 |
- Mystery - |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Vault |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
T he Vault byPeter Lovesey Soho Press 304 pages, September 2000 ISBN 1569472084 Reviewed by Diane Gotfryd At first you don’t give the author credit for anything special. As you float through several effortless pages, a part of you is wondering how this author accumulated so many distinctions, including a CWA lifetime achievement award and the nod to be guest of honor at the 2001 Bouchercon. Then, it comes time to eat dinner or maybe make dinner, and you put it off for just one more page. And another. Finally you compromise and take the book with you to the phone, where you order a pizza. Not since Reginald Hill’s books have I felt so much a part of a real community. This time it is Bath, England, the site of the famous Roman Baths and a favorite location in Jane Austen’s books. Unknown to most people, including fat, testy Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond, is that another famous author Mary Shelley, wrote a manuscript there – Frankenstein. It takes a tourist from Ohio to stir the media into a monster frenzy, as he pokes and prods Bath’s citizens in an effort to find out more about Shelley. As he badgers antique storekeepers and booksellers, bones start turning up in Shelley’s former cellar. That’s all Diamond’s new boss needs to assign him to what could be a very old murder case. Not having read any of Lovesey’s previous novels (more shame to me), it took me awhile to appreciate Superintendent Diamond. Eventually, his obvious love and admiration for his wife won me over and I could enjoy his rougher edges. The other characters in the book are first rate and memorable. The tourist from Ohio raised my eyebrows – how does a college professor afford the finest hotels? And, horrors, Lovesey has him say "good value" and other English-isms an editor should have caught. The tie-in to Frankenstein was fascinating and the entire feel to the book made me want to revisit Bath again soon. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||