse.

Then a body is found in the city canal, and the only clue to the dead woman’s identity is the tattoo of a music note on one of her teeth. For Diamond, who wouldn’t know a Stradivarius from a French horn, the investigation is his most demanding ever. Three mysterious deaths need to be probed while his own personal life is in free fall.

My Take

The promo on the book cover has Sara Paretsky saying "I'm jealous of everyone discovering Lovesey and Diamond for the first time". I couldn't agree more.

I looked forward to THE TOOTH TATTOO with great expectation and it didn't disappoint me.

While the Peter Diamond series are basically British police procedurals, Lovesey uses them to explore and develop relationships, both Diamond's personal ones and those that result from his team management techniques. In addition Lovesey is a dab hand at pulling seemingly disparate plot lines together. In the beginning you find yourself wondering what these separate parts of the story can have to do with each other, and then light begins to dawn. Peter Lovesey, whom I have been following for 40 years now, has an easy to read style that keeps bringing me back for more.

My rating: 4.8

I have also reviewed
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE
4.5, THE HEADHUNTERS

The Peter Diamond series (Fantastic Fiction)
1. The Last Detective (1991)
2. Diamond Solitaire (1992)
3. The Summons (1995)
4. Bloodhounds (1996)
5. Upon A Dark Night (1997)
6. The Vault (1999)
7. Diamond Dust (2002)
8. The House Sitter (2003)
9. The Secret Hangman (2007)
10. Skeleton Hill (2009)
11. Stagestruck (2011)
12. Cop to Corpse (2012)
13. The Tooth Tattoo (2013)
14. The Stone Wife (2014)

Review: THE HEADHUNTERS, Peter Lovesey

• published 2008 by Soho Press
• ISBN 978-1-56947-490-7
• 324 pages
• #2 in the Hen Mallin series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Gemma loathes her sleazy boss; Jo is her confidante. On a double date with Rick and Jake, they discuss forming a mutual murder society, in jest of course. The next day, Jo, walking on Selsey Beach, discovers the corpse of a drowned woman, a stranger. But one of the men in the lineup at the police station is Gemma's date Jake, who Jo rather fancies.

Then Gemma and Jo discover the corpse of Fiona, Gemma's annoying colleague from work. And Gemma's boss is missing. When an older woman whom Rick was involved with is drowned in her pool, the police begin to close in.

Can this outbreak of deaths by drowning be coincidental? Or has the joke gone too far?

My Take

Although the Hen Mallin series (of which there are only 2 titles so far - the other is THE CIRCLE - see the mini review below) is a police procedural, as an investigator Hen is very different to Peter Diamond. (see my recent review of COP TO CORPSE )

Hen is very conscious of her male superiors just waiting for her to make a slip, constantly threatening that if a case is too much for her it could be handed on. Hen does act on impulse sometimes - in THE HEADHUNTERS she orders out the local divisional helicopter but luckily for her the move pays off.

In THE HEADHUNTERS Lovesey plays with the unreliable narrator. We learn of events from several points of view but it is difficult to pick which one is not to be trusted. In fact there seem to be several candidates. There are also some really good red herrings.

So another good story from Peter Lovesey.

My rating: 4.5

Mini-review of THE CIRCLE which I rated at 5.0

Encouraged by his fourteen-year-old-daughter who recognises his lonely widowhood, Bob Naylor decides to join a writers' circle, believing he might gain some expert help with the poetry which keeps spilling out of his imagination. He discovers a motley collection of wannabe authors who he doubts he has anything in common with, but just as he is deciding not to formally join the group he learns that a publisher who addressed their last meeting has been killed and he stays to see what might develop.

The Senior Investigating Officer, Henrietta Mallin, soon has all the members of the group under suspicion and, under pressure from her superiors, arrests their Chairman. Bob, the only writer who had not met the victim, is persuaded by other members of the group to do some investigating of his own. And that is when the trouble really starts, because another death turns the spotlight of suspicion on to him.

Other Peter Lovesey titles reviewed on MiP
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE

Review: COP TO CORPSE, Peter Lovesey

• Published by Sphere in 2012
• ISBN 978-1-84744-571-1
• 362 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author site)

Hero to zero. 

Cop to Corpse.

One minute PC Harry Tasker is strolling up Walcot Street, Bath, on foot patrol. The next he is shot through the head. No scream, no struggle, no last words. He is picked off, felled, dead. 

Bath detective Peter Diamond takes on the most dangerous assignment of his career when he goes in search of the Somerset Sniper, a killer who is targeting policemen in West Country towns. After a constable from Diamond’s own police station is murdered in the small hours of a Sunday morning a desperate hunt follows. Action, menace and courage in the face of extreme danger are the driving forces of this story laced with the surprises that always lie in wait in a Lovesey novel.

My Take

When Peter Diamond says he suspects the Somerset Sniper is actually one of their own, his investigating team all but turn against him. When he asks them to check duty rosters for coincidences, his lieutenant refuses and Peter ends up doing it himself.

For Peter it is a pretty eventful case: he gets shot at; mown down by a motor bike; and attacked by someone who should be on his side. But nothing stops him, and despite his injuries, and the fact that his team thinks he's on the  wrong track, his mind keeps working. He proves yet again why he is at the top of his game: he sees connections no-one else does, but he isn't always right.

Another very readable tale. I think Peter Lovesey is incapable of writing a bad one, particularly if you delight in police procedurals like his.

And look, if you haven't read a Lovesey before, start with this one. It'll get you hooked! And then there are 10 earlier ones in the Peter Diamond series that you can try.


My rating: 5.0

Other reviews to check

• The Neff Review: she got hooked
• Crime Space: off to read earlier ones
• Martin Edwards: smooth readability 

Other reviews of Lovesey titles on MiP

MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK

Review: STAGESTRUCK, Peter Lovesey

• published in Great Britain by Soho Press 2011
• ISBN 978-1-84744-444-8
• 327 pages
• Source: library book

Publisher's Blurb (from author's site)

A Peter Diamond Mystery
Clarion Calhoun is a fading pop star wanting to launch an acting career. The audiences at her debut at Bath’s Theatre Royal are expecting a dramatic evening, but what they get is beyond their wildest imagination. When Clarion is rushed to hospital with third-degree burns, rumours spread through the theatrical community and beyond. In the best theatrical tradition, the show goes on, but the agony turns to murder.
The case falls to Peter Diamond, Bath’s top detective, but for reasons he can’t understand, he suffers a physical reaction amounting to phobia each time he goes near the theatre. As he tries to find its root in his past, the tension at the Theatre Royal mounts, legends come to life and the killer strikes again.

My Take

Peter Lovesey is a much loved author and STAGESTRUCK came up to expectations.
As always there's much more seething just under the surface than the initial scenario and STAGESTRUCK is a cautionary tale for artistic impresarios who decide they want to change horses.

In #11 in the Peter Diamond series, the head of Bath's CID is still at the mercy of Georgina Dallymore, the assistant chief constable, who has recently joined BLOGS (the Bath Light Operatic Group) and has a personal interest in anything related to the Theatre Royal. She foists Sergeant Horatio Dawkins, dance tutor to BLOGS, on to the CID team much to Diamond's dismay. But Dawkins has hidden talents.

STAGESTRUCK will particularly appeal to those who have attended performances in the Theatre Royal, exploring back stage workings, and theatre hoodoos such as the grey ghost and dead butterflies. But wound through it all is a cleverly and tightly written plot, two deaths, and a range of believable characters. And throughout, Peter Diamond is trying to discover what event in his past gave him an aversion to theatres.

Lovely reading.

My rating: 5.0

Other reviews of Lovesey titles on MiP
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER 

See a full list of Peter Lovesey's books

Check Peter's awards

Review: SKELETON HILL, Peter Lovesey

Sphere, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84744-333-5, 326 pages

Celebrating and re-enacting a battle that took place on Landsdown Hill during the English Civil War over three hundred and fifty years earlier, two of the Royalist dead share a beer and discover a bone they think is probably human. At the end of the day one will get home safely and the other, a university history lecturer, will disappear.

His disappearance is reported to Bath CID. The bone discovered during the battle is re-discovered by three rescue dogs, and is found to belong to a headless corpse. Forensics tells Peter Diamond, Head of Bath CID, that not only are the bones not old, but the skeleton is female, murdered and buried within the last two decades.

Within days there are reports of a vagrant trying to break into cars at the Bath racecourse. A few days later he comes to police attention again when he tries to steal food at a market. And then he too is found dead.

SKELETON HILL is a fascinating insight into how evidence can be built up.
There were so many things I enjoyed about this book, it is hard to know where to start. The story is quite plausible. I've always liked the idea of battlefield re-enactments, and the opportunities they provide for crime cover-up are legion.
SKELETON HILL is #10 in the Peter Diamond series,and once again Peter Diamond comes over as very human, very real. He is not above getting his hands dirty. In fact his boss doesn't think he delegates enough. I enjoyed the glimpses of the inter-relationships with his team. He is a good leader and an intuitive detective. In the long run the case is solved through a combination of sheer grunt, meticulous investigation, and lateral thinking.

My rating 5.0

Other reviews to check:

• Books to the Ceiling: "everything a mystery should be"
• Do You Write Under Your own Name: "Reading a novel by Peter Lovesey is rather like settling down to watch a favourite tv show or film, in good company and with a bottle of wine and box of chocolates within easy reach. You just know you are going to have a good time."

In Best Reads for 2009 that I am collecting, 4 contributors have listed SKELETON HILL among their top 10.

Usually Around the Mark #5

If you follow this regular feature on my blog you will notice I've changed the tag line. The general idea behind it is that even the best authors, or your favourite ones, don't always achieve the same rating with the reader. I'm not sure that the new label conveys that either, but maybe it is getting closer. What do you think?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that these are authors that I will read even if the occasional offering doesn't hit the dizzy heights of excellence. They nearly always have something to offer.
The other element in my thinking is that sometimes the "difference" is in the reader. We don't always bring the same mindset to our reading, and so a book will not always please, even when by a favourite author.
And of course there is the difference between readers. My wine can taste like vinegar to you and vice versa.

My general benchmarks are

5.0 Excellent
4.0 Very Good
3.0 Average
2.0 Poor
1.0 Did Not Like
0 Did Not Finish

In this post I'm considering an author I have been reading since I read his debut novel WOBBLE TO DEATH in 1970: Peter Lovesey.
I have not read all of his novels, and completed an older one just last week, but Peter Lovesey is one of those authors I always find a reliable read, even if I my rating range from 4 to 5.
You'll find lots of references to Lovesey in this blog. In fact I identified him as one of my favourite authors in one of my very first posts.

Titles from my database in rating order.

• THE SUMMONS (1995), my rating 5
• THE VAULT (1999), my rating 5
• THE HOUSE SITTER (2003), my rating 5
• THE CIRCLE (2005), my rating 5
• THE SECRET HANGMAN (2007), my rating 5
• MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY (1973), my rating 4.4
• THE REAPER (2000), my rating 4.2

The Sergeant Cribb series consists of 8 titles published 1970- 1978
1. Wobble to Death (1970)
2. The Detective Wore Silk Drawers (1971)
3. Abracadaver (1972)
4. Mad Hatter's Holiday (1973)
5. The Tick of Death (1974) aka Invitation to A Dynamite Party
6. A Case of Spirits (1975)
7. Swing, Swing Together (1976)
8. Waxwork (1978)

The Peter Diamond series appeared from 1991- 2009, 10 titles to look for
1. The Last Detective (1991)
2. Diamond Solitaire (1992)
3. The Summons (1995)
4. Bloodhounds (1996)
5. Upon A Dark Night (1997)
6. The Vault (1999)
7. Diamond Dust (2002)
8. The House Sitter (2003)
9. The Secret Hangman (2007)
10. Skeleton Hill (2009)

In 2005 he introduced Inspector Hen Mallin and to date there are just 2 titles.
1. The Circle (2005)
2. The Headhunters (2008)

And then there are 10 stand-alone titles

• Goldengirl (1977) (writing as Peter Lear)
• Spider Girl (1980) (writing as Peter Lear)
• The False Inspector Dew (1982)
• Keystone (1984)
• Rough Cider (1986)
• The Secret Of Spandau (1986) (writing as Peter Lear)
• On the Edge (1989)
• The Reaper(2000)
• In Suspense (2001)
• Dead Gorgeous (2002)

Peter Lovesey has been short-listed for a number of awards:

• Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1988) : Rough Cider
• Anthony Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : The Last Detective
• Dagger Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : The Summons
• Dagger Awards Best Novel nominee (1996) : Bloodhounds
• Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1996) : The Summons

and won 2:

• Macavity Awards Best Novel winner (1997) : Bloodhounds
• Macavity Awards Best Novel winner (2004) : The House Sitter

Check Lovesey's own site.

Review: MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY by Peter Lovesey

Large Print edition, Chivers Press, 1973, ISBN 0-740-4593-5, 259 pages.
A Sergeant Cribb mystery.

Like many of Peter Lovesey's other books, MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY doesn't seem to get around to the crime fiction bit until about half way through.
This tale is set in 1882 England and the beginning of summer. Albert Moscrop goes to Brighton for a seaside holiday, taking with him his latest acquisitions, a couple of telescopes. Albert is a bit of a voyeur and likes to watch people, and Brighton with its promenading tourist population is the perfect place. Albert arrives at the beginning of the "real season", the accommodation prices have risen, and a better class of tourist has arrived. Albert discovers the attractive face of Zena Prothero, and decides to find out more about her. He follows her, her son, and then contrives to meet her husband. Still no crime. And then Zena seems to disappear. Albert feels compelled to go to the police.

At the same time a severed hand is discovered in the Alligator cavern at the Aquarium on the Brighton promenade pier. The Brighton police feel that this is an investigation outside their capability, and send for London expertise in the form of Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackery from the Criminal Investigation Department. And so the two strands of the novel converge.

There were a couple of elements of this novel that I did a little research for. One was the surname Moscrop. I wondered abut the origins of the name and found that it is actually a Scottish surname of quite long standing, with possible Norse origins. If you are interested in the origin of your surname (or of one in a novel) then the site I found, SurnameDB, might be of use to you.

One of the other things that interested me was the history of the condition of asthma. One of the characters in MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY suffers from asthma, and I wondered whether it was a recognised condition in 1881, the year the novel is set in. Here is part of what I found: "One major study was done by Dr. H. Salter in 1864 to prove that asthma is a pure physical ailment. He discovered that animal dander could trigger asthma and when the subject was in an environment free of animal dander he ceased to experience conditions of this ailment."

Sergeant Cribb applies a mix of careful elimination of possible suspects through judicious questioning, observation of facial reactions, logical deduction, and scientific evidence to finally come up with an interpretation of the facts of the case. Even when the verdict of the Cornoer's Court goes against him, as it does this time, he persists in his investigation until he has solved the case to his own satisfaction.

Peter Lovesey's first novel WOBBLE TO DEATH (1970) introduced the redoubtable Victorian policemen, Cribb and Thackeray. He won the Gold Dagger Award with THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW and in 2000 joined the elite group of people awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award. I have been a Lovesey fan since WOBBLE TO DEATH arrived in South Australia in paperback, and you'll find him among my favourites.

My rating: 4.4

MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY is the 4th in the Cribb series.
1. Wobble to Death (1970)
2. The Detective Wore Silk Drawers (1971)
3. Abracadaver (1972)
4. Mad Hatter's Holiday (1973)
5. The Tick of Death (1974)
aka Invitation to A Dynamite Party
6. A Case of Spirits (1975)
7. Swing, Swing Together (1976)
8. Waxwork (1978)

Review: MALICE DOMESTIC 5, various authors, Phyllis A. Whitney (edit.)

A collection of 17 short stories, some of which were shortlisted in 1996 for the Agatha award for short stories. ISBN: 0671896326
There are a variety of readers.

Contents: courtesy IBL

• Mysteries of Manners, Labors of Love by Phyllis A. Whitney
  
• Conventual Spirit by Sharan Newman
  
• Double Jeopardy by Eileen Dreyer
• Shelved [Susannah Maria “Suze” Figueroa] by Barbara D’Amato
• Takeout by Joyce Christmas
• Crossed Keys by Patricia Moyes
• Ham Grease Jimmy and the No Shirt Kid by Sue Henry
• The Death of Erik the Redneck [Laura Fleming] by Toni L. P. Kelner
• The Bun Also Rises by Jill Churchill
• Hill People by Dean Feldmeyer
• Barbecued Bimbo by Susan Rogers Cooper
• Honeymoon by Nancy Atherton
• Vivian by Moonlight by Medora Sale
• A Parrot Is Forever by Peter Lovesey
• Married to a Murderer by Alan Russell
• Bugged by Eve K. Sandstrom
• Accidents Will Happen by Carolyn Wheat

Edited by: Phyllis A. Whitney and Martin H. Greenberg

I downloaded this collection from audible.com and began listening at a bit of a disadvantage, when the copy I transferred to my iPod Nano refused to begin playing with the first story. In fact it began playing about 80 minutes in, so I was anchored to my computer for the first stories. This had the additional impact of me being uncertain that I had listened to them all.

The first couple of stories at least are a bit longer than short (or at least my definition of short).

The best stories:

• Accidents will Happen by Carolyn Wheat. A night nurse makes life for an elderly woman confined to bed utterly miserable, to the point where the old woman, once a professor of art, wants to kill her.
• A Parrot is Forever by Peter Lovesey. This was the reason I got hold of this collection in the first place. Peter Lovesey is one of my favourite authors. Roger is a large and racous blue and yellow macaw left to the narrator by an uncle whom he had had little to do with. Roger is rather unexpectedly stolen and turns out to be the guardian of the narrator's true inheritance.
• The Bun Also Rises by Jill Churchill. Two elderly friends are distressed when a third, immobilised by a broken leg, dies from a stroke. They are dismayed to find that their friend has changed her will, or rather, written a new one, disinheriting her daughter, and leaving all her wealth to her nurse. They feel convinced their friend would not have done this voluntarily, but how can they prove it?
  

I found it difficult to know which story I was listening to. The collection could have been put together a bit better, with better spacing between the stories. Each story is read by a different narrator, and the title of the story, and the name of the author, is often read rather quickly just as you are getting used to a new voice. Some of the readers were better than others, and there was a wide disparity in reading styles. Nevertheless it is an enjoyable collection.

Listen to an excerpt from the first story.

My rating: 4.2

Forgotten Book: WOBBLE TO DEATH, Peter Lovesey

This week's contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books.

Peter Lovesey is one of my favourite authors, and has been since 1970 when I read his first published novel which had recently won a prize.

WOBBLE TO DEATH is the first in his Sergeant Cribb series.
From Lovesey's site:

Drawing on my interest in the history of athletics, I set this first novel in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, in 1879, where a bizarre six-day endurance race takes place. “Wobbles” became popular on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1880s.

A strange collection of so-called “proven pedestrians” starts at 1am on a November Monday morning. By Tuesday one of them is dead. Tetanus from infection of a foot blister is suspected at first, but when Sergeant Cribb from Scotland Yard is called in he discovers that strychnine was being given as a stimulant. This is only the first of a series of revelations.

Winner of the Macmillan/Panther First Crime Novel Prize, 1970

Until then Peter Lovesey was a teacher, and at that time I felt I had a lot in common with him.
WOBBLE TO DEATH was a beautifully written book, crime fiction set in an unusual and rather bizarre location, and somewhat of a departure from my usual Christie-like fare.

When I was first setting up this blog, I identified Peter Lovesey as my first "favourite author".
I still haven't yet managed to read THE HEAD HUNTERS, even though I've had it in my sights for well over a year. All my Peter Lovesey tags.

Female 'tecs - of the British kind

This started out as a post about Aline Templeton's books but then I decided to range a bit further. You'll see I've said "of the British kind". With luck in later postings we'll look at European (although I'm a bit thin there), American, and Australian. These refer to characters I've met in books I've read, so I've included mini-reviews from my database.

So here I introduce you to

• D. I. Marjorie Fleming of Galloway
• Janine Lewis, Manchester's first female D. I.
• Inspector Vera Stanhope of Northumbria
• Carole and Jude of Fethering
• Dorothy Martin, American tourist in London
• S.I.O. Hen Mallen
• D.S. Karen Meadows
• Maisie Dobbs
  

Author: Aline Templeton

COLD IN THE EARTH (2005), rating: 4.6
#1 in Templeton's Marjorie Fleming series: COLD IN THE EARTH is set in Galloway, Scotland, and foot and mouth disease strikes the cattle. All livestock have to be destroyed, including the sheep Marge's husband Bill loves so much. When a burial pit is dug at Kirkluce human remains are found. The Mason family on whose property the remains are found are so committed to raising cattle that they go to Pamplona every year for the running of the bulls, and Jake, the head of the family is nicknamed the Minotaur. An interesting snapshot too of a community torn apart by first of all the BSE and now the foot-and-mouth crisis. Herds and flocks built up over generations have to be destroyed. This is D. I. Marjorie Fleming's first murder investigation too. She is a tall raw-boned Scotswoman who rules her investigation team with sensitivity and purpose. The characterisation and humanity in these books is excellent

THE DARKNESS AND THE DEEP (2006), rating 4.6
The second in the series with protagonist D. I. Marjory Fleming. The wreck of the Knockhaven lifeboat causes the death of all 3 of its crew, and worse, it looks like it is the result of sabotage. This is an excellent read - many red herrings and lots of well drawn characters.

Author: Cath Staincliffe

BLUE MURDER (2004), rating: 4.2
Janine Lewis, newly promoted to Detective Chief Inspector, is 6 months pregnant, already mother of 3, and recently separated from an unfaithful husband. She is Manchester's first female DCI, and now she has been assigned her first case. It is Saturday morning and a school teacher has been grotesquely murdered on his allotment. Her boss is reluctant to give Janine the case, just as he was reluctant to accept her promotion, but there is no-one else. He, derisively known as The Lemon, seriously doubts she has the bottle to solve anything, particularly in view of her personal circumstances. Janine is just as determined to succeed and the murder investigation takes place against the background of the demands of family life.

BITTER BLUE (2003), rating: 4.2
Manchester private investigator Sal Kilkenny is a single mum with a 7 year old daughter, sharing a house with Ray, a single father with a 6 year old son. Sal tries to be selective about the cases she takes on but that doesn't always mean she avoids personal danger. Two or three cases at a time is not unusual: an elegant hotel receptionist has been receiving offensive and threatening hate letters, a couple want a "peace of mind" report about a street where they are considering buying a house, and then, her daughter Maddie complicates things by not wanting to go to school. Cases escalate and Sal finds she has made some serious misjudgements. Sal Kilkenny is a firmly drawn character, and this is #6 in a 7 title series. I'll be looking for another.

Author: Ann Cleeves

CROW TRAP (1999), rating: 4.8
Debut novel in the Vera Stanhope series. In the Northern Pennines there are plans to open a new slate quarry. Three women are employed to conduct an environmental survey. Bella Furness, whose cottage holds right of way to the site of the quarry, commits suicide and shortly afterwards one of the women involved in the survey fails to return home. Vera makes her first appearance at Bella's funeral and then is the investigating officer when the missing woman is found murdered. Ann Cleeves has created an intriguing character in Vera Stanhope. She is the sort of detective who more or less does as she pleases, very hands-on. There are many twists in this, keeping me guessing until the end.

HIDDEN DEPTHS (2007), rating: 4.7
Julie Armstrong has been for a 'night out with the girls' and arrives home, barely sober, to find her son Luke in the bath, apparently drowned, scented water and flowers floating on the surface. Whatever happened, her daughter Laura has slept through it all. Inspector Vera Stanhope of the Northumbrian police, is the investigating officer. Soon there is a second body, this time young student teacher Lily Marsh. She too is found lying in a pool of water strewn with flowers but this time in an fairly inaccessible part fo the coastline. The subsequent investigation which Vera leads works rather like peeling back the layers of the onion, seeking the connections between the two deaths. And are they connected to an earlier drowning where mourners threw flowers onto the river where another young man died? This is #3 in the Vera Stanhope series: in tall, lumpy Vera Cleeves has almost created a female equivalent of Reginald Hill's Andy Dalziel. Perhaps that's being unkind to Vera, but she is every bit as clever, as intuitive.

Author: Simon Brett

The Fethering Series - see my previous posting
http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/2008/02/favourite-author-4-simon-brett.html
Central characters are busybodies - Carole and Jude
1. The Body on the Beach (2000)
2. Death On the Downs (2001)
3. The Torso In The Town (2002)
4. Murder in the Museum (2003), 4.5
5. The Hanging in the Hotel (2004), 5.0
6. The Witness at the Wedding (2005), 4.7
7. The Stabbing in the Stables (2006), 4.3
8. Death Under the Dryer (2007), 4.3
9. Blood At the Bookies (2008)

Author: Jean M. Dams

THE VICTIM IN VICTORIA STATION , rating: 3.9
American Dorothy Martin broke her ankle shortly after her second marriage. Her British husband is ex-policeman Alan Nesbitt much in demand by police forces around the world as a consultant, and in this book he is only a voice at the other end of the phone. Dorothy has to travel to London by train to see her specialist, and during the journey she talks to the young man in the opposite seat, who is the CEO of a software company. When they arrive at Victoria Station he appears to have fallen asleep, and when Dorothy tries to wake him she finds that he is very dead. The doctor who comes to her assistance on the train says he will take care of matters and do all the necessary reporting, so Dorothy hobbles off ot her appointment. However the death isn't reported and now Dorothy involves herself in the investigation of what was obviously a murder. Just a little to cosy for my liking, and for me Dorothy seems a bit improbable.

Author: Peter Lovesey

THE CIRCLE (2005), rating 5.0
Encouraged by his fourteen-year-old-daughter who recognises his lonely widowhood, Bob Naylor decides to join a writers' circle, believing he might gain some expert help with the poetry which keeps spilling out of his imagination. He discovers a motley collection of wannabe authors who he doubts he has anything in common with, but just as he is deciding not to formally join the group he learns that a publisher who addressed their last meeting has been killed and he stays to see what might develop. The Senior Investigating Officer, Henrietta Mallin, soon has all the members of the group under suspicion and, under pressure from her superiors, arrests their Chairman. Bob, the only writer who had not met the victim, is persuaded by other members of the group to do some investigating of his own. And that is when the trouble really starts, because another death turns the spotlight of suspicion on to him.

Author: Hillary Bonner

WHEN THE DEAD CRY OUT (2003), rating:4.5
One summer day Clara Marshall vanished without trace. A few days later, her children, six-year-old Lorraine and five-year-old Janine, also disappeared and were never seen again. Richard Marshall, Clara's heartbroken husband, claimed he had discovered his wife was having an affair with an Australian backpacker and that she had run away with him, taking the children with her, destroying the family for ever. That was twenty-seven years ago. John Kelly, veteran journalist, covered the case when he was a trainee reporter and he suspected something far more sinister. Police enquiries discovered no Australian backpacker and the biggest missing persons operation ever mounted in the south of England revealed nothing. Detective Superintendent Karen Meadows has been familiar with case since childhood and she is only too aware that many suspect Marshall of murdering his wife and children. But where are the bodies? And what is the motive?
Then extraordinary events reawaken the case and Kelly and Karen become determined to discover what happened to Clara and her children so long ago, and to seek justice for them.

Author: Jacqueline Winspear

BIRDS OF A FEATHER (2005), rating: 4.6
This novel is set some time after the first in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is now an established detective with rooms of her own and an assistant. It's now the early Spring of 1930. Her friend Detective Inspector Stratton of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad is investigating a murder case in Coulsden, while Maisie has been summoned to Dulwich to find a runaway heiress. The woman is the daughter of Joseph Waite, a wealthy self-made man who has lavished her with privilege but kept her in a gilded cage. His domineering ways have driven her off before, and now she's bolted again. Waite's instructions are to find his daughter and bring her home. When Maisie looks into the disappearance she finds a chilling link to Stratton's murder case, and to the terrible legacy of The Great War.

Favourite Authors - #5 Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine

The idea of this mini-project is to list crime fiction authors that I look forward to reading. These are authors that I will buy without question if I see a title I haven't yet read. So in a sense to give them a number is deceptive. I would imagine that there are at least 20 authors in my database who come into this category. It also gives me a chance to print some of my mini-reviews that haven't been published before. This is a project that I will continue randomly throughout 2008.

Previously listed

• #1 Peter Lovesey
• #2 Karin Fossum
• #3 Donna Leon
• #4 Simon Brett
  

One of the advantages with Ruth Rendell is that she writes under 2 names, and writes the Wexford series, and stand-alones.
Every respectable library will have lots of titles.
I've listed the records in my database in publication order.
If you want a full list of her remarkable output see Fantastic Fiction:
Ruth Rendell
Barbara Vine
Output has slowed down in recent years, but there are omnibus re-printings to look for.
Ruth Rendell is 78 this year (2008)
My enjoyment is indicated by my ratings, a value with a maximum of 5.0

Ruth Rendell titles

THE FEVER TREE AND OTHER STORIES (1982), 4.8
Contains 11 stories: The Fever Tree, The Dreadful Day Of Judgement, A Glowing Future, An Outside Interest, A Case Of Coincidence, Thornapple' (novella), May And June, A Needle For The Devil, Front Seat, Paintbox Place and The Wrong Category.

END IN TEARS (2005), 4.8
In the early hours of the morning George Marshalson is waiting anxiously for his young daughter to come home. His discovery of her body at dawn not far from the house is the beginning of a new case for Reg Wexford and the Kingsmarkham CID team. Neither Reg nor his assistant Mike Burden are getting any younger and both are a bit old-fashioned in their attitudes and their policing methods. In this, the 20th book in the Wexford series that began in 1964, award winning author Ruth Rendell introduces the new face of policing in Britain in the persons of the latest additions to the team, Bal and Hannah. And again Rendell gives this book a contemporary setting by weaving into it a theme that has been of world-wide community concern. The Wexford family interest continues too when daughter Sylvia becomes pregnant by her ex-husband.

THE WATER'S LOVELY (2006), 4.7
Ruth Rendell never disappoints me. Sisters Ismay and Heather Sealand live in the bottom half of a house in suburban London and their mother and aunt live in the upper floor. Nine years before their stepfather Guy was drowned in the bath upstairs and Ismay and her mother have always thought Heather was responsible, although they hid their suspicions from the police, and gave Heather, 11 at the time, an alibi. After the verdict of accidental drowning, the matter was never discussed again but Ismay has always thought of Heather as a murderer. She thinks Heather drowned Guy in order to protect her. Ismay wonders whether she should warn Heather's new friend Edmund about Heather's possessiveness.

NOT IN THE FLESH (2007), 4.8
Honey the dog is a wonderful hunter for truffles. But this time she unearths something even less savoury - a human hand. Another case for the inveterate duo Reg Wexford and Mike Burden. The body is male, and has been there for over 10 years, wrapped in a purple bed sheet. In this story Reg Wexford seems to be a little less clearly drawn and we learn more about the dynamics of the team he works with. The plot is a spider web of threads. It is all about degrees of separation, those threads that draw us together. And running through all the murder mysteries, missing persons and threads of deception, something else Rendell has on her mind - female circumcision, ritual genital mutilation of young immigrant children, providing a rich undercurrent, showing Rendell as aware of the issues of her times as ever.

COLLECTED STORIES (2007), 4.6
Ruth Rendell's COLLECTED STORIES is an omnibus of three previously published collections: The Fallen Curtain and Other Stories (1976), Means of Evil and Other Stories (1979), and The Fever Tree and Other Stories (1982). Some of the stories have appeared individually and in other collections, all over twenty-five years ago. Many of them were first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Few authors specialise in the short story today, and each of these twenty-seven stories convinces the reader what a consummate writer of this genre Rendell is. She explores a range of topics: the boy abducted by a Man, the false evidence that convicts a man of murder, a boy's distillation of a vegetable poison, death by knitting needle, the serial killer charged with a murder he didn't commit, the killer-for-hire foiled by his love of dogs, the woman who tried suicide once too often, and more. Most of the stories stand alone, but the five in Means of Evil and Other Stories all feature Reg Wexford and Mike Burden, Rendell's central characters from the much loved Wexford series.

Writing as Barbara Vine

NO NIGHT IS TOO LONG (1994), 4.0
Tim Cornish thought he'd gotten away with murder. For months after he'd killed his lover off the Alaskan coast, there hadn't been a word about the murder. But then the letters started to arrive, giving intimate details of the murder. It seems that someone knows what Tim has done.

THE MINOTAUR (2005), 5.0
An excellent read. Always has you on the edge of your seat with hints about what is to come. It is the 1960s, but the “swinging sixties” revolution hasn't quite reached rural England. In an attempt to be closer to her English boyfriend, Kerstin Kvist accepts a job with the Cosway matriarch; her three unmarried daughters; and her son, John, a sad, self-absorbed figure in his thirties who haunts the grand house of Lydstep Old Hall, deep in the Essex countryside. There is a fourth daughter, too—a widow herself and apparently quite rich—who comes and goes infrequently, with ill-disguised contempt for the others. Then, just as Kerstin is beginning to figure out the odd family, a stranger moves into the village, his very presence setting the Cosways on a path to self-destruction.

Favourite Authors- #1 Peter Lovesey

Do you have a favourite crime fiction author - one whose books you pick up knowing you'll probably love it.

Looking at my database (which only goes back just over 3 years) I'd have to say Peter Lovesey comes out tops.

I clearly remember the publication of WOBBLE TO DEATH back in 1970 and I've been hooked ever since.

I have listed 6 of his novels in the last 3 years and only one did not get a rating of 5.
They are listed below in the order in which I read them and the last one is the one that I didn't give a 5 to.
I'm just not sure that I wrote all the descriptions of the early ones (one or two may have come from book blurbs - I stopped doing that about 2 years ago).
But if you are looking for a cracking British author to read - you can't go wrong with Peter Lovesey.

THE SUMMONS
Peter Diamond—the famous stout detective—has come down in the world since he rashly quit the police force. He's living in a London basement flat and bemoaning his fate: that one of the world's best homicide cops is considering a job as a nude artist's model. Then a murderer breaks out of jail, kidnaps a cop's daughter, and makes his ransom demand: he must speak to Peter Diamond at once.
His old bosses beg him to come back to Bath. All Diamond has to do is free the hostage, and he may be able to return to his old job. But the kidnapper, convicted of murdering a beautiful reporter whose mouth was filled with roses, insists he's innocent. Diamond's mission is to find the real killer. Now, with no clues and a cold trail, Diamond is in the rough, risking his future, his reputation, and perhaps his life to crack a nearly impossible case. This is just vintage Lovesey. Such easy reading but lots of good threads and red herrings.

THE CIRCLE
Encouraged by his fourteen-year-old-daughter who recognises his lonely widowhood, Bob Naylor decides to join a writers' circle, believing he might gain some expert help with the poetry which keeps spilling out of his imagination. He discovers a motley collection of wannabe authors who he doubts he has anything in common with, but just as he is deciding not to formally join the group he learns that a publisher who addressed their last meeting has been killed and he stays to see what might develop. The Senior Investigating Officer, Henrietta Mallin, soon has all the members of the group under suspicion and, under pressure from her superiors, arrests their Chairman. Bob, the only writer who had not met the victim, is persuaded by other members of the group to do some investigating of his own. And that is when the trouble really starts, because another death turns the spotlight of suspicion on to him.

THE VAULT
Skeletal remains are found in a cellar below Bath's Georgian tearooms. To Peter Diamond's delight they are not all of medieval 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.

THE HOUSE SITTER
#8 in the Peter Diamond series and one of Lovesey's best. "If you were planning a murder and wanted a place to carry it out, a beach would do nicely"" - so the first chapter begins. It is not until the tide begins to come in late on Sunday afternoon that the few remaining people on Wightview Sands, busily packing up their belongings, realise that the water is lapping the feet of the woman behind the blue beach shelter. So not only is the crime scene unable to be preserved, but no-one knows who the woman is. Trying to find out who she is leads SIO Mallin into collaboration with Peter Diamond, whose reputation precedes him, and they venture together into highly classified material. Don't worry if you haven't read any Lovesey before - this one will get you looking for more.

THE SECRET HANGMAN
It is 3 years since Peter Diamond's wife was killed and he is being stalked by a woman who wants to become better acquainted. ACC Georgina Dalley's friend's daughter has gone missing . A woman's body is discovered hanging from a public playground swing, at first sight a suicide, but then it seems she may already have been dead when hung there. The discovery of a second body seems to signal that they have a ""hangman"" on the loose. Very very readable.

THE REAPER
If the title in the context of crime fiction makes you think "grim reaper" then you are on the right track.
This is a macabre cosy if there is such a thing. A rompingly entertaining read, but not one of Lovesey's best.
Otis Joy, the rector of St. Bartholomew's in the Wiltshire village of Foxford, a young man in his late 20s, is a dynamic relative newcomer to the village. He seems everything a vicar needs to be, even if he is unmarried. Underneath though he is a very nasty bit of work indeed. Nobody believes lugubrious old Owen Cumberbatch when he says that the Rev. Joy's last parish is without its Sexton/bellringer because he crossed Otis Joy. Snooping old Skidmore simply disappeared.
But we do know from almost the first page of the story that Otis Joy is responsible for the death of the bishop, Marcus Glastonbury, who had found out that he had been embezzling funds at his previous parish (where the Sexton disappeared).
We learn also that he has come to an "arrangement" with his current Parish treasurer, Stanley Burrows, ex-headmaster, to have a private contingency fund which appears nowhere in the church's accounts. And then Stanley says he would like to hand the job over to a younger person, that he is getting too old, and the responsibility of the parish books is too great...
I think Peter Lovesey, one of my favourite authors, had great fun in writing this book. It is almost as if he decided to write a spoof on the village cosy. There are some really sardonic descriptions, almost cruel, of village personalities. One that comes to mind readily is Cynthia Haydenhall, Chair of the Women's Institute - my mental vision of her is of a dark haired strident Penelope Keith - who sees herself as the social hub of the village. And there are others..
This isn't going to exercise your little grey cells too much. But if you enjoy the occasional cosy, then hunt it down. In style it reminds me a bit of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series.

THE REAPER, Peter Lovesey

If the title in the context of crime fiction makes you think "grim reaper" then you are on the right track.
This is a macabre cosy if there is such a thing. A rompingly entertaining read, but not one of Lovesey's best.

Otis Joy, the rector of St. Bartholomew's in the Wiltshire village of Foxford, a young man in his late 20s, is a dynamic relative newcomer to the village. He seems everything a vicar needs to be, even if he is unmarried. Underneath though he is a very nasty bit of work indeed. Nobody believes lugubrious old Owen Cumberbatch when he says that the Rev. Joy's last parish is without its Sexton/bellringer because he crossed Otis Joy. Snooping old Skidmore simply disappeared.

But we do know from almost the first page of the story that Otis Joy is responsible for the death of the bishop, Marcus Glastonbury, who had found out that he had been embezzling funds at his previous parish (where the Sexton disappeared).

We learn also that he has come to an "arrangement" with his current Parish treasurer, Stanley Burrows, ex-headmaster, to have a private contingency fund which appears nowhere in the church's accounts. And then Stanley says he would like to hand the job over to a younger person, that he is getting too old, and the responsibility of the parish books is too great...

I think Peter Lovesey, one of my favourite authors, had great fun in writing this book. It is almost as if he decided to write a spoof on the village cosy. There are some really sardonic descriptions, almost cruel, of village personalities. One that comes to mind readily is Cynthia Haydenhall, Chair of the Women's Institute - my mental vision of her is of a dark haired strident Penelope Keith - who sees herself as the social hub of the village. And there are others..

This isn't going to exercise your little grey cells too much. But if you enjoy the occasional cosy, then hunt it down. In style it reminds me a bit of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series.

My rating was 4.1

I've been a Peter Lovesey fan since he published his first novel WOBBLE TO DEATH. You may be familiar with his Peter Diamond series. Fantastic Fiction lists his novels.