The Vault

For me, just about any Brit mystery/ procedural is worthwhile, and I was not disappointed here. The story's many subplots may not always fit perfectly together, but they add historic and bibliophile interest. When a hand is delivered in a pizza box to the Bath police murder squad, it is determined to be about 15-20 years old, and probably the result of harm done during some excavating and building in an old vault near a cemetary, and also very near the spot where Mary Shelley may have written Frankenstein. An American professor-tourist discovers an old book that may also have belonged to Mrs. Shelley 180 years ago.Meanwhile, some interesting art that may be unknown Blakes also make the rounds. A very readable, interesting, and page-turning plot is woven around this, plus Inspector Diamond's investigations. We meet some eccentric Brits, including a middle ages puppeteer, some greedy antiques dealers, and a severely beaten police officer, plus a body in the nearby river. Though Diamond may not be the jolliest or most lovable detective, there's enough clues and action to keep the serious mystery buff page turning. The solution and ending are not quite up to speed, and a slight disappointment, but still a near top notch modern Brit mystery.

Peter Lovesey writes an excellent novel where he integrates several story lines into one complete and satisfying whole. In the English town of Bath, bones are found in a vault wall right under the Roman spas. DS Peter Diamond is sent to investigate what appears to be a cold case since the bones have been buried there for over two decades. He is not confident that he will be able to solve the mystery but he is going to try. Joe Dougan, an American English professor, is visiting Bath to fulfill his literary quest. He is so obsessed with literature that he is trying to track down the former home of author Mary Shelley where Frankenstein was supposed to be written. He is relentless in his quest and he attracts unwanted attention. Somebody has been hiding a secret for over twenty years and he is willing to kill in order to keep it a secret.Lovesey knows how to entertain the reading by bringing in humorous characters that are acting some form of stereotype. The author also provides several red herrings that are meant to distract the police. When the story reaches its unexpected conclusion one can appreciate how well the author structure the plot by leaving no loose ends. Peter Lovesey's book was fun to read. It will not be my last.

"The Vault" by Peter Lovesey is a clever little book about a literary mystery. Joe Dougan, an American professor on vacation, visits Bath to see the place where Mary Shelley actually wrote most of "Frankenstein". (This itself was fascinating since I had always assumed that it was written in Switzerland during the famous let's-write-a-ghost-story holiday with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley.) Believing it to be the remnants of Shelley's house, Dougan wants to enter a vault under the Pump Room where, coincidentally, police (in the form of DS Peter Diamond) have begun an excavation for a body after being presented with a skeletal hand uncovered during renovations. Dougan sneaks in past the police explaining later that he likes to visit places where creative things happened, feeling that it gives focus to a trip.Dougan believes that some of Shelley's possessions are still in Bath after coming across a copy of Milton's "Paradise Lost" (from which Frankenstein's creature quotes) containing the address of Shelley's now-demolished house and, to narrow his creative focus, begins a quest to find her writing box. The antiques dealer possessing the box is killed and Dougan, already known to police for creeping into the vault, becomes the prime suspect in the crime.The investigation into the death of the antiques dealer crosses that of the owner of the severed hand thus providing a layered story with lots of detail. The characters of the eccentric book seller, mendacious antique dealers, secretive puppeteer, vulterous relatives, shopaholic wife, blinkered, single-minded academic, and bluff detective all combine easily and work well to make the story chug along. While the book jacket announces that this is the fifth in the Diamond series, I have never read any others. I probably will though because this was a quick and satisfying summer read.

This is not a shoot'm up in the American style. It's a classic slow leisurely British who-done-it. Mr. Lovesey has a distinctive airy prose style that requires some investment on the part of the reader. Unfortunatly, this investment was not rewarded in the earlier novels in this series. The later novels (the last two in particular) have been much better. Mr. Lovesey seems to have realized that the frenzied plot gimmicks so dear to American writers aren't going to work for him (although he STILL reverts occasionally). Mr. Lovesey has a remarkable knack for the slow and simultaneous development of seemingly unrelated plots and sub-plots, charactors and sub-charactors. You wonder how they can possibly be related, how they can all be brought together and make sense. A Lovesey denouement can be almost as long as the development; as he slowly unravels his complicated plot. And great fun to boot!

A witty, irascible detective, an intricate plot and the touristy, historical and literary setting of Bath, England, add up to another crackling, well-written entertainment in Peter Lovesey's fifth Peter Diamond mystery.When renovations in the old vault under the less-old Pump Room turn up a too-modern skeleton of a hand, Diamond, head of Bath's murder squad, takes tea with the paying visitors while underlings sift rubble for further remains. But a new female chief with a bent for community relations and a nosy reporter with ambitions to detect soon complicate his straightforward investigation. Then a pesky American professor, hot on the trail of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," energetically re-educating Bathians about their city, stumbles into Diamond's purview when a disappearance and a fresh corpse bring this hilarious subplot to the forefront.With his preference for old-fashioned methods, his acerbic, ready wit and his low tolerance for fools and bores, Diamond drives Lovesey's narrative rather more easily than he steers a case burgeoning with schemers, haughty collectors and red herrings. Plot twists and complications keep the reader guessing but it's Diamond's big presence and dominant personality that makes this series ("The Last Detective," "The Summons"), from the award-winning author of the Victorian Sergeant Cribb series ("Wobble to Death" "Abracadaver"), a standout.