Friday, October 10, 2014

FFB: THE VAULT (1999) by Peter Lovesey (Chilly October Reading)


It's a funny thing, but I don't have much affection for Lovesey's main protagonist and I really feel for his underlings who often receive the brunt of his short temper. He is Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond of the Bath Police aka 'the murder man' as he refers to himself. I find the unkempt Diamond unpleasantly curt, a bit too churlish, and all together not my cup of tea. Though admittedly he does occasionally have moments of likability, those moments are few and far between.

Yet I do like and recommend the books which, in my view, is a tribute to prolific author Peter Lovesey's writing and plotting ability, even if his characterization of Diamond takes getting used to. But then, I suppose, being a hardened bloodhound is not necessarily a job for nice folk. Even if Bath, England doesn't jump immediately to mind when one is thinking of murder capitals of the world - apparently even this ancient and beguiling city has an underbelly of unsavory crime.

The setting resonates with me (I was fortunate enough to visit Bath years ago - it is a splendidly beautiful place) and I like that once in a while the historic Roman Baths (for which the city is named) come into play as settings for murder and whatnot.

And I do especially like the older SoHo Press editions of Lovesey's books. They are just the right size for night time reading.

THE VAULT is a particularly flavorful murder tale with a nice creep quotient - something which doesn't necessarily resonate in all the Diamond books - but which makes this an excellent choice for the month of October. The story features two murder investigations which, in the end, converge, sense is finally made of senseless notions and clues as Diamond sorts out the truth and we even learn a little literary history in the bargain.

In the beginning were the bones. Yes, some bones are found buried in concrete in an underground vault under The Pump Room, a vault with was once part of a demolished building next door. Don't you love it when a mystery begins with newly discovered bones? I do. But here's where it gets even better: turns out that the long forgotten demolished building was the one in which Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote most of her manuscript for FRANKENSTEIN. Who knew? Well, apparently nobody in the story does know, except for a book collecting American professor traveling in Bath with his wife and eager to discover the provenance of a book he's recently acquired which features Wollstonecraft's inscription and address.

Once the press learns of this bizarre coincidence - bones being discovered under the house where the most famous monster tale of all time was written - well, you can imagine the furor. (And Detective Superintendent Diamond's disgust, except when lunching at the Pump Room Restaurant - perks of the current game.) But when a tourist goes missing and another murder is added to the mix along with an inquisitive female reporter who yearns to be a cop, an enigmatic puppeteer, several unknown watercolors purportedly by William Blake, the writing box of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and an especially galling attempted murder, it all makes for a very entertaining tale of death and chicanery.

Along the way we also find out that the Hollywood version of FRANKENSTEIN had little to do with the literary version and that Mary Wollstonecraft scandalously married the poet Shelley just two months after the suicide death of his first wife, Harriet. (Of course, Mary had already borne Shelley a child. Despite what some would have you think, the Regency world was not all Jane Austen manners and propriety.)

Friday's Forgotten (or Overlooked) Books is a weekly meme hosted by Patti Abbott at her blog, Pattinase. Don't forget to check in and see what other books other bloggers are talking about today.

12 comments:

  1. Like you, I really admire Lovesey's old school ingenuity - along with Bill Pronzini and maybe Ruth Rendell he feels like the last of that generation that started writing when Christie, Carr, Stout et al were still active. Do you prefer the Cribb series of Victorian mysteries he started out with, Yvette? I love his non-series historical, THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW.

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    1. 'Old school ingenuity' - great phrase, yes, that's it. You always come up with just the right wording, Sergio. And I know what you're saying about Pronzini and Rendell who seem to have been around forever as well. (Though I've never read either of them.)

      Never read the Cribb series either - I know, I know, there's no hope for me. :) I'm going to have to check one or two out of the library. I'll look for the DEW book as well.

      The funny thing is that one of my all time favorite mysteries is Lovesey's THE HOUSE SITTER - it's on my top fifty list.

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  2. I must like Diamond and this series better than you do, Yvette, though I am far from having read them all, including this one. The gruff, erasable character I find likable in the vein of Colin Dexter's Morse, and the setting is well drawn by Lovesey.

    Regency England not all manners and elegance? I am shocked, shocked, I say.

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    1. I was shocked too, Richard, SHOCKED! :) I probably don't actively dislike Diamond (I think if I did I wouldn't read the books at all) it's just that he is hard to take.

      Just picked up the latest book in the series even if the last two have disappointed.

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  3. This was good for me to see, Yvette. I liked the first Peter Diamond but had some reservations, and maybe you have identified why. I liked it well enough to buy several of the books, including this one, but haven't returned to the series. I will have to do that next year.

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    1. Oh try this one, Tracy. October is the perfect month for it. :)
      Yes, Diamond is difficult, but the books, in general, work very well and then of course, there's the city of Bath. :)

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    2. I might do that, Yvette. I need some creepy books for October.

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  4. Connection with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. you have me intrigued, Yvette. Thanks for a fine review.

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    1. You're welcome, Neer. It's a pretty terrific book.

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  5. Yvette, I didn't know about Peter Lovesey until now. The Mary Shelley-Frankenstein twist in the tale is intriguing. It didn't really happen that way, did it? I mean the discovery of bones under a demolished building where Shelley produced her most famous work.

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    1. Good mystery series, Prashant, even if the main guy takes a bit of getting used to. Far as I know, no bones have been found there. But I think the manuscript was written there though the story was first imagined in Switzerland, where the Shelley melange was traveling.

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  6. Yvette,

    Great review. I'm going to take a look at Lovesey as I don't remember ever having read anything by him up to now.

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Your comment will appear after I take a look.