The Vault
Curmudgeonly Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond (The Last Detective,Bloodhounds,The  Summons) is once again suffering fools (to which category he currently  consigns Americans, antiques enthusiasts, and his immediate superiors) none too  gladly. When a skeletal hand is found in the cellar of the abbey churchyard in  Bath, Diamond is inclined to write the apparent crime off as the dusty wages of  a long-forgotten sin. But then a skull turns up. And then Joe Dougan, mild-mannered American professor and avid literary tourist, unearths the startling  fact that in the early 19th century that cellar belonged to the home Mary  Shelley lived in as she was writingFrankenstein. Glorious fodder for the  sensationally minded press and a monstrous headache for Diamond, who would  prefer to cogitate upon the mystery in peace and quiet.But it seems that the literary connection is as crucial as it is sensational.  When Dougan's wife disappears and Peg Redbird, proprietress of the Noble and  Nude antiques store, turns up dead after a heated conversation with the  professor (in hot pursuit of Shelley's writing desk and sketchbook), Diamond has  to wonder whether a thirst for knowledge also implies a thirst for blood. As  Diamond immerses himself in Bath's cultural history, however, more and more  suspects pop up, linking the long-dead bones in the cellar to Peg's very recent  corpse. Author Peter Lovesey, with a nod and wink toward the conventions of  traditional British mystery fiction, paints his characters with broad strokes:  like the characters in a game of Clue, the suspects are easily labeled. Is it  the spoiled heir who dunnit? What about the up-and-coming reporter? Or the  cryptic puppeteer? Or (and this is really giving Diamond ulcers) the suave city  councilor, who happens to be good friends with Diamond's boss? Lovesey tiptoes  agilely just this side of caricature--and has a great deal of fun doing so.Diamond himself is an enjoyable enough character, though his grouchiness seems  to be missing some of the verve it had in earlier books. One might take issue  with the novel's sense of pacing (at times funereal), and with Lovesey's  narrative gimmick of switching occasionally to the murderer's perspective (too  Gothic a trick for a relatively unexciting plot). These complaints, however,  don't detract from an otherwise solid entry in the Superintendent Diamond  series.--Kelly Flynn