Lovesey The Best of Peter Lovesey Stories

'Inventive, ingenious, witty and wily' Sir Ian Rankin
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3242-5
Verlag: Allison & Busby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 600 Seiten

'This splendid book is a wonderful compendium of good crime fiction that will give any aficionado a great deal of pleasure' Martin Edwards To celebrate a writing career spanning over fifty years, this collection showcases the very best of Peter Lovesey's short stories, featuring many of his most beloved characters such as Sergeant Cribb and Bertie. These inventive and entertaining stories have something for new and old fans alike. From unexpected discoveries hidden among the branches of the family tree, to a parrot and an astonishing cache of uncut diamonds, as well as the story of a marriage revealed between the lines of a Victorian advice column, these tales are all told with Lovesey's trademark wit.

Peter Lovesey wrote both historical and contemporary crime novels in a career spanning over fifty years. He and his writing were recognised on both sides of the Atlantic with the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger and the honour of Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Other accolades included the CWA Gold and Silver Daggers and the French Grand Prix de Litt rature Polici re. Lovesey passed away in 2025.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lovesey, Peter

Leseproben

How Mr Smith Traced His Ancestors

Most of the passengers were looking right, treating themselves to the breath-catching view of San Francisco Bay that the captain of the 747 had invited them to enjoy. Not Eva. Her eyes were locked on the lighted no-smoking symbol and the order to fasten seat belts. Until that was switched off she could not think of relaxing. She knew that the take-off was the most dangerous part of the flight, and it was a delusion to think you were safe the moment the plane was airborne. She refused to be distracted. She would wait for the proof that the take-off had been safely accomplished: the switching off of that small, lighted sign.

‘Your first time?’ The man on her left spoke with a West Coast accent. She had sensed that he had been waiting to speak since they took their seats, darting glances her way. Probably he was just friendly like most San Franciscans she had met on the trip, but she could not possibly start a conversation now.

Without turning, she mouthed a negative.

‘I mean your first time to England,’ he went on. ‘Anyone can see you’ve flown before, the way you put your hand luggage under the seat before they even asked us, and fixed your belt. I just wondered if this is your first trip to England.’

She didn’t want to seem ungracious. He was obviously trying to put her at ease. She smiled at the no-smoking sign and nodded. It was, after all, her first flight in this direction. The fact that she was English and had just been on a business trip to California was too much to explain.

‘Mine, too,’ he said. ‘Promised myself this for years. My people came from England, you see, forty, fifty years back. All dead now, the old folk. I’m the only one of my family left, and I ain’t so fit myself.’ He planted his hand on his chest. ‘Heart condition.’

Eva gave a slight start as an electronic signal sounded and the light went off on the panel she was watching. A stewardess’s voice announced that it was now permissible to smoke in the seats reserved for smoking, to the back of the cabin. Seat belts could also be unfastened. Eva closed her eyes a moment and felt the tension ease.

‘The doc says I could go any time,’ her companion continued. ‘I could have six months or six years. You know how old I am? Forty-two. When you hear something like that at my age it kinda changes your priorities. I figured I should do what I always promised myself – go to England and see if I had any people left over there. So here I am, and I feel like a kid again. Terrific.’She smiled, mainly from the sense of release from her anxiety at the take-off, but also at the discovery that the man she was seated beside was as generous and open in expression as he was in conversation. In no way was he a predatory male. She warmed to him – his shining blue eyes in a round, tanned face topped with a patch of hair like cropped corn, his small hands holding tight to the armrests, his check Levi shirt bulging over the seat belt he had not troubled to unclasp. ‘You on a vacation too?’ he asked.

She felt able to respond now. ‘Actually I live in England.’

‘You’re English? How about that!’ He made it sound like one of the more momentous discoveries of his life, oblivious that there must have been at least a hundred Britons on the flight. ‘You’ve been on vacation in California, and now you’re travelling home?’

There was a ten-hour flight ahead of them, and Eva’s innately shy personality flinched at the prospect of an extended conversation, but the man’s candour deserved an honest reply. ‘Not exactly a vacation. I work in the electronics industry. My company wants to make a big push in the production of microcomputers. They sent me to see the latest developments in your country.’

‘Around Santa Clara?’

‘That’s right,’ said Eva, surprised that he should know. ‘Are you by any chance in electronics?’

He laughed. ‘No, I’m just one of the locals. The place is known as Silicon Valley, did you know that? I’m in farming, and I take an interest in the way the land is used. Excuse me for saying this: you’re pretty young to be representing your company on a trip like this.’‘Not so young really. I’m twenty-eight.’ But she understood his reaction. She herself had been amazed when the Director of Research had called her into his office and asked her to make the trip. Some of her colleagues were equally astonished. The most incredulous was her flat-mate, Janet, suave, sophisticated Janet, who was on the editorial side at the Sunday Telegraph, and had been on assignments to Dublin, Paris and Geneva, and was always telling Eva how deadly dull it was to be confined to an electronics lab.

‘Wish I were twenty-eight,’ said her fellow traveller. ‘That was the year I was married. Patty was a wonderful wife to me. We had some great times.’

He paused in a way that begged Eva’s next question. ‘Something went wrong?’

‘She went missing three years back. Just disappeared. No note. Nothing. I came home one night and she was gone.’

‘That’s terrible.’

‘It broke me up. There was no accounting for it. We were very happily married.’

‘Did you tell the police?’

‘Yes, but they have hundreds of missing persons on their files. They got nowhere. I have to presume she is dead. Patty was happy with me. We had a beautiful home and more money than we could spend. I own two vineyards, big ones. We had grapes in California before silicon chips, you know.’

She smiled, and as it seemed that he didn’t want to speak any more about his wife, she said, ‘People try to grow grapes in England, but you wouldn’t think too much of them. When I left London the temperature was in the low fifties, and that’s our so-called summer.’

‘I’m not too interested in the weather. I just want to find the place where all the records of births, marriages and deaths are stored, so I can find if I have any family left.’

Eva understood now. This was not just the trip to England to acquire a few generations of ancestors and a family coat of arms. Here was a desperately lonely man. He had lost his wife and abandoned hope of finding her. But he was still searching for someone he could call his own.

‘Would that be Somerset House?’

His question broke through her thoughts.

‘Yes. That is to say, I think the records are kept now in a building in Kingsway, just a few minutes’ walk from there. If you asked at Somerset House, they’d tell you.’

‘And is it easy to look someone up?’

‘It should be, if you have names and dates.’

‘I figured I would start with my grandfather. He was born in a village called Edgecombe in Dorset in 1868, and he had three older brothers. Their names were Matthew, Mark and Luke, and I’m offering no prize for guessing what Grandfather was called. My pa was given the same name and so was I. Each of us was an only child. I’d like to find out if any of Grandfather’s brothers got married and had families. If they did, it’s possible that I have some second cousins alive somewhere. Do you think I could get this information?’

‘Well, it’s all there somewhere,’ said Eva.

‘Does it take long?’

‘That’s up to you. You have to find the names in the index first. That can take some time, depending how common the name is. Unfortunately, they’re not computerised. You just have to work through the lists.’

‘You’re serious?’

‘Absolutely. There are hundreds of enormous books full of names.’

For the first time in the flight, his brow creased into a frown.

‘Is something wrong?’ asked Eva.

‘Just that my name happens to be Smith.’

Janet thought it was hilarious when Eva told her. ‘All those Smiths! How long has he got, for God’s sake?’

‘In England? Three weeks, I think.’

‘He could spend the whole time working through the index and still get nowhere. Darling, have you ever been there? The scale of the thing beggars description. I bet he gives up on the first day.’

‘Oh, I don’t think he will. This was very important to him.’

‘Whatever for? Does he hope to get a title out of it? Lord Smith of San Francisco?’

‘I told you. He’s alone in the world. His wife disappeared. And he has a weak heart. He expects to die soon.’

‘Probably when he tries to lift one of those index volumes off the shelf,’ said Janet. ‘He must be out of his mind.’ She could never fathom why other people didn’t conform to her ideas of the way life should be conducted.

‘He’s no...