Abracadaver [Paperback]

Peter Lovesey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

“Here’s another of those delightful Victorian mysteries, featuring Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of the Yard. This one deals with peculiar accidents in various music halls, mishaps of a kind that would ruin a performer’s career; and then there’s murder. . . . Fine picture of period vice, good mystery plotting, and fun.”—San Francisco Chronicle

A sadistic practical joker is haunting the popular music halls of London, interfering with the actors and interrupting their acts by orchestrating humiliating disasters that take place in view of the audience. A trapeze artist misses her timing when the trapeze 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. Then the mischief escalates to murder. Or was murder intended all along? That indomitable detective team, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of Scotland Yard, must track down the elusive criminal.

Peter Lovesey is the author of twenty-five highly praised mystery novels and has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Gold and Silver Daggers and the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Soho Constable; Reprint edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156947561X
• ISBN-13: 978-1569475614
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.7 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

PETER LOVESEY is the author of the Peter Diamond mysteries, well known for their use of surprise, strong characters and hard-to-crack puzzles. He was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2000, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, the Anthony, the Ellery Queen Readers' Award and is Grand Master of the Swedish Academy of Detection. He has been a full-time author since 1975, and was formerly in further education. Earlier series include the Sergeant Cribb mysteries seen on TV and the Bertie, Prince of Wales novels. The Diamond novels, set in Bath, England, where Peter lived for some years, feature a burly, warm-hearted, but no-nonsense police detective whose personal life becomes as engaging to the reader as the intricate mysteries he solves. His team in Bath CID includes the ex-journo Ingeborg Smith, the long-serving Keith Halliwell and the meticulous John Leaman, all involved in what is essentially a fair-play procedural mystery series. Peter and his wife Jax, who co-scripted the TV series, have a son, Phil, also a teacher and mystery writer, and a daughter Kathy, who was a Vice-President of J.P.Morgan-Chase, and now lives with her family in Greenwich, Ct. Peter currently lives in Chichester, England. His website at www.peterlovesey.com gives fuller details of his life and books. "Try him. You'll love him," wrote the doyen of the mystery world, Otto Penzler, in the New York Sun.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Little Victorian Mystery, February 4, 2002

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Abracadaver (A Red Badge Novel of Suspense) (Hardcover)

I love the characters in Lovesey's books! Thackery is a gem. You can just see him walking along in his bowler hat and black suit. This book goes into the life in the music halls that were popular in the Victorian era. Lovesey has a great sense of period, and that's what makes his books so entertaining. I am really enjoying this series. The mystery in this particular books isn't quite as good as the previous two in the series, but there is certainly enough to maintain your interest if you're a Victorian Mystery buff like me.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Victorian-era Mystery, March 21, 2010

By 

John O. Raab "Editor of Suspense Magazine" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Abracadaver (Paperback)

It's the late 19th century in London as the events of "Abracadaver" begin to unfold. We open on two sisters' argument over who's to blame for a trapeze act gone wrong, only to find their act had been sabotaged through no fault of either sister. It is soon discovered that this is not the only act of the old music halls that has succumbed to sabotage, there seems to be a dark practical joker on the loose, and his theatrics seem to know no bounds. After one of the joker's antics proves fatal, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of Scotland Yard are called in to catch the now murderous and always elusive villain.

Through excellent descriptions and detail, this fast paced, fun, and intriguing novel takes the reader straight back to London's streets and music halls of the late 1800's. Follow Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray as they attempt to solve another great Victorian-era mystery.