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Beau Death

On sale

14th December 2017

Price: £19.99

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Selected: Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781405538794

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Peter Diamond investigates a mystery of the past in the seventeenth case for the brilliant Bath detective.

A wrecking ball crashes through the roof of a terraced cottage in Bath and exposes a skeleton in eighteenth-century clothes. Can these possibly be the remains of Beau Nash, the so-called King of Bath, whose body is said to have ended up in a pauper’s grave?

Peter Diamond, the city’s most experienced detective, is ordered to investigate, but grappling with historical events causes ructions in his team until everyone is diverted by a modern killing during a fireworks display on the Royal Crescent lawn.

But Beau Nash refuses to be ignored – and when astonishing new facts emerge about the case, Bath’s history is rewritten and mysteries ancient and modern are fused in a devastating climax.

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Reviews

Daily Mail
A case that has all the ingredients of a first-rate mystery. Peter Lovesey rarely puts a foot wrong
Richmond Times Dispatch
Peter Lovesey has a knack - to borrow a phrase from the Roman philosopher Seneca - for grabbing readers by the lapels and leading or dragging them on, willy-nilly, through a maze of blind-corner surprises and unexpected plot twists . . . it's hard to imagine a more pleasurable way to read away the long hours of a quiet, wintry night
Strand magazine
Beau Death is a doozy . . . Lovesey seems to have outdone himself with the labyrinthine maze of multiple murders and mysterious conundrums
Weekend Sport
'If you like your police procedurals intriguing, solid and well-written, Lovesey's your man'
Kirkus Reviews
'Lovesey moves from one dexterously nested puzzle to the next with all the confidence of a magician'
Publisher's Weekly
'One of Lovesey's cleverest . . . full of his trademark wry humour'
Washington Post
Peter Lovesey - the dean of English mystery novelists - remains as ingenious as ever in Beau Death
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
'You won't want to put it down'
Booklist
'There's plenty of suspense here - action too - all told in Lovesey's effortlessly elegant manner'
Literary Review
'This is a mystery story complete with clues and red herrings; it is also a crash course in 18th-century manners. All very enjoyable'
Chicago Tribune
It's a mystery that could easily be played for farce, but Lovesey employs his dry, caustic humor to cutting effect
Toronto Globe and Mail
Peter Lovesey is one author who can grab me on the title page . . . he's very, very good and knows his Bath history inside out . . . This is a great puzzle plot that will keep you guessing. Just what Lovesey does best
Martin Edwards
Peter Lovesey's characterisation, humour, and plotting are key, and I'm glad to report that these elements are here in abundance
Morning Star
Astonishingly convincing and inventive
New York Times
Witty, stylish and a bit of a rogue - that's what people said about Richard Nash, known as Beau, the notorious dandy who transformed the English city of Bath into 'the 18th-century equivalent of Vegas'. The same might be said of Peter Lovesey, whose elegant mysteries pay tribute to the past glories of this beautiful city
Seattle Times
The book, I am happy to say, is as tightly plotted and absorbing as the best of Lovesey's long-running series