Waxwork

by Peter Lovesey

Published 1 January 1978
“At once charming, chilling and convincing as if it had unfolded in the Police Intelligence column of April, 1888.” TIME

London, 1888. Though the beautiful Miriam Cromer has confessed to the murder of her husband’s assistant, she is still confident of her acquittal. But then she is sentenced to hang. She blames her husband, but he has an alibi. Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray must discover what really happened at Park Lodge on 12th March, 1888, and quickly.

“Here’s charm and delight. A puzzle postlude to Three Men in a Boat.” The Times

London, 1889: After Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat became a Victorian bestseller, rowing on the Thames was the great craze of 1889. When an elementary school teacher in training takes a midnight swim in the Thames and witnesses a body being dumped, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackerey are called to investigate. They uncover strange parallels with the enormously popular Victorian novel, but nobody will take them seriously. Following their instincts, they stick doggedly to the trail, which leads upstream to Oxford.

A Case of Spirits

by Peter Lovesey

Published 19 June 1975
“One of the best of this series . . . Lively and well-plotted.” The New York Times Book Review

The spiritualist movement has captivated a segment of Victorian London: manifestations, the occult, and “sensitives” are in vogue. When séance sites become targets for theft, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray are on the case. But then someone murders the medium, and the two find themselves rubbing shoulders with some rather eccentric suspects.

Tick of Death

by Peter Lovesey

Published 31 December 1977
“Lovesey goes from strength to strength. A really entertaining extravaganza, judged to a nicety.” The Times

London, 1884: A series of bomb blasts in public places is causing mayhem throughout the city. Even Scotland Yard’s CID office becomes a target, throwing suspicion on Constable Thackeray. The primary suspects are Irish terrorists seeking independence, but could the villain be someone else? A beautiful Irish woman? An American athlete? Sergeant Cribb reluctantly enrolls in a bomb-making course and infiltrates the Dynamite Party. 

Based on the real events in London between 1884 - 1885, the story had its own resonance ninety years on.