“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

Abracadáver, mezcla de humor negro y ejemplar ejercicio de deducción, combina con gran habilidad la ambientación de época y el retrato de los personajes con una excelente intriga. En el Londres del siglo XIX, el sargento Cribb y el agente Thackeray -asiduos protagonistas de las obras de Lovesey-, investigan las siniestras y humillantes bromas de que están siendo objeto algunos de los más famosos artistas de music hall durante sus representaciones. Sin embargo, nadie ríe la noche en que una joven muere durante su número de desaparición en un espectáculo de magia. Los policías de Scotland Yard se lanzan tras la pista del escurridizo asesino y deben poner a prueba su astucia en este duelo singular con una mente maligna

Peter Diamond to ostatni prawdziwy detektyw. Gliniarz z niezłomnymi zasadami. Kieruje się sztuką dedukcji, nie ufa technice i komputerom. Nie wierzy w skuteczność metod nowoczesnych laboratoriów. Śledztwo prowadzi zawsze po swojemu. Jego metody zostają wystawione na próbę, kiedy w jeziorze policja znajduje nagie ciało kobiety. Patolodzy i genetycy uznają wkrótce, że mają dość dowodów, by wskazać podejrzanego. Ale Diamond nie przerywa śledztwa…

"A consummate storyteller." – Colin Dexter With another court case over and a local villain banged up for a few years, Detective Inspector Peter Diamond is keen to get his teeth into another case. So when a call comes in that a woman's body has been found in one of Bath's parks he gets himself to the scene in record time, where he is able to identify the victim as his wife and to establish the fact she's been shot. Mad with grief, Diamond eventually concedes he cannot be an unbiased member of the investigation. Keeping himself away from the team becomes all the harder when he suddenly finds himself under suspicion, and when his colleagues find no case against him but appear unwilling to follow up any of his suggestions – did Steph's previous husband have an alibi – Diamond decides that a little independent action is called for. As well as following his theory that a family of local thugs killed Steph to get at him, he is also intrigued by the fact that the wife of another policeman has gone missing. He'd served with the husband in the Met and they revisit the cases they'd worked on together. Between them they unearth many startling possibilities and some unexpected facts, but it is Diamond who ultimately avenges his beloved wife

A bordo del Mauretania, que zarpa de Southampton, en la primera semana de septiembre de 1921, viajan numerosos pasajeros que encarnan el lujoso y cosmopolita ambiente de los años veinte. Entre ellos, se encuentra un dentista que trata de huir de su tiránica esposa y que viaja con el nombre de un famoso detective, el inspector Dew. Sin embargo, durante la travesía se produce un crimen y el capitán decide recurrir al falso inspector para descubrir al asesino… El desafortunado dentista se verá en serios aprietos para responder a los antecedentes del dueño del nombre usurpado. El FALSO INSPECTOR DEW es una nueva muestra del talento de Lovesey para combinar sabiamente ingenio y humor con una trama muy emocionante

LAS NUEVAS AVENTURAS DE SHERLOCK HOLMES Es un homenaje de eminentes autores de misterio -Stephen King, John Gardner, Michael Harrison y otros- realizado en el año 1987 con motivo del centenario de la primera aparición pública de Sherlock Holmes en el Beeton’s Christmas Annual de noviembre de 1887, donde se dieron a conocer los hechos y la resolución del misterio conocido como Un Estudio en Escarlata

Yes, the scarecrow, painted on the cover, is on the Short List. The line-up is Peter Lovesey’s strongest ever, for not only does it feature “Needle Match,” chosen by the Crime Writers’ Association as the best short story published in 2007, but also some of his most popular detectives — Bertie, Prince of Wales, Sergeant Cribb and Rosemary and Thyme. You will be mystified by elephants in a London side street; a hearing aid heist by a gang of geriatrics; an underworld boss in search of a harp; a short, fat man who jumped for England; a brush with Adolf Hitler; and a walk on Beachey Head, the favourite suicide spot. You’ve had the call. Step up now. Surprises are guaranteed

Sidra sangrienta` es la historia de un crimen «con solera». Duke Donovan, un militar norteamericano de servicio en el Reino Unido, fue ahorcado en 1945 acusado de asesinato. Él y otro soldado ayudaron en la cosecha de manzanas en una granja, en la que se produjeron algunos disturbios. El descubrimiento de un cráneo humano en un barril de sidra condujo a la detención y condena de Duke. Un niño refugiado, Theo, fue el principal testigo en el juicio. Años después, en 1964, Theo está realizando un lectorado en una universidad y una muchacha norteamericana, Alice, que se presenta como la hija de Duke Donovan le convence para regresar al lugar de los hechos y tratar de demostrar la inocencia de su padre…

On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with the group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss Georgina is a member. She resolves to sideline Diamond, but matters don't pan out in accordance with her plans

"A wickedly clever writer." – Ruth Rendell Clarion Calhoun is a fading pop star wanting to launch an acting career. The audience at her debut on stage 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…

An anthology of stories Following the huge success of the previous BBM collections comes the latest batch of stories from the UK's top-flight crime writers. Alongside an "Inspector Morse" story from Colin Dexter and a "Rumpole" tale from John Mortimer, is Jake Arnott's first short story and a wealth of exclusive stories from some of Britain's most exciting up-and-coming young crime writers. An ideal present for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good murder-mystery, "The Best British Mysteries 2006" will cause many sleepless nights of avid page 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

Macavity Awards The identification of the woman found murdered on Whiteview Sands poses more questions than it answers. Emma Tysoe was a respected psychologist and an official criminal profiler with several successful cases to her credit. Why was she sun-bathing alone so far from home? How did she get there? Who is the mysterious 'Ken' in her private life? What was the murder weapon? Why did the man who noitce she was dead then completely disappear from the scene? When Peter Diamond is brought into the investigation he sheds some light on these matters – most importantly by discovering that she had been seconded under the greatest secrecy to work on the profile of the person who has assassinated one celebrity and is threatening to kill more. Are these killings connected to Emma's death? Diamond thinks so, but he cannot persuade his colleagues to agree with him, and even he cannot make all the pieces fit the jigsaw he's envisaged

OVER 40 NEW STORIES FROM BRITAIN’S LEADING CRIME WRITERS Leading editor and reviewer Maxim Jakubowski has compiled another beguiling collection of the year’s best new short crime fiction from the UK. Ian Rankin’s perennially popular Edinburgh cop, Inspector Rebus, makes an unexpected comeback in a short, but intriguing story, ‘The Very Last Drop’, and the collection closes with another Rankin story, ‘Driven’. Making their first appearance in the series are many luminaries such as Kate Atkinson, Louise Welsh, Stephen Booth, Christopher Brookmyre, Colin Bateman, A. L. Kennedy, Sheila Quigley, Lin Anderson, Simon Kernick and David Hewson. Also represented are exciting up-and-coming talents such as Nick Quantrill, Jay Stringer, Paul D. Brazill and Nigel Bird

Thirty-five short stories from the top names in British crime fiction, by the likes of Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Jake Arnott, Val McDermid, and more

An anthology of stories A new anthology of twenty-nine short stories features an array of baffling locked-room mysteries by Michael Collins, Bill Pronzini, Susanna Gregory, H. R. F. Keating, Peter Lovesey, Kate Ellis, and Lawrence Block, among others

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. Peter Lovesey has won honors around the world, including the Gold and Silver Daggers, the Macavity, and the Grand Prix de Litterateur Policière. The British Crime Writers Association has recognized Lovesey with its highest honor, the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement. The Sedgemoor Strangler and Other Stories of Crime includes a complete checklist of Peter Lovesey’s crime writing

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

Peter Diamond, the traditionalist dinosaur of Bath CID, finds the low murder rate in the city a touch frustrating, so he decides to check whether a couple of suicides which his colleague is investigating have been accurately classified. On the outskirts of the city a woman is found unconscious in a hospital car park, but when she recovers she can't remember who she is or how she came to be there. Soon after she is released into the care of the local authority, Diamond has a 'proper' case to get his teeth into when a woman's body is found in the garden of a flat after a somewhat drunken party. None of the other guests knew her and it is not clear whether she slipped, jumped or was pushed, and with no clue as to her identity Diamond has a puzzle to satisfy his quirky talents. In a mystery of stunning complexity, Peter Lovesey amply demonstrates his gifts as the grand master of the contemporary whodunnit