The Detective Wore Silk Drawers: A Sergeant Cribb Investigation (Sergeant Cribb Mysteries) [Paperback]

Peter Lovesey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sergeant Cribb Mysteries | Publication Date: October 1, 2008

“This entertaining period mystery, set in Victorian England, is lively, lurid, amusing.”—Publishers Weekly

“These are humorous novels and the humour is character-based . . . mixed with the absurdities of the English class-system. . . . Cribb was the first of the new-wave Victorian crime-fighters and is arguably still the best.”—Sherlock Holmes Magazine

The second Sergeant Cribb mystery is set in the world of Victorian bare-fisted pugilism—an illegal sport. Constable Jago is sent, undercover, to Radstock Hall by Sergeant Cribb, who suspects that when fighters who train there lose, they are murdered.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Soho Constable (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569475245
• ISBN-13: 978-1569475249
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.6 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,478 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

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique Subject - Interesting Times, September 6, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Detective Wore Silk Drawers : A Sergeant Cribb Adventure (Audio Cassette)

I am very glad to have found Peter Lovesey. This is the second book in his Victorian series starring Sergeant Cribb and the long suffering Constable Thackery. Mr. Lovesey recreates the Victorian atmosphere very accurately. And this is a new form of English cozy crime. Mr. Lovesey seems to want to delve into the Victorian sports era. This particular book is about "knuckle fighting" without the mittens as they call it. There was a huge following of this sport in England at this time despite the fact that even watching was illegal. We get right into the whole area and learn all about the clothes, the gear and the lingo. On top of that it's a cracking good thriller. I certainly intend to read more in this series. I am thourougly enjoying it.

5.0 out of 5 stars A PUGILISTIC PISTOL OF A POLICE PROCEDURAL, August 9, 2010

By 

Scot Bedford "buk guru" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Detective Wore Silk Drawers: A Sergeant Cribb Investigation (Sergeant Cribb Mysteries) (Paperback)

When a headless corpse is found floating in the River Thames in Victorian England it is up to Sergeant Cribb( of the agile mind and bushy side burns) and his hale and hearty sidekick, Thackery, to get to the bottom of the murder most foul. Although fighting under the LONDON PRIZE RING-RULES (bare knuckled, no rounds, spiked shoes for stomping, throws o.k. ) has been outlawed for twenty years Cribb taps into an underground bare knuckle fighting ring. They recruit the young, handsome, and jacked rookie constable Jago, to go under-cover and train as a bare knuckled boxer. Well the police procedural gallops along at a furious pace. There is a beautiful young widow with a touch of evil. Bare knuckled fights are staged surreptitiously. All together it makes for a worthwhile read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Lovesey, July 19, 2010

By 

Bruce Macbain "Bruce Macbain. Author of ROMAN... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Detective Wore Silk Drawers: A Sergeant Cribb Investigation (Sergeant Cribb Mysteries) (Paperback)

The second of Peter Lovesey's Victorian mysteries (now reissued) plunges Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackery into the underworld of bare-knuckled pugilism. In 1880, fighting with "the raw `uns" has been outlawed in England for a decade, yet matches in out-of-the-way locales still draw huge crowds. When the headless body of a man with scarred knuckles washes up on the Thames Embankment, Cribb recruits a young policeman, Henry Jago, to pose as one of these midnight pugilists. But young Henry, good-looking, fit, earnest and callow, is no match for the seductive, sadistic Mrs. Vibart, who manages a stable of brutal fighters on her estate. And when Mrs. V. is herself found brutally murdered in her bed, the evidence points to, of all people, Henry. Will Sergeant Cribb crack the case--and hopefully before the unfortunate Henry is beaten senseless in the ring? Read on.

Like all the Sergeant Cribb mysteries, this one is deftly plotted, lightly ironic, and full of the color of Victorian sport.