Beau Death

Description

Peter Diamond investigates a mystery of the past in the seventeenth case for the brilliant Bath detective. A wrecking ball crashes through the roof of a terraced cottage in Bath and exposes a skeleton in eighteenth-century clothes. Can these possibly be the remains of Beau Nash, the so-called King of Bath, whose body is said to have ended up in a pauper's grave? Peter Diamond, the city's most experienced detective, is ordered to investigate, but grappling with historical events causes ructions in his team until everyone is diverted by a modern killing during a fireworks display on the Royal Crescent lawn. But Beau Nash refuses to be ignored - and when astonishing new facts emerge about the case, Bath's history is rewritten and mysteries ancient and modern are fused in a devastating climax.

Peter Lovesey is the only living author in Britain to have received the two highest honours in crime writing - the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers Association and Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. He started with the Sergeant Cribb series set in Victorian London and later progressed to modern times with the award-winning Peter Diamond books set in Bath, his home for almost twenty years. Now living in Shrewsbury with his wife Jax, whom he met at Reading University, he continues to reach and entertain new readers across the world.

'If you like your police procedurals intriguing, solid and well-written, Lovesey's your man' - Weekend Sport Lovesey's storytelling is darkly funny, with richly drawn characters, detailed police procedure, brilliant dialogue and impeccable plotting - Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Pacing, dialogue, exposition, backstory - nobody handles them better than Lovesey - Booklist 'Lovesey moves from one dexterously nested puzzle to the next with all the confidence of a magician' - Kirkus Reviews 'One of Lovesey's cleverest . . . full of his trademark wry humour' - Publisher's Weekly 'There's plenty of suspense here - action too - all told in Lovesey's effortlessly elegant manner' - Booklist