Peter Lovesey

Skeleton Hill

A Peter Diamond Mystery

Battle and burial are built into the history of Lansdown Hill, so it is no great shock when part of a skeleton is unearthed there. But Peter Diamond can’t ignore the fresh corpse found close to the folly known as Beckford’s Tower. The hill becomes the setting for one of the most puzzling cases he has investigated, involving golf, horse racing, Civil War re-enactment and the Cyrillic alphabet. Inevitably, Diamond butts heads with a 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 by sending him to Bristol and handing the skeleton investigation to his deputy, Keith Halliwell. Fortunately matters don’t pan out as Georgina plans …

UK Publisher: Sphere, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-84744-333-5
US Publisher: Soho Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-56947-598-0

“Skeleton Hill, his 10th novel with Inspector Peter Diamond, is absolutely one of the best of this batch. Lovesey’s combination of wit, deduction and great characters is on display in a cunning mystery that would make Agatha Christie envious.” Margaret Cannon (Toronto Globe & Mail)

“A new Peter Diamond mystery is a cause for rejoicing … The man writes flat-out great British police procedurals that play fair and take the reader step by step through the logical process of solving puzzle murders … Peter Lovesey, who has won just about every major mystery award on two continents, is in top form here.” Joseph Scarpato Jr (Mystery Scene)

“Diamond is a classic — better catch him while you can.” Marilyn Stasio (New York Times)

“The excellence of Lovesey’s writing has been highly consistent over the years. When I open a new book by him my expectations are very high and they are always deliciously rewarded. One of the year’s best novels by a master storyteller.” George Easter (Deadly Pleasures)

The Headhunters

A Hen Mallin Mystery

“I could cheerfully murder my boss,” Gemma remarks over coffee. She and her friend Jo joke about fantastic ways of committing the crime. The game is so amusing that in a double date with Jake and Rick they discuss forming a murder society and soon the quartet are calling themselves “The Headhunters.” But some of Rick’s suggestions sound uncomfortably serious.

On the following Sunday morning, Jo is horrified to find a dead body on the beach at Selsey. By the time the police have identified the victim Gemma and Jo have found another corpse. This time it’s a colleague of Gemma’s. Worse still, Gemma’s boss is missing …

UK Publisher: Sphere, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-84744-213-0
US Publisher: Soho Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-1-56947-490-7

“Peter Lovesey excels in portraying ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events and The Headhunters is a splendid example … This is a very cleverly constructed mystery with well-rounded characters, and it confirms Lovesey’s place in the top echelon of British crime writers.” Susanna Yager (Sunday Telegraph)

“… a thoroughly delightful detective story, old-fashioned in the way that reminds us why we started reading and loving mysteries in the first place. If you are unfamiliar with the works of Mr Lovesey after nearly 40 years of excellence, it’s time to remedy that gap in your experience.” Otto Penzler (New York Sun)

“The Headhunters offers proof once again that nobody can write the modern traditional detective novel as perfectly as Lovesey.” Tom & Enid Schantz (Denver Post)

“You can always count on Peter Lovesey, one of England’s most respected mystery writers, to come up with a rollicking good detective yarn…. If you like a classic British mystery that keeps you guessing and moves quickly to a conclusion you’ll thoroughly enjoy The Headhunters.” Joseph Scarpato Jr. (Mystery Scene)

Swing, Swing Together

A Sergeant Cribb mystery

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière Winner, 1985

After Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat became a Victorian bestseller, rowing on the Thames was the great craze of 1889. The novel begins, however, with skinny-dipping (under another name) by some student teachers. By chance one of them finds herself a witness in a case of murder. The suspects? Three men in a boat.

When Cribb and Thackeray take to the river in pursuit, nobody will take them seriously. However, they stick doggedly to the trail, which leads upstream to Oxford.

UK Publisher: Macmillan, 1976
UK Paperback: Penguin, 1978
US Publisher: Dodd, Mead, 1976
US Paperback: Penguin, 1978
Latest UK edition: Arrow, 1991
Latest US edition: Soho Press, June, 2010

“Here’s charm and delight. A puzzle postlude to
Three Men in a Boat.”
HRF Keating, The Times

“Thames-side summer scenes plus real who-and-why puzzle add up to period piece of engaging charm.”
Francis Goff, Sunday Telegraph

“Lovely flavour of the time … ‘Naked? Completely, darling. In the buff. It’s awfully good fun.’ And so it all is.”
George Duthie, The Scotsman

“The most light-hearted, but by no means the least compelling, of Lovesey’s books.”
Marcel Berlins, The Times

“A relaxed and easy-going book, complete with traditional mystery traditionally solved. Enlivening the proceedings is a pert and attractive young lady who knows exactly what she wants.”
Newgate Callendar, New York Times

The Circle

A Hen Mallin mystery

When Parcel Force driver Bob Naylor plucks up courage to join his local writers’ circle in Chichester, he is nervous. He’s not much of a reader, let alone a writer. He expects to meet people unlike himself, with names like Maurice, Amelia, Zach and Thomasine – and he finds them. But while he is prepared for some naked ambition, he doesn’t know it will include murder.

Being catapulted into the middle of a detective story excites and inspires some of the circle. Bob is pressed into helping Thomasine’s unofficial investigation.

For the real-life detective Henrietta Mallin, these amateur sleuths muddy the waters. Especially as one thinks he’s a genius, one may well be a genius, and one has more in common with Lady Macbeth than Jane Austen. But Hen won’t take nonsense from any of them as she unravels the sinister secret of the circle.

UK Publisher: Time Warner Books, 2005 ISBN 0-316-72945-0
US Publisher: Soho Press, 2005 ISBN 1-56947-392-7
UK paperback: Time Warner, 2006 ISBN 0-7515-3690-3
Latest UK paperback: Sphere, 2014 ISBN 978-0751553581

“The superb Peter Lovesey provides yet another novel of unalloyed delight.”
Gerald Kaufman, The Scotsman

“Lovesey, who can out-Christie Dame Agatha when he sets his mind to it, offers a smorgasbord of red herrings, a nifty plot twist, charming bits of doggerel and delicious digs at writers of the unpublishable.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Lovesey cleverly exploits the internecine rivalry that often exists between writers (or would-be writers) and brilliantly keeps one guessing.”
Carla McKay, Daily Mail