Written in 1991, this mystery’s protagonist, Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond, has recently been transferred to a bit of a backwater near Bristol after being tarnished by criticism that he had forced a confession from a murder suspect. Diamond is old school at a time when technology is beginning to take over much of the work formerly done with hard work and shoe leather and he’s not happy about the change. When the naked body of a young woman is found in a lake after a few weeks of submersion, it takes some time to identify her as the former star of a popular BBC series. She and her husband live together but have largely separate lives, so the fact that she’d gone missing hadn’t been reported. As Diamond seeks to unravel what happened to her and why, he is drawn into a complicated web including the husband, an Austin scholar recently appointed as head of the newly formed English Department of a local college; a boy the husband saves from an accidental drowning and his single mother; skullduggery in the city of Bath’s famous Roman baths; cocaine dealing, newly discovered letters written by Jane Austin, and more. In the end, old school triumphs – sort of. An interesting period piece. I hadn’t read this prolific author’s works previously. 331 pp.
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