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THE STONE WIFE
by Peter Lovesey
Soho, September 2014
368 pages
$26.95
ISBN: 1616953934


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The object up for auction at a Bath sales room seems an unlikely target for an attempted theft, especially one taking place in mid-sale. But then, no one expected the bidding to top £20,000, with the end not yet in sight. After all, we are talking about a slab of carved stone with a barely discernible inscription, a quotation from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, describing the Wife of Bath. Before the sale could be successfully concluded, armed men wearing balaclavas burst in, waving revolvers and making for the tablet. The leading bidder, desperate to preserve his treasure, makes a lunge at one of the gunmen and is instantly shot dead. In the aftermath, the Wife winds up in Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond's office for safekeeping, where it presents a constant threat to his shins.

If the theft itself seemed somewhat inexplicable, the gun violence is clearly over the top. In fact, it is so extraordinary that it sets Diamond thinking about whether the murder might not have been the true object of the attack. There are on the surface no clear suspects, however, in the death of the university professor and Chaucer scholar who was gunned down, so Diamond must first look to the carving itself, to uncover what about it might make it so valuable and to whom? Who would want an object that it would take six fit young policemen to shift and what could possibly be done with it afterwards? True, the British Museum was interested in buying the thing, but certainly not under circumstances such as these.

Then there is the matter of the guns. England is not a country where guns are in ample supply. Criminals who want one to brandish generally rent from a supplier, with the presumption that it will be used primarily as a threat and not fired. The likeliest source in this case would be a gang in Bristol, with one prominent gang leader, Nathan Hazael, heading the list. But he's been difficult to convict and Diamond reluctantly concludes that it might take an undercover operation to finally bring him down.

It's a very risky operation, one that few on the force are lining up to volunteer for. Newly promoted DS Ingeborg Smith, however, concludes that she can use her contacts from her former life as a freelance journalist to construct a cover story that just might work to get her inside the mansion that Hazael occupies with a young singer fast gaining popularity. It does, and at this point, the story veers off in a wholly new direction. Diamond pretty much fades from view while Ingeborg takes centre stage in a plot line which is rich in incident but not altogether convincing.

While there is just enough here to satisfy devoted fans of Peter Diamond (and I am in those ranks), THE STONE WIFE is a bit of a disappointment after the ingeniously constructed TOOTH TATTOO that preceded it in the series. There are some nice bits of Chaucer trivia and flashes of Diamond's grumpy wit, and the motive behind the crime is cleverly both concealed and revealed. Still, the central part of the book, given over to the adventures of Ingeborg, never quite seemed to gel. On the other hand, you can do far worse than to let yourself be led around Bath and environs in the company of Peter Lovesey any time you get the opportunity.

§ Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal.

Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, October 2014

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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