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This page lists novels, short story collections and non-fiction by Peter Lovesey. Novels published using the pen name Peter Lear are also included as are anthologies edited by Lovesey and other related publications.

Cover images are, when possible, of the first UK edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

By Peter Lovesey:
- novels / short story collections
- Peter Lear novels
- non-fiction

Edited by Peter Lovesey:
- anthologies

Miscellaneous:
- related publications

Wobble to Death

Peter Lovesey

1970

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"In Victorian London, race-walking, or 'wobbles', are all the rage. So on a Monday morning in November 1879 the crowds gather for Islington's bizarre six-day endurance walking race. By Tuesday, one of the contestants is dead. Tetanus from a blister is assumed, but then there is a second death, and this time it's definitely murder. A bemused Sergeant Cribb from Scotland Yard is called in, along with Constable Thackeray, and they soon discover that something foul is at play."

The Detective Wore Silk Drawers

Peter Lovesey

1971

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"Forbidden in Victorian England, the grim and violent world of bare-knuckle fighting has gone underground. So when a headless body is found floating in the Thames, his hands 'pickled' for fighting, Sergeant Cribb knows he is facing a challenge. Desperate for information, they select the young constable Henry Jago to infiltrate the gang, subjecting him to a rigorous programme of purging, pickling and training. Cribb is certain that the losing fighters are being killed, or worse, so getting Jago out just in time is crucial."

Abracadaver

Peter Lovesey

1972

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"A practical joker is haunting the popular music halls of Victorian London - but far from being funny, his intentions are deeply sinister. A trapeze artist misses her timing when the ropes are shortened; a comedian who invites the audience to sing along with him finds the words of his song 'shamefully' altered; mustard has been applied to a sword swallower's blade; a singer's costume has been rigged; the girl in a magician's box is trapped. And then the mischief escalates to murder. Or was murder intended all along? The indomitable detective team of Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray dive into the back rooms and dark alleyways of London as they pursue the elusive criminal."

Mad Hatter's Holiday

Peter Lovesey

1973

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"It's 1882 and Albert Moscrop is holidaying in Brighton, his time dedicated to taking in the seaside scenes, no matter how private. Marching down Queen's Road to the beach, he draws us straight into a compelling drama played out in the fashionable haunts of the nineteenth-century resort: beach, pier, promenade, swimming bath and Devil's Dyke. A keen observer, Moscrop is fascinated by one particular family - the Protheros; and in particular the beautiful Zena Prothero, excessively taken for granted by her husband. Gradually, Moscrop moves into the circle of the Prothero family, only to become involved in a sensational and gruesome murder which horrifies all of Brighton. The local police seek the help of Scotland Yard, provided in the persons of Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray. Once there, they find themselves facing the strangest case of their careers, one just as mystifying as it is macabre."

Invitation to a Dynamite Party

Peter Lovesey

1974

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"The year is 1884 and London is being terrorised by a series of bomb blasts. One of the 'infernal machines' has even bombed the CID office at Scotland Yard and, worst of all, Constable Thackeray is suspected of conspiring with the perpetrators. Determined to help Thackeray at any cost, Sergeant Cribb reluctantly agrees to attend a course on the science of bomb-making in a bid to gain the expert knowledge he needs to infiltrate the terrorists. But before he is ready, he is abducted at gun-point by an Irish-American hammer-thrower, and finds himself an unwilling but vital member of the Dynamite Party."

A Case of Spirits

Peter Lovesey

1975

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"The spiritualist movement has captivated Victorian society: 'sensitivities' and reaching out to the dead are highly in vogue. But the séance is also the perfect cover-up for fraud, or worse, by some decidedly less authentic individuals. As Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray investigate one such instance resulting in an art-theft, they are drawn into a dark and unsettling world, where it is almost impossible to see who is telling the truth. A medium has been murdered, and the suspects are a mix of the eccentric and the highly unsavoury."

Swing, Swing Together

Peter Lovesey

1976

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"After Jerome K. Jerome's Victorian bestseller Three Men in a Boat, rowing on the Thames has become a huge craze. But when several student teachers partake in a midnight skinny dip, one of them finds herself a witness to a body being dumped. The suspects: three men in a boat. When Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackery begin to investigate, no one will take them seriously. However, refusing to give up, they stick to their trail and follow their supicions upstream towards Oxford."

Waxwork

Peter Lovesey

1978

A Sergeant Cribb novel.

"By her own confession, the beautiful Miriam Cromer is a murderess. She is sentenced to death for the killing of her husband's assistant, and the hangman travels to London to earn his fee. Then the Home Office is sent a photograph that casts doubt on her confession, and the matter must be investigated - fast. Sergeant Cribb is called in, but his investigations produce nothing to ease the minds of the authorities. As he plunges deeper into the relationships and history of the intimate group connected with the murder, he becomes increasingly suspicious that something very different indeed happened at Park Lodge, Kew Green, on that March day in 1888."

The False Inspector Dew

Peter Lovesey

1982

"It is 1921, and Alma Webster, a reader of romances, is passionately in love with her dentist, Walter Baranov. There is only one foreseeable outcome: the murder of his wife. Inspired by the real-life Dr Crippen case, they plot a way to achieve it perfectly aboard the ocean liner, Mauretania. With a fine sense of irony, Baranov takes the identity of Inspector Dew, Crippen's nemesis. But when a murder is reported aboard the ship and 'Inspector Dew' is invited to investigate, the complications begin."

Keystone

Peter Lovesey

1983

"Warwick Easton is a cop - a movie cop, that is. Landing in the crazy world of Keystone Film Studios, California, in 1916, his screen prospects look bleak. But a chance meeting with a silent comedy star lands him a job as Keystone the cop. Danger is to be expected - but murder is quite another thing. Terrible events begin to occur, 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 gets on the trail and sets out to find the adorable and much abused blonde actress, Amber Honeybee, before it is far too late."

Butchers And Other Stories Of Crime

Peter Lovesey

1985

A short story collection.

The contents are:

• Butchers
• Vandals
• The Corder Figure
• Private Gorman’s Luck
• The Secret Lover
• Did You Tell Daddy?
• The Bathroom
• Arabella’s Answer
• How Mr Smith Traced His Ancestors
• Fall-Out
• Belly Dance
• Trace of Spice
• The Virgin and the Bull
• The Staring Man
• Woman and Home
• The Locked Room

Rough Cider

Peter Lovesey

1986

"It is World War II and American soldiers stationed in rural England have made friends, especially with the local girls. After a dance to celebrate the pressing of the apples into cider, the resentment of the local men leads to violence and a murder. Later, a baby girl is born. Years later, Theo, a university lecturer, is approached by an American girl called Alice. She wants to be told about her father, a GI hanged for murder in Somerset during World War II. As a boy, Theo had been a principal witness for the prosecution. Alice persuades him to revisit the farm where Theo was evacuated, staunchly determined to discover the facts. The horrors of the past take on a frightening immediacy when long-forgotten jealousies come to the surface and another murder is committed."

On the Edge

Peter Lovesey

1989

Subsequently published as Dead Gorgeous.

"Rose and Antonia had a good war. As WAAF plotters, they had all the excitement and independence of a difficult and dangerous job, and all the fun of being two women on an RAF base. Peacetime is a disappointment. There is rationing, shortages, and nothing to do. Rosie's war-hero husband has turned into a brutal lout: Antonia, bored with her rich manufacturer, wants to move to America with her lover. Neither can afford a divorce. But what are plotters for, if not to plot? And Antonia's ruthless scheme would give them both what they want. If Rose doesn't lose her nerve, they could get away with murder."

The Last Detective

Peter Lovesey

1991

A Peter Diamond novel.

"A woman's naked body is found floating in the weeds of a lake near Bath, by an elderly woman walking her Siamese cats. No-one comes forward to identify her, and no murder weapon is found, but sleuthing is Superintendent Peter Diamond's speciality. A genuine gumshoe, practising door-stopping and deduction: he is the last detective. Struggling with office politics and a bizarre cast of suspects, Diamond strikes out on his own, even when Forensics think they have the culprit. Eventually, despite disastrous personal consequences, and amongst Bath's rambling buildings and formidable history, the last detective exposes the uncomfortable truth."

The Perfect Murder: Five Great Mystery Writers Create the Perfect Crime

Lawrence Block, Sarah Caudwell, Tony Hillerman, Peter Lovesey and Donald E. Westlake

Editor: Jack Hitt

1991

A collaborative novel in which five crime fiction authors provide a character with methods for committing the perfect murder.

Diamond Solitaire

Peter Lovesey

1992

A Peter Diamond novel.

"Peter Diamond, ex-CID and notoriously difficult to work with, is sacked from his latest job as a security guard in Harrods. Doggedly he turns his sleuthing skills to unravelling the mystery of a little Japanese girl abandoned in London. Naomi, as she is known, exhibits the classic symptoms of an autistic child. Diamond regards her first as a challenge and soon as someone he cares passionately about, and devotes himself to communicating with the child. He is close to a breakthrough when Naomi is abducted to New York. By interpreting clues from drawings left by Naomi, Diamond goes in pursuit and is plunged into a maelstrom of murder and the mafia, suicide and drugs."

The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown And Other Stories

Peter Lovesey

1994

A short story collection.

The contents are:

• The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown
• The Model Con
• Where is Thy Sting?
• Being of Sound Mind
• Shock Visit
• The Haunted Crescent* Curl Up and Dye
• Friendly Yachtsman, 39
• The Pomeranian Poisoning
• Ginger’s Waterloo
• A Case of Butterflies
• Youdunnit
• The Lady in the Trunk
• Pass the Parcel
• You May See a Strangler
• The Curious Computer
• The Man Who Ate People
• Supper with Miss Shivers

The Summons

Peter Lovesey

1995

A Peter Diamond novel.

"The summons comes at night. Two policemen collect Peter Diamond from his West London flat and drive him to Bath. Once head of the murder squad there, he is now out of touch in his retirement, unaware of an audacious escape from Albany Prison. Four years previously, Diamond headed the investigation of the bizarre murder of a Swedish woman journalist, her mouth stuffed with red roses. Now the convicted murderer is at large and has already kidnapped the daughter of the Assistant Chief Constable. He is demanding that the case be re-examined and he will deal only with Diamond."

Bloodhounds

Peter Lovesey

1996

A Peter Diamond novel.

"Darling, if ever I've met a group of potential murderers anywhere, it's the Bloodhounds. Thus says one of the members of the Bloodhounds of Bath, a society that meets in a crypt to discuss crime novels. But to their latest recruit, they seem just a gaggle of dotty misfits, until one of them reveals that he is in possession of an immensely valuable stamp, recently stolen from the Postal Museum. Then theft is overtaken by murder when the corpse of one of the Bloodhounds is found in a locked houseboat, with the only key in the possession of a man with a perfect alibi. Burly Peter Diamond finds himself embroiled in a mystery evoking the classic crime puzzles of John Dickson Carr."

Upon a Dark Night

Peter Lovesey

1997

A Peter Diamond novel.

"A young woman emerges from a coma. Who is she, and why was she dumped unconscious in a hospital car park upon a dark night? She is unable to recall anything, even her name. Then Ada Shaftsbury, a boisterous shoplifter she meets in a homeless hostel, takes up her cause and names her Rose. Peter Diamond is already investigating a suspicious death - a woman has plunged from the roof of Bath's Royal Crescent during a party and none of the guests seem to know who she is. Badgered by Ada and galvanised by another gruesome death, Diamond takes on the case, and is soon forced to admit that Rose is the key. But she has disappeared and Diamond's own dark night is just beginning."

Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose

Peter Lovesey

1998

A short story collection.

The contents are:

• Because it Was There
• Bertie and the Boat Race
• Bertie and the Fire Brigade
• The Case of the Easter Bonnet
• Disposing of Mrs Cronk
• The Mighty Hunter
• Murder in Store
• Never a Cross Word
• The Odstock Curse
• A Parrot is Forever
• Passion Killers
• The Proof of the Pudding
• The Pushover
• Quiet Please — We’re Rolling
• Wayzgoose

The Vault

Peter Lovesey

1999

A Peter Diamond novel.

"When a severed hand from the vault of Bath Abbey Churchyard arrives on Peter Diamond's desk, he is delighted to hear that, far from being a medieval relic, it is from the 1980s. But the vault is part of the house where Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was written, and a fanatical American professor is thwarting their investigation. Events are complicated even further when the professor's wife goes missing . . . Highly suspicious of the professor, but unable to prove anything, Diamond concentrates on trying to identify the remains, with shocking result. But before he can get any further, the owner of Bath's largest antique emporium is brutally murdered - and the last person to see her alive was the Professor."

The Reaper

Peter Lovesey

2000

"Otis Joy is a very good vicar - he attracts record-breaking congregations, is admired and respected by all, and the village of Foxford is delighted to have him. What the citizens of Foxford don't realise, though, is that their beloved parish priest is a murderer. When the bishop gets suspicious of Joy's channelling of church funds into his own bank account, Joy kills him - after all, such a trifling misdemeanour should not prevent him from carrying out his duties. However, this isn't the first time he's despatched 'busy-bodies' and rumours are beginning to circulate. So when the husband of his new treasurer is found dead, perhaps he's taken one life too many."

The Sedgemoor Strangler

Peter Lovesey

2001

A short story collection.

The contents are:

• The Sedgemoor Strangler
• The Perfectionist
• Interior, With Corpse
• Dr Death
• The Four Wise Men
• Away With the Fairies
• Showmen
• The Word of a Lady
• Star Struck
• The Amorous Corpse
• The Kiss Of Death
• The Stalker
• Ape
• The Usual Table
• The Problems of Stateroom 10
• Murdering Max

Diamond Dust

Peter Lovesey

2002

A Peter Diamond novel.

"When a woman is shot dead in Bath's Royal Victoria Park, it is Detective Peter Diamond who answers the call first. He is able to identify the victim immediately: his wife, Stephanie. Traumatised and angry for justice, Diamond eventually concedes that he cannot take part in the investigation. But when he realises that his colleagues are spending more time checking his alibi than following up on his suggestions, he decides some unauthorised investigation is needed. Soon he is sifting through the dust of his entire career, unearthing startling and unexpected facts which bring him closer to the truth, and to avenging his beloved wife."

The House Sitter

Peter Lovesey

2003

A Peter Diamond novel. DCI Hen Mallin also appears in this novel.

"At first everyone presumes that the woman behind the windbreak is asleep. It is only when the tide comes in, lapping at her feet, that the horrific crime is discovered. The woman is identified as Emma Tysoe, top psychologist and criminal profiler. Bath detective Peter Diamond and DCI Hen Millen are desperate for answers: why was she sun-bathing alone so far from home? Where is the murder weapon? What happened to the man who found her? When they discover that Emma was secretly investigating the assassination of a celebrity, the case seems tantalisingly near to a close. But as a cold and calculating killer shakes their grasp, even Diamond struggles to make all the pieces fit."

The Circle

Peter Lovesey

2005

An Inspector Hen Mallin novel. Peter Diamond also appears.

"When widowed parcel-force worker Bob Naylor plucks up the courage to join a writers' circle, he discovers a motley collection of wannabe authors whom he would rather avoid at all costs. But when a publisher is found murdered, after recently addressing the group, Bob feels compelled to stay. Investigating Officer Hen Mallin attempts to investigate the group, despite their amateur sleuthing efforts and exhaustingly dramatic outbursts. And as another death casts the bewildered Bob in suspicion, the sinister secret of this circle finally starts to come to light."

The Secret Hangman

Peter Lovesey

2007

A Peter Diamond novel.

"Bath detective Peter Diamond is having woman trouble. His boss wants him to find the missing daughter of one of her friends. He is not enthusiastic. A woman calling herself his Secret Admirer wants to arrange a date in a pub. He tries ignoring her. And his colleague, sexy Ingeborg Smith, distracts the murder squad from their duties. No one ignores Ingeborg. Then a woman's body is found hanging from a playground swing, with a suspicious second ligature mark around her neck and a very colourful past. As more hangings are discovered, Diamond is certain that a secret hangman is at work in the city."

The Headhunters

Peter Lovesey

2008

An Inspector Hen Mallin novel.

"Jo and Gemma are friends who meet for coffee every Saturday to gossip and discuss the state of the world. At one such meeting, Gemma mentions killing her boss and Jo goes along with the joke. But Jo is not amused when she finds a real body on the beach at Selsey soon afterwards - an unidentified nearly-naked woman, who has been drowned. It take DCI Hen Mallin and her team some time to discover who the woman is, and as they are investigating, Jo and Gemma are getting into more trouble - they keep coming across dead bodies."

Murder on the Short List

Peter Lovesey

2008

A short story collection.

The contents are:

• The Field
• Bullets
• Razor Bill
• Needle Match
• A Blow on the Head
• The Munich Posture
• The Best Suit
• The Man Who Jumped for England
• Second Strings
• Bertie and the Christmas Tree
• Say That Again
• Popping Round to the Post
• Window of Opportunity
• The Case of the Dead Wait

Skeleton Hill

Peter Lovesey

2009

A Peter Diamond novel.

"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, Bath's Head of CID, 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, horseracing, Civil War re-enactment and the Cyrillic alphabet. Inevitably, Diamond butts heads with the 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."

Stagestruck

Peter Lovesey

2011

A Peter Diamond novel.

"There's plenty of drama, of the wrong kind, when a fading pop star wanting to launch an acting career at Bath's Theatre Royal gets taken to hospital with third degree burns. In the best theatrical tradition, the show goes on, but the agony turns to murder. Bath's top detective, Peter Diamond, is on the case - but for reasons he can't understand, he suffers a physical reaction amounting to phobia each time he goes near the theatre. Before he can find the killer, he must face his own demons."

Cop to Corpse

Peter Lovesey

2012

A Peter Diamond novel.

"In the small hours of a Sunday morning in the city of Bath a policeman on beat duty is shot dead by an unseen gunman - the third killing of an officer in Somerset in a matter of weeks. The emergency services are summoned. Ambitious to arrest the Somerset Sniper, the duty inspector, Ken Lockton, seals the crime scene, which is confined by the river on one side and a massive retaining wall on the other. He discovers the murder weapon in a garden - and is himself attacked and left for dead. Enter Peter Diamond, Bath's burly CID chief. Middle-aged and not built for action, he pits himself and his team against the killer in a hunt that will test his physical powers to the limit."

The Tooth Tattoo

Peter Lovesey

2013

A Peter Diamond novel.

"Strange things are happening to jobbing musician Mel Farran, who finds himself scouted by methods closer to the spy world than the concert platform. The chance of joining a once-famous string quartet in a residency at Bath Spa University is too tempting for Mel to refuse. Then a body is found in the city canal, and the only clue to the dead woman's identity is the tattoo of a musical note on one of her teeth. For Diamond, who wouldn't know a Stradivarius from a French horn, the investigation is his most demanding ever. Three mysterious deaths need to be probed while his own personal life is in free fall."

The Stone Wife

Peter Lovesey

2014

A Peter Diamond novel.

"Just as the bidding gets exciting in a Bath auction house, three armed men stage a hold-up and attempt to steal Lot 129, a medieval carving of the Wife of Bath. The highest bidder, appalled to have the prize snatched away, tries to stop them and is shot dead. Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad, soon finds himself sharing an office with the stone wife - until he is ejected. To his extreme annoyance the lump of stone appears to exert a malign influence over him and his investigation. Refusing to be beaten, he rallies his team and begins finding suspects and motives. The case demands that someone goes undercover. The dangerous mission falls to Sergeant Ingeborg Smith, reverting to her journalist persona to get the confidence of a wealthy local criminal through his pop star girlfriend. And soon, murder makes a reappearance."

Down Among the Dead Men

Peter Lovesey

2015

A Peter Diamond novel. Hen Mallin also appears in this book.

"A nightmare discovery in the boot of a stolen BMW plunges car thief Danny Stapleton into the worst trouble of his life. What links his misfortune to the mysterious disappearance of an art teacher at a private school for girls in Chichester? Orders from above push Peter Diamond of Bath CID into investigating a police corruption case in the Chichester force, and he soon finds himself reluctantly dealing with spirited schoolgirls, eccentric artists and his formidable old colleague, Hen Mallin."

Another One Goes Tonight

Peter Lovesey

2016

A Peter Diamond novel.

"Peter Diamond, the Bath detective brilliant at rooting out murder, is peeved at being diverted to Professional Standards to enquire into a police car accident. Arriving late at the scene, he discovers an extra victim thrown onto an embankment - unconscious and unnoticed. Diamond administers CPR, but no one can say whether the elderly tricyclist will pull through. But why had the man been out in the middle of the night with an urn containing human ashes? Diamond 's suspicions grow after he identifies the accident victim as Ivor Pellegrini, a well-known local eccentric and railway enthusiast. A search of Pellegrini's workshop proves beyond question that he is involved in a series of uninvestigated deaths. While Pellegrini lingers on life support, Diamond wrestles with the appalling possibility that he has saved the life of a serial killer."

The Sinking Admiral

Members of the Detection Club

Editor: Simon Brett

2016

A Collaborative Novel Written By Simon Brett, Kate Charles, Natasha Cooper, Stella Duffy, Martin Edwards, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Tim Heald, Michael Jecks, Janet Laurence, Peter Lovesey, Michael Ridpath, David Roberts, L.C. Tyler, and Laura Wilson.

"The Admiral is a pub in the Suffolk seaside village of Crabwell, The Admiral Byng. ‘The Admiral’ is also the nickname of its landlord, Geoffrey Horatio Fitzsimmons, as well as the name of the landlord’s dinghy. None of them are as buoyant as they should be, for the pub is threatened with closure due to falling takings. Tempers are already frayed due to the arrival of a television documentary team when Fitzsimmons is found dead in his tethered boat. The villagers assume a simple case of suicide and fear that their debt-ridden pub will now sink without trace. The journalists seem determined to finish the job by raking up old skeletons, but they weren’t banking on the fact that this story has been written by 14 extremely competitive crime writers – arch bamboozlers who will stop at nothing to save a good pub."

Beau Death

Peter Lovesey

2017

A Peter Diamond novel.

"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."

Goldengirl

Peter Lear

1977

"The story of Goldengirl, who was programmed to take the 1980 Moscow Olympics by storm. How was it possible that this superbly built 19 year old honey-blonde could achieve so much from nowhere and earn a fortune for her backers?"

Spider Girl

Peter Lear

1980

Republished as In Suspense

"Sarah finds her studies so absorbing, that much of campus life seems to pass her by. She barely registers her research assistant’s interest in her, even though Don is the college Lothario and pursued by many female students. Even Sarah’s relationships with family and friends are perfunctory and distant, but that, it seems, is how she prefers to live. When Sarah is filmed for a TV documentary about spiders, she meets a psychologist involved in the show, and the pair strike up a friendship. As they spend more and more time together, Sarah realises that she wants more than friendship from Dr Cunningham and he gradually discovers just why Sarah is the way she is. Meanwhile, dubbed ‘Spider Girl’ by the media for her involvement in a ground-breaking show about those arachnids, Sarah is drawn further and further into the world of show business. Yet as Spider Girl becomes more and more famous, she can’t help feeling that Sarah is slowly fading away. For Sarah, Spider Girl is a refuge and a way to feel better about herself. But what are the implications of Spider Girl for the people around her? When a man is found dead in the college gymnasium, people begin to wonder… For Don, what begins as a mission to love and save Sarah turns into a living nightmare. Will he be able to save Spider Girl from herself? And if he does not, where will she strike next?"

The Secret of Spandau

Peter Lear

1986

"Rudolf Hess was the most closely guarded prisoner in the world. Forty-five years after his capture in Scotland on a supposed peace mission he was still in Spandau Prison. Why was it necessary to keep him there so long? He was a Nazi - but one with a damaging tale to tell. If anyone can reach him it is Berlin correspondent Red Goodbody, known for his foolhardiness, but also for his daring and panache. The fear is that the stability of Western Europe may be undermined by what Hess can reveal; and so both the KGB and MI5 move into action to protect the extraordinary secret of Spandau."

The Kings of Distance

Peter Lovesey

1968

"This, my first book, grew out of my strong interest in the history of athletics, It followed the careers of five great distance runners – Deerfoot, W.G.George, Alf Shrubb, Paavo Nurmi and Emil Zatopek – who competed at intervals of about twenty years from the 1860s to the 1960s. Little had been written about the first three, and Deerfoot was practically unknown, in spite of having been a sensation in his time. Each athlete was given a chapter and there were more chapters comparing them and the conditions in which they trained and competed. The foreword was written by Harold Abrahams, the Olympic champion later immortalised in Chariots of Fire."

The Guide to British Track and Field Literature, 1275–1968

Peter Lovesey & Tom McNab

1969

The Official Centenary History of the Amateur Athletic Association

Peter Lovesey

1979

"A large-format colour illustrated book that traces the history of the world’s oldest regulatory body in athletics, this was planned with Harold Abrahams (best known outside the sport for being the character played by Ben Cross in Chariots of Fire) who sadly died when it was still being written. The book is as much about the personalities of a century of athletics as it is about the organisation."

An Athletics Compendium: A Guide to the Literature of Track and Field

Tom McNab, Peter Lovesey, Andrew Huxtable

2001

"The genesis for this book was a 1969 compilation in which Peter Lovesey and Tom McNab described all books on track and field to date. Both authors have had a lifetime interest and involvement in athletics and the present work builds on that knowledge and expertise to give the reader a definitive guide to the UK literature of track and field. This 'super' bibliography includes an extensive introductory overview of the literature by Tom McNab, as well as annotations contributed by all three compilers. The compendium covers the history, theory and practice, and personalities of athletics as well as special chapters on athletics in literature and the visual arts."

British Athletics 1866-80

Peter Lovesey and Keith Morbey

2016

"Track and field athletics grew from infancy to adulthood in a fifteen-year period explored in this ground-breaking book. The world's first national championships, launched in 1866 by the Amateur Athletic Club, set the basic programme still followed today in its metric equivalent in the Olympic Games and all championships. Giants of Victorian sport like W.G.Grace, Donald Dinnie, Tom Malone, the Davin brothers and Walter George competed regularly. Organised athletics was then taken up in Europe, the Empire and America. After an introduction that transports the reader to a typical meeting of 1866, the book comprises full results of the championships, annual year lists by performer and performance, an index of more than 3000 names with birth and death dates where known (a valuable resource for family historians), a summary of key developments and a copy of the first rules."

The Black Cabinet

Editor: Peter Lovesey

1989

An anthology of stories based on real crimes.

"Beginning with the bizarre case reported by the young Abraham Lincoln himself, this work discusses actual unsolved crimes: Lizzie Bordon's bloody spree, the Kitty Genovese murder, the assassination of President Lincoln."

• J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
• The Fall River Axe Murders (Angela Carter)
• A Retrieved Information (O. Henry)
• The Gioconda Smile (Aldous Huxley)
• They Bite (Anthony Boucher)
• The Greeting (Osbert Sitwell)
• Milady Bigamy (Lillian de la Torre)
• The Bathroom (Peter Lovesey)
• The Crocodile Dressing Case (Roy Vickers)
• The Wrong Jar (Anthony Berkley)
• Homecoming (Mirian Allen DeFord)
• The Whimper of Whipped Dogs (Harlan Ellison)
• The Black Cabinet (John Dickson Carr)
• The Trailor Murder Mystery (Abraham Lincoln)

3rd Culprit: A Crime Writers' Association Annual

Editor: Liza Cody, Michael Z. Lewin and Peter Lovesey

1995

An anthology of mystery stories. The contents are:

• A Needle For The Devil (Ruth Rendell)
• The Hampstead Vegetable Heist (Mat Coward)
• Mr. Idd (H.R.F. Keating)
• The Birdman Of Bow Street (Joan Lock)
• Someone Got To Eddie (Ian Rankin)
• Too Many Crooks (Donald E. Westlake)
• The Writing On The Wall (Val Mcdermid)
• Social Work (William G. Tapply)
• Six In The Morning (Maxim Jakubowski)
• The Hand That Feeds Me (Michael Z. Lewin)
• The Butcher Of St. Pierre (Susan Kelly)
• The Great Tetsuji (Sara Paretsky)
• Cryptic Crime Acrostic (Sarah Caudwell & Michael Z. Lewin)
• The Train (Stephen Murray)
• Fancy (Bill James)
• The Crumple Zone (John Malcolm)
• Good Investments (Celia Dale)
• Chased Delights, Or, The Missing Minutes (Keith Heller)
• The Christmas Present (Bob Lock)
• Something Happened At The Time (Madelaine Duke)
• Night Flight (James Melville)
• Give Us A Clue (Joan Lock)
• Second Best Man (David Williams)
• Trumpets For Max Jericho (Robert Brack)
• Cold And Deep (Frances Fyfield)

The Verdict Of Us All: Stories By The Detection Club For H.R.F. Keating

Editor: Peter Lovesey

2006

"Members of London's famed Detection Club have joined together to honor one of their own - H.R.F. Keating, historian of the genre, winner of the Gold Dagger (for best novel) and the Diamond Dagger (for Lifetime Achievement), and creator of one of the greatest fictional sleuths, Inspector Ganesh Ghote."

• Tuesday's Child (Lionel Davidson)
• Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Swindle (Len Deighton)
• Uncle Harry (Reginald Hill)
• The Case of the Curious Quorum (Colin Dexter)
• Hearing Ghote (P.D. James)
• Kali in Kensington Gardens (Liza Cody)
• Perfidious Albion (Catherine Aird)
• Popping Round to the Post (Peter Lovesey)
• Mayhem at Mudchester (James Melville)
• Keeping My Head (Andrew Taylor)
• Bearded Wonders (Tim Heald)
• Sisters Under the Skin (Robert Barnard)
• Initial Impact (Simon Brett)
• A Case for Inspector Ghote (June Thomson)
• Friends of the Garrick (Michael Z. Lewin)
• Bundobast on Voyage (Jonathan Gash)
• Different Time, Different Place (Michael Hartland)
• Arkady Nikolaivich (H.R.F. Keating)

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The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers

Foreword: Peter Lovesey

2016

"Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Niccolò Machiavelli sets out to save an Italian city. Sherlock Holmes’s one-time nemesis Irene Adler finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this delectable volume will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe, from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana."

• Jane and the Midnight Clear (Stephanie Barron)
• Red Christmas (James R. Benn)
• Cabaret aux Assassins (Cara Black)
• Bo Sau (Vengeance) (Henry Chang)
• The Prince (of Peace) (Gary Corby)
• There's Only One Father Christmas, Right? (Colin Cotterill)
• The Cuban Marquise's Jewels (Teresa Dovalpage)
• Blue Memories Start Calling (Tod Goldbe)
• A Mother's Curse (Mette Ivie Harrison)
• The Usual Santas (Mick Herron)
• When the Time Came (Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis)
• Martin (Ed Lin)
• PX Christmas (Martin Limon)
• Supper with Miss Shivers (Peter Lovesey)
• Hairpin Holiday (Sujata Massey)
• Queen of the Hill (Stuart Neville)
• An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime (Helene Tursten)

Motives for Murder: A Celebration of Peter Lovesey On His 80th Birthday by Members of the Detection Club

Editor: Martin Edwards

2016

"Members of London's famed Detection Club have joined together to honor Peter Lovesey, winner multiple times of the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger, and Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement. He has also won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best Novel, as well as Grand Prix de Littrature Policire. He is the creator of Victorian sleuths Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray, Inspector Peter Diamond, and the almost true-to-life Bertie Prince of Wales."

• Introduction (Martin Edwards)
• Foreword (Len Deighton)
• The Reckoning Of Sins (Alison Joseph)
• The False Inspector Lovesey (Andrew Taylor)
• Dreaming Of Rain And Peter Lovesey (Ann Cleeves)
• The Walrus And The SPy (Catherine Aird)
• Unfinished Business (David Roberts)
• The Adventure Of The Marie Antoinette Necklace: A Case For Sherlock Holmes (David Stuart Davies)
• An End in Bath (Janet Laurence)
• The Marquis Wellington Mug (John Malcolm)
• A Question Of Identity (Kate Charles)
• The Mole Catcher’s Daughter (Kate Ellis)
• The Trials Of Margaret (L. C. Tyler)
• Ghost Station (Liza Cody)
• The Suffragette's Tale (Marjorie Eccles)
• Murder And Its Motives (Martin Edwards)
• Alive Or Dead (Michael Jecks)
• The Right Thing (Michael Z. Lewin)
• The Super Recognizer of Vík (Michael Ridpath)
• Digging Deep (Ruth Dudley Edwards)
• A Sonnet For Peter Lovesey (Simon Brett)
• A Village Affair (Susan Moody)
• Afterword: Spies, Superheroes and Stolen Goods: Peter Lovesey's Memories of the Detection Club In The 1970s (Peter Lovesey)