Wobble to Death [Large Print] [Paperback]

Peter Lovesey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

From the author of BLOODHOUNDS and THE VAULT, a reissue of a novel set in London in 1879, featuring Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray who must race to catch a ruthless killer.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786218681
• ISBN-13: 978-0786218684
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,272,841 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

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very unusual venue for a murder, January 24, 2002

By 

Paul Sayles (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wobble to Death (Hardcover)

Lovesey puts Cribb and Thackery on the trail of a killer at a long distance walk race. An unusual setting for a murder but then passion and greed aren't very selective emotions. I read this book years ago and just read it again. It is just as good now as it was 15 years ago. Lovesey's attention to detail is excellent - you are fed a lot of information to put the setting into context and you don't even know that you are getting a social history lesson. The charecters are well defined and believeable, from the organizer of the race down to the competitor who fades quickly from the race.

There are lots of suspects and lots of motives and how Cribb and Thackery sort them out is great to read. One gets a tremendously amusing picture of Thackery conducting an interview on the run, as it were, with the competitors in his wool suit, bowler hat and regulation boots - and him not an athletic person. Cribb continues as the brains of the team and his determination is prevented from being an obsession, in the readers view, by the unintentional humor he injects, usually at Thackery's expense. Even though at times Thackery gets exasperated with his boss, there is a respect and willingness to serve that keeps the team together.

This is a fine Victorian mystery novel that is a great read from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rightfully Considered a Top Historical Mystery Novel, December 17, 2001

By 

Ibochild (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wobble to Death (A Red Badge Novel of Suspense) (Hardcover)

When I first heard of this novel, the premise didn't sound particularly appealing. What's interesting about a bunch of guys participating in a week-long walking contest or "wobble"? However, after reading about the book in the Crown Crime Companion: The Top 100 Mysteries of All Time, I decided to read the book anyway. I'm glad I did. Peter Lovesey's novel is very engrossing and effectively captures the period. Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, should really like this one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Ride for Most of the Way, December 1, 2008

By 

eltex - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wobble to Death (Sergeant Cribb Mysteries) (Paperback)

The setting is interesting (a six-day walk-and-run marathon contest in mid-Victorian London), as are the characters. The writing is full of period color, too. And if those were the only factors, I'd rate this book five stars. But in "Wobble to Death," as in another Sergeant Cribb mystery, "The Detective Wore Silk Drawers," the solution to the crime is almost a throwaway, hastily given and not altogether convincing. It is as though an editor told the writer that he had already written 200 pages and that the book had to end in five more, regardless. The finales of both "Wobble" and "Silk Drawers" were so disappointing that they soured the enjoyment that had carried me through both books. That's a shame, because otherwise they are quite entertaining.