Description: "Exquisitely intricate." --The New York Times Book Review
A skeletal hand is unearthed in the vault under the Pump Room in Bath, England, near the site where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Then a skull is excavated. The bones came from different corpses, and one is modern. Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond must solve a series of crimes including murder and forgery, requiring a knowledge of history, nineteenth century art, literature . . . and human nature.Review Quotes: Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement Recipient
Mystery Writers of America 2018 Grandmaster
--The New York Times Book Review "One of the delights of contemporary crime fiction."
--The Wall Street Journal "The story crackles with wit and urbanity, snappy dialogue and deeper, fouler doings . . . A stunning tale of the macabre and the mundane."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Everything the cerebral puzzle addict craves, from tempting red herrings to literary arcana to deliciously plotted surprises."
--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Diamond hunts for a missing professor on the trail of Mary Shelley's diary. Lovesey interweaves the two stories with effortless skill."
--The Times "It looks deceptively easy, but this is an author who excels at his craft and keeps coming up with books that entertain and puzzle."
--Sunday Telegraph Praise for The Peter Diamond series "Peter Diamond is impatient, belligerent, cunning, insightful, foul, laugh-out-loud funny . . . A superb series."
--Louise Penny "I'm jealous of everyone discovering Lovesey and Diamond for the first time--you have a wonderful backlist to catch up on. Me, all I can do is wait for the next book."
--Sara Paretsky "What'll it be today? A knotty puzzle mystery? A fast-paced police procedural? Something more high-toned, with a bit of wit? With the British author Peter Lovesey, there's no need to make those agonizing decisions, because his books have it all."
--The New York Times Book Review "Mr. Lovesey's narrative is swift, but he takes time out for local color and abundant humor, the latter springing from the book's quirky characters . . . Lovesey is a wizard at mixing character-driven comedy with realistic-to-grim suspense. And in a writing career spanning four decades, he has created a stylish and varied body of work."
--The Wall Street Journal "Next to Jane Austen, Peter Lovesey is the writer the tourist board of Bath, England, extols most proudly . . . The enduring draw of the Peter Diamond books derives both from the beguiling Bath cityscape and the brusque character of Diamond himself."
--NPR