Skeleton
Hill
A
Peter Diamond Mystery
Peter
Lovesey
Soho
Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-598-9 (1569475989)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-598-0 (9781569475980)
Publication Date: September 2009
List Price: $24.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter 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, but matters don't pan out in accordance with her plans.
Review:
Detective Inspector Peter Diamond of Bath (England) assume the
investigation of a cold case when a bone is found under an uprooted
tree in Skeleton
Hill, the tenth mystery in
this series by Peter Lovesey.
The bone was found by two “dead” soldiers during
their participation in the recreation of a 350-year-old English civil
war. When the police are notified of the discovery, members of the
crime lab conduct a thorough search of the area and find the rest of
the skeletal remains, minus the head, of a young woman. Further testing
in the lab prove the young woman had been in her late teens or early
twenties, and dead more than 20 years. Since the body was missing its
head, a murder investigation is opened. There is no DNA or other
indentifying clues that could ascertain who the young woman was, and
her clothes had rotted away, save for a “zipper
pull” from her jeans. A short time later one of the
“dead” soldiers who found the original bone, a
history professor, is found murdered, killed by a severe blow to his
head. Could it be possible that these two deaths, so many years apart,
have something in common?
Lansdown, the site of the reenactment of the civil war and now the
scene of two murders, sits on a hill seven hundred feet above sea
level. It is windswept and isolated, a place where most would pass
without stopping. Did Lansdown hold the solution to this mystery?
Diamond and his team suspect foreign trafficking of teenagers to take
place in the area. The skeleton of the young woman was the right age.
Could she have been a runaway? But how is the murder of the professor
related? Could the professor have actually been killed on the
battlefield in the course of the reenactment with no one knowing?
Diamond has to face the fact that he may have overplayed the possible
connection between the two murders, 20 years apart. After all,
coincidences happen. Life is full of them.
Diamond's dogged investigation of the murders, and the tenuous link
between them, keeps the reader guessing as to how it will all be
resolved. The detective inspector and his team are intelligent,
dedicated officers, who have an easy and credible camaraderie. This
attention to characters who bring depth and interest to the story,
together with a most intriguing procedural plot, make "Skeleton Hill
a "can't put it down" kind of novel.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Skeleton Hill and to Soho Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Skeleton Hill? How would you rate it?
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ISBN-10: 1-56947-208-4 (1569472084)
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Diamond
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Soho Press (Hardcover), June 2002
ISBN-10: 1-56947-291-2 (1569472912)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-291-0 (9781569472910)
The
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Soho Press (Hardcover), June 2003
ISBN-10: 1-56947-326-9 (1569473269)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-326-9 (9781569473269)
The Secret Hangman
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ISBN-10: 1-56947-457-5 (1569474575)
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Skeleton Hill
Soho Press (Hardcover), September 2009
ISBN-10: 1-56947-598-9 (1569475989)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-598-0 (9781569475980)
Omnimystery
keywords for Skeleton Hill
...
Location(s) referenced: Bath, England.
