The Stone Wife
Detective Peter Diamond Book 14
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
The fourteenth Peter Diamond case has the eminent detective in pursuit of a murderer after a theft at an auction house goes wrong.
Just as the bidding gets exciting in a Bath auction house, three armed men stage a hold-up and attempt to steal Lot 129, a medieval carving of the Wife of Bath. The highest bidder, appalled to have the prize snatched away, tries to stop them and is shot dead.
Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad, soon finds himself sharing an office with the stone wife - until he is ejected. To his extreme annoyance the lump of stone appears to exert a malign influence over him and his investigation. Refusing to be beaten, he rallies his team and begins finding suspects and motives.
The case demands that someone goes undercover. The dangerous mission falls to Sergeant Ingeborg Smith, reverting to her journalist persona to get the confidence of a wealthy local criminal through his pop star girlfriend. And soon, murder makes a reappearance . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A crime committed at an auction house in Bath propels Diamond Dagger Award winner Lovesey's so-so 14th whodunit starring irascible but endearing Chief Supt. Peter Diamond (after 2013's The Tooth Tattoo). The bidding has become heated for a stone bust of the Wife of Bath, but just after Chaucer authority John Gildersleeve offers 24,000 for the item, three men don masks and pull guns in an attempt to steal the statue. When Gildersleeve foolishly grabs the arm of one of the men, the thug shoots him dead. Panic ensues, and the would-be thieves flee. Diamond, "Bath's head of CID," leads the investigation, which features many oddities, including a witness hesitant to admit that he was bidding on the behalf of the British Museum. Convinced that the triggerman was paid by another, Diamond sends one of his team undercover, but the plot suffers from his subsequent absence. Hopefully, Lovesey will return to form in the next installment.
