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A review by mg_in_md_
The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey
3.0
My FirstReads copy arrived today! :)
This review is based on the FirstReads Advance Unedited Edition that I was fortunate enough to win. Although I have not read previous offerings in the Peter Diamond series, I've been eager to try this series out ever since I heard the author speak at a mystery book conference in 2012. He participated in a panel discussion on mysteries involving art, and I found him to be an engaging speaker. Like the previous book in the series ([b:The Tooth Tattoo|15799413|The Tooth Tattoo (Peter Diamond, #13)|Peter Lovesey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388761991s/15799413.jpg|21522385]), [b:The Stone Wife|18465944|The Stone Wife (Peter Diamond #14)|Peter Lovesey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391446768s/18465944.jpg|26124062] also has an art aspect to the mystery. The story begins at a Bath auction house, where a Chaucer scholar is bidding on a stone carving believed to be Chaucer's Wife of Bath. During the auction, the scholar is killed by masked would-be thieves who flee the scene without the stone wife they had seemed so intent on stealing. Although Diamond is overseeing the investigation (and begins to think the supposedly cursed carving may be jinxing him), his intrepid colleague Ingeborg plays a leading role in this tale as she goes undercover to track down the source of the handgun that was used in the murder. Much of the book focuses on her role in the investigation and her past life as an investigative journalist. There are quite a few red herrings and the tale takes so many twists that I sometimes felt that solving the murder was secondary to the other plot lines. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book overall and liked the characters of Diamond and Ingeborg quite a bit. While I normally prefer to read a series in order, I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the Peter Diamond series and look forward to reading earlier offerings. Thanks again to the FirstReads program for giving me an opportunity to read a mystery series that has been on my "to read" list for far too long!
This review is based on the FirstReads Advance Unedited Edition that I was fortunate enough to win. Although I have not read previous offerings in the Peter Diamond series, I've been eager to try this series out ever since I heard the author speak at a mystery book conference in 2012. He participated in a panel discussion on mysteries involving art, and I found him to be an engaging speaker. Like the previous book in the series ([b:The Tooth Tattoo|15799413|The Tooth Tattoo (Peter Diamond, #13)|Peter Lovesey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388761991s/15799413.jpg|21522385]), [b:The Stone Wife|18465944|The Stone Wife (Peter Diamond #14)|Peter Lovesey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391446768s/18465944.jpg|26124062] also has an art aspect to the mystery. The story begins at a Bath auction house, where a Chaucer scholar is bidding on a stone carving believed to be Chaucer's Wife of Bath. During the auction, the scholar is killed by masked would-be thieves who flee the scene without the stone wife they had seemed so intent on stealing. Although Diamond is overseeing the investigation (and begins to think the supposedly cursed carving may be jinxing him), his intrepid colleague Ingeborg plays a leading role in this tale as she goes undercover to track down the source of the handgun that was used in the murder. Much of the book focuses on her role in the investigation and her past life as an investigative journalist. There are quite a few red herrings and the tale takes so many twists that I sometimes felt that solving the murder was secondary to the other plot lines. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book overall and liked the characters of Diamond and Ingeborg quite a bit. While I normally prefer to read a series in order, I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the Peter Diamond series and look forward to reading earlier offerings. Thanks again to the FirstReads program for giving me an opportunity to read a mystery series that has been on my "to read" list for far too long!