Peter Lovesey

Invitation To A Dynamite Party / The Tick Of Death

A Sergeant Cribb mystery

(First US title – “The Tick Of Death”)

The year is 1884 and a series of bomb blasts has caused mayhem in London. The perpetrators are Irishmen seeking independence. One of the “infernal machines” has even bombed the CID office at Scotland Yard. Worse, Constable Thackeray is suspected of conspiring with the terrorists.

Reluctantly Sergeant Cribb attends a course in the science of bomb-making and infiltrates the Dynamite Party. Based on the real events in London in 1884-5, the story had its own resonance ninety years on.

UK Publisher: Macmillan, 1974
UK Paperback: Penguin, 1976
US Publisher, as THE TICK OF DEATH: Dodd, Mead, 1974
US Paperback: Penguin, 1976
Latest UK edition: Allison & Busby, 2002 ISBN 074900-552-1
Latest US edition as The Tick of Death: Soho Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-56947-596-6

“Irish bombers of 1884. Lovesey goes from strength to strength. A really entertaining extravaganza, judged to a nicety.”
HRF Keating, The Times

“The period detail is admirable: the narrative both witty and swift.”
Edmund Crispin, Sunday Times

“Tense and dramatic. The best book I have read for a long time.”
Birmingham Evening Mail

“Cribb Takes a course in explosives, infiltrates the mob and brings things to a happy conclusion. It’s fun.”
New York Times

“Finally, my tribute to a single author all of whose books have delighted me – this appreciation known as the Uncoveted Offord Award – goes to Peter Lovesey, whose novels with Victorian backgrounds are at once fresh, very funny and cleverly plotted. Mr Lovesey’s 1974 book was THE TICK OF DEATH, and his publishers are Dodd, Mead. Please sir, I want some more!”
Lenore Glen Offord, San Francisco Examiner Chronicle

Keystone

Put a solemn Englishman into police uniform and thrust him into the crazy world of Keystone Film Studios in 1916 and you have the premise for this novel. The King of Comedy, Mack Sennett, insists on calling the new cop Keystone. But comedy turns swiftly to crime. Shocking things occur that are not in any script – a horrific death on a rollercoaster, a body in a bungalow, the disappearance of a girl, a shooting on a beach.

Keystone the cop gets on the trail. His mission: to find the adorable and much abused blonde actress, Amber Honeybee. The action is threaded through the real stories of silent comedy stars Mack Sennett, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand.

UK Publisher: Macmillan, 1983
US Publisher: Pantheon, 1983
UK Paperback: Arrow, 1984
US Paperback: Pantheon, 1983
UK Paperback: Chivers Black Dagger, 1999
Latest UK Paperback: Sphere, 2014 ISBN 978-0751553567

“For openers on a dreary Sunday, what’s better reading than an offbeat, somewhat screwy yarn? That’s
Keystone, featuring as characters such old-time notables as Chester Conklin, Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett, all reunited once again for this delightful tale that revolves dizzily around the gorgeous Miss Honeybee – she spins cartwheels along the beach to show her lovely legs – and her knockabout British admirer.”
Nick Williams, Los Angeles Times

“Top marks for enjoyable charm.”
Felicia Lamb, Mail on Sunday

“A witty fantasy set among real stars of the silent screen … Stylish as ever.”
Francis Goff, Sunday Telegraph

Mad Hatter’s Holiday

A Sergeant Cribb mystery

Shortlisted for the CWA Dagger Awards, 1973

The Victorian entertainment chosen for Cribb’s next case was the seaside. Brighton was an obvious choice for me, as it was my first sight of the sea after the war. Albert Moscrop, an obsessive voyeur, wanders the sea front in 1882 using his telescope. The beautiful Zena Prothero is particularly fascinating to watch.

Then the whole of Brighton is horrified by the discovery of a murder. The local police need the help of Scotland Yard, so Cribb and Thackeray get a chance of some sea air.

UK Publisher: Macmillan, 1973
UK Paperback: Panther, 1974
US Publisher: Dodd, Mead, 1973
US Paperback: Penguin, 1981
Reissued in the US in June, 2009, by Soho Press

“A minor gem, catching to perfection the social atmospherics of Victorian Brighton and at the same time telling an ingenious story of murder and discovery.”
Publishers Weekly

“His best yet.”
HRF Keating, The Times

“Positively, this is the best Lovesey to date.”
Anthony Price, Oxford Mail

This is easily the best story Mr Lovesey has written.”
FE Pardoe, Birmingham Post

“The sleuthing is neat and satisfying: in the meantime, Victorian pleasures, permitted and illicit, are rendered up with gusto.”
Matthew Coady, The Guardian

Bertie And The Tinman

A Bertie, Prince of Wales, mystery

Listed in the Hatchards Top 100 Crime Novels

It is 1886 and the greatest of all jockeys, Fed Archer, has put his gun to his head and shot himself. An inquest is arranged with indecent haste. His mind was unhinged by typhoid, say the jury, despite conflicting evidence.

The Prince is suspicious. He admired Archer. He knows the Turf better than anyone on that jury and he has personal experience of typhoid. When he learns that Archer’s last words were, “Are they coming?”
he decides on action. He will turn his unique talents to solving the mystery and tell us in his inimitable fashion how he does it.

UK Publisher: The Bodley Head, 1987 ISBN 0-370-31113-2
US Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1988 ISBN 0-89296-196-1
UK Paperback: Arrow, 1988 ISBN 0-09-956500-5
US Paperback: Mysterious Press, 1988

“Hugely entertaining … It’s Dick Francis by gaslight.”
Peter Grosvenor, Daily Express

“Thank heavens for Peter Lovesey, who has produced another accomplished novel.”
Joan Smith, London Evening Standard

“Lovesey proved himself the world’s foremost concocter of latter-day Victoriana in his series of mysteries built around Sergeant Cribb … The rueful, candid voice he gives to the fleshy prince rings true, the details of the horse-racing and music-hall worlds are vivid, and much of the tale is sweetly funny.”
William A Henry III, Time

“One doesn’t wish to put that nice Sergeant Cribb out of a job: but we can’t wait to go out on another case with dear Bertie.”
Marilyn Stasio, Philadelphia Inquirer

Bertie And The Seven Bodies

A Bertie, Prince of Wales, mystery

In 1890 twelve guests gather at Desborough Hall for a week’s shooting party hosted by the beautiful Lady Amelia Hammond. Months of planning have left nothing to chance, for the main guests are the Prince and Princess of Wales. But events take a sinister turn when the vivacious Queenie Chimes collapses face down in the chef’s lovingly created bombe-glacée. More deaths follow and clues planted on the bodies point shockingly to a final tally of seven, one for each day of the week. Bertie is impelled to investigate.

Written in the tradition of the “golden age” detective story, the book was intended as a homage to Agatha Christie in the year of her centenary.

UK Publisher: Century, 1990 ISBN 0-7126-3471-1
US Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1990 ISBN 0-89296-399-9
UK Paperback: Arrow, 1991 ISBN 0-09-969620-7
US Paperback: Mysterious Press, 1991 ISBN 0-445-40858-8
Felony & Mayhem 2006 ISBN 1-933397-36-5

“This is a delightful and amusing period piece, particularly in the interplay between the libidinous Bertie and his rather more intelligent wife, Alexandra, who stoically endures his inclination to dally with anything in skirts.”
Jay Iliff, Sunday Express

“High-class Victorian entertainment written with wit.”
Marcel Berlins, The Times

“Seamlessly plotted, populated with a dynamic cast, and often howlingly funny.”
Les Roberts, Cleveland Plain Dealer