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The Vault: Summary and book reviews of The Vault by Peter Lovesey, plus links to an excerpt from The Vault and a biography of Peter Lovesey.

The Vault

The Vault
by Peter Lovesey
Hardcover: Sep 2000,
304 pages.
Paperback: Oct 2001,
336 pages.

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Readers' Rating:    Not Yet Rated
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BOOK SUMMARY

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Bath is a town layered with history, from Roman times. Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is a policeman whose manner is not appreciated by his superiors, though he does solve crimes. When a skeletal hand turns up in the vault of the Pump Room, followed by the excavation of a skull, Diamond is called upon to solve a series of crimes — including murder and forgery — that require a knowledge of history, nineteenth–century art and literature . . . and contemporary human nature.

Media Reviews

  Wall Street Journal - Tom Nolan
The Vault displays Peter Lovesey's delicate balance of humor and suspense—one of the delights of contemporary crime fiction.

  The New York Times Book Review
Delivers a fine, unguessable ending . . . The Summons is good stuff.

  Chicago Sun-Times
Top–rate writing and plotting . . . A treasure.

  Publishers Weekly
Without gimmickry or splicing, delivers superb, unashamedly traditional crime writing.

  Library Journal
Essential for popular fiction collections, especially those public libraries that maintain a healthy mystery/crime fiction section.

  Kirkus Reviews
Nobody is better at misdirecting the gentle reader and snaking together multiple storylines than the wily Lovesey, who in his sixth case for Peter Diamond, tendentious head of Bath's Murder Squad (Upon a Dark Night, 1998, etc.), unearths various body parts underneath number five, Abbey Churchyard, the former home of Frankenstein's creator Mary Shelley.

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