Peter Diamond is tasked to run security for a wedding. Seems a bit beneath his extraordinary detective talents, as well as his title as head of Bath's CID, but this isn't your run-of-the-mill ceremony: the bride and groom belong to families on opposite ends of the law—and someone is trying to sabotage the nupitals by taking out a hit on the father of the bride.As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline, the daughter of notorious crime baron, Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. The problem is that Ben's father, George, is the Deputy Chief Constable. A more uncomfortable set of in-laws would be hard to imagine. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are arranged 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...

On the 50th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, Peter Lovesey, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and titan of the British detective novel, returns to the subject of his very first mystery—running. 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...

A Bath antiques dealer has disappeared, and detective Peter Diamond has been saddled with the "help" of a hardboiled Philip Marlowe wannabe private investigator in cracking the case. MWA Grand Master Peter Lovesey's 20th installment in the award-winning series will have readers laughing from the first page.If there's one thing detective Bath Peter Diamond has no patience for, it's a dumb git trying to get involved in one of his investigations—for example, a Philip Marlowe-wannabee private investigator like the self-styled Johnny Getz (his card claims he Getz results). But fate has saddled Diamond with this trial. A Bath antiques dealer, Septimus "Seppy" Hubbard, has disappeared without a trace, and his daughter, Ruby, has hired Johnny Getz to find him. When a dead body is discovered in Seppy's locked-up store, the missing persons case becomes a murder investigation, and now Diamond has to collaborate with the insufferable private eye.

The chief of the Bath murder squad finally gets his say in this revealing mini-autobiography of the star character in the "superb series" (Louise Penny, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache novels).Reader, you're about to get the truth, the inside story, the stuff Peter Lovesey never discovered. . . .Longtime police detective Peter Diamond has kept his mouth shut ever since learning that some author had the nerve to use his stellar career as a model for a supposedly fictional mystery series. At first, he consulted a solicitor, but it was explained to him that the case would be expensive. So now he's going to tell his own story, from his days as a dyslexic schoolboy to his start as a humble copper with the Met in the 1980s, and the many difficult cases he brilliantly cracked in Bath. It's past time to hear from the real detective behind the "impatient, belligerent, cunning, insightful, foul, laugh-out-loud funny" character, as...

Detective Peter Diamond goes undercover at a seasonal festival in this delightful and bittersweet conclusion to the multi-award-winning series.Detective Peter Diamond, chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is taking a short holiday in the country. His former colleague Julie Hargreaves has invited Diamond and his partner, Paloma, to visit the idyllic village of Baskerville (no relation to the Sherlock Holmes story, so he’s told). It turns out Julie’s invitation was not without ulterior motives. The woman who owns the village’s largest dairy farm has been convicted of manslaughter following a terrible accident in her grain silo. Julie’s ex-investigator instinct tells her there has been a miscarriage of justice and a murderer is on the loose—but Julie’s been keeping secrets of her own, and can’t take her inquiry any further.Diamond takes the bait; the case is a fascinating one, and he’s quite enjoying his incognito...

Warwick Easton is a cop - a movie cop, that is. Landing in the crazy world of Keystone Film Studios, California, in 1916, a chance meeting with a silent comedy star lands him a job as Keystone the cop. Little does he realise some very real danger is on its way. Terrible events begin to occur: a horrific death on a rollercoaster, a body in a bungalow, a shooting on a beach, and the disappearance of Amber Honeybee - the adorable and much-abused young actress. Keystone takes his cop duties seriously and gets on the trail, before it is far too late. Mayhem and mystery abound in this offbeat, charming caper set in the world of silent movies.

The cast and crew of a hit British TV show are rumored to be cursed—but are these spooky deaths coincidences or murder? It's up to Bath detective Peter Diamond to find out.In the six years since the start of the hit British TV show Swift, its cast and crew have been plagued by misfortune, beginning with the star actress’s pulling out of the show before it began. By now there have been multiple injuries by fall, fire, or drowning; two deaths; and two missing persons cases.The media quickly decides it’s a curse, but who’s to say there isn’t a criminal conspiracy afoot? Now that the filming has moved to Bath, Peter Diamond, Chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is on the case. While the investigation into one fatal accident is underway, a cameraman goes missing, challenging even the most credulous to wonder if he might have been the victim of foul play rather than a jinx. How can so many things go wrong on one set in such a...

The Washington Post described Peter Lovesey's crime fiction as "ingenious … irresistible … wickedly clever." In "The Sedgemoor Strangler," a serial killer leaves a naked corpse among the reeds, and a young waitress gradually comes to suspect that she is the next victim. Another serial killer terrifies a nineteenth-century housewife in the shocking, twisting tale of "Dr Death." Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the stealing of the Christmas Star in "The Four Wise Men." "The Amorous Corpse" is one of the finest recent impossible crime detective stories — a robbery is committed by a man proven by unimpeachable evidence to have been dead several hours earlier. In "The Problem of Stateroom 10," the famous mystery writer Jacques Futrelle investigates a murder as the Titanic goes down. Full of wit, irony, tricky plots, and an engaging sense of place and time, The Sedgemoor Strangler is an extraordinary collection of sixteen extraordinary stories. **

The third and final 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, amateur sleuth and the Crown Prince of Wales, loves food and women. This is why Bertie enjoys his frequent trips to Paris, a city that is known not only as the City of Lights, but also as the city of romance and fine cuisine. In 1891, however, Bertie's yearly Paris vacation becomes much more eventful than he had anticipated when, soon after his arrival, he learns that the future son-in-law of his old friend, Jules d' Agincourt, was recently murdered at the Moulin Rouge. Unable to resist practicing his detective skills, Bertie resolves to assist the Sûreté, the French police force, in solving the ongoing case. He enlists the help of the reluctant Sarah Bernhardt, renowned actress and Bertie's long-time friend, and together, Bertie and Sarah travel around Paris...

The first 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 and future King Edward VII, is a charismatic but self-indulgent man who enjoys the finer things in life, including dining, flirting, and flitting from party to party with his entire thirty-person staff in tow. But the fun and games come to a tragic halt when Bertie hears the shocking news that his friend the legendary jockey Fred Archer, known as the Tinman, has taken his own life. When the jury finds that the Tinman's suicide was caused by a bout of typhoid fever, Bertie has his doubts, especially considering the Tinman's ominous final words: "Are they coming?" In order to discover the truth, Bertie resolves to become a detective himself, looking for new suspects and evidence on a quest that will take him through some of the most disreputable parts of London, much...

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 asone 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 coincidences and that a serial killer is terrorizing the party. Bertie puts his deductive skills to use, but each day that the case goes unsolved is deadly.

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, and second, a murder at a fashionable nightclub allows him to exercise his beloved sleuthing skills, poking the royal nose into showgirls' dressing rooms. 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.In this whodunit, set at the turn of the century in Paris, the sleuth is the Prince of Wales. Bertie, as he is affectionately known, probes the death of a high-society man shot during a floor show at the Moulin Rouge. Also appearing are the actress, Sarah Bernhardt, and the painter, Toulouse-Lautrec. By the author of Bertie and the Seven Bodies

Soon after World War II, two former co-workers in the operations room of a Royal Air Force Squadron meet in the street. Their lives have diverged dramatically but each wants to get rid of her husband. And so a mutual assistance pact is made. From Publishers WeeklyA baker's dozen of Lovesey's mysteries have secured his reputation. Never, however, has the author's wizardry been so effective as in this tale of the duped and the duper, set in post-war London. Rosie Bell and Antonia Ashton meet by chance, years after they had worked together in the Royal Air Force. Catching up on old times, the women confess that they are miserable as wives. Rosie, poor and disillusioned, regrets marriage to the once-dashing Wing Commander Barry. Antonia despises her husband Hector, although he is immensely rich and gives her everything she covets, there is no passion in the marriage. Obsessed by desire for her macho lover, Antonia uses demonic cunning to coax weak Rosie into a plot to kill their inconvenient mates. Told mostly in racy, ear-perfect dialogue that magnifies the impact of events, the story dodges from one unguessable outcome to the next before the person "on the edge" falls into an abyss. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review"Never has Lovesey's wizardry been so effective as in this tale of the duped and the duper." --Publishers Weekly "Lovesey's crafty art seduces us into cheering his heroines on...irrepressible joie de mort." --The New York Times Book Review-- Review