A Sergeant Cribb mystery
Winner: Prix du Roman d’Aventures, 1987
There was a great vogue for table-turning and getting in touch with the dead in Victorian times and this lent itself to fraud, at the very least. It seemed inevitable that Cribb and Thackeray should take part in a séance at some stage. They come to it indirectly, following an art theft. The owner, Dr Probert, has also been dabbling in the occult. When murder is done, the two detectives find themselves rubbing shoulder with some eccentric suspects, and a rather convincing medium.
UK publisher: Macmillan, 1975
UK paperback: Penguin, 1977
US publisher: Dodd, Mead, 1975
US Paperback: Penguin, 1977
Latest UK edition: Arrow, 1991
Latest US edition: Soho Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-56947-597-3
“Splendid plot, prepossessing good humour, unassertively satisfying prose. Warmly recommended.”
Edmund Crispin, Sunday Times
“Peter Lovesey is undeniably one of the best practitioners of the genre … An elegantly written book.”
William Heaver, Financial Times
“Neat puzzle whodunit with well-researched background of the Victorians’ séance craze, plus sauce of cheeky humour. Sheer entertainment.”
HRF Keating, The Times
“It has the delights of perfect period reconstruction.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“One of the best of this series, A Case of Spirits is lively and well-plotted.”
New York Times
“The writing is strikingly evocative of the period, and the plot is riveting.”
Woodrow Wyatt, The Times Saturday Review