Lovesey’s mystery fans will be sorry when ‘ The Finisher’ is over
“All my memories of running are painful,” Peter Lovesey admits in an afterword to his latest mystery novel, “The Finisher.” “Paying my income tax is more fun. ... But I owe my career to it.”
On the 50th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, the British writer — who will turn 84 on Sept. 10 — has created a brisk, colorful page- turner centered on murder and mayhem at the springtime half- marathon in the city of Bath. Mr. Lovesey has had 35 books to his credit in between, and to commemorate the author’s literary longevity, his publisher, Soho Books, will reissue that first book, “Wobble to Death,” in a limited collector’s edition in October.
“Wobble to Death” was a Victorian thriller about a 500- mile speed walking race in which one of the contenders dies under suspicious circumstances. It was the first in a popular series featuring the venerable Sergeant Cribb. “The Finisher,” in which one of the runners who never crossed the finish line disappears without a trace, is the 19th investigation by Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond, senior man in Bath’s Criminal Investigation Department.
As the author points out at the start, “The city of Bath isn’t all about Roman plumbing and Georgian architecture.” Nonetheless, the above- and below- ground architecture of this city figures prominently in the plot. In a time when travel is severely limited by the pandemic, Mr. Lovesey’s descriptive passages will have armchair explorers chomping at the bit.
We meet “The Finisher” right off — anonymously, of course, or there’d be no story.
“He had no wish to be investigated, so he left no clues. ... His victim simply vanished from the scene. ... He’d given thought to the problem of disposal. He knew what to do.” The eponym has multiple meanings. He finishes off his victims, he finishes the race and he finishes his own story with a cunning twist at the end.
It all begins with primary school teacher Maeve Kelly, a “curvy girl” whose mother told her she’d never be an athlete. An old aunt gives Maeve a baseball cap with the British Heart Foundation logo. Maeve, who doesn’t wear hats of any sort, gives the cap to a balding but athletic colleague named Trevor. Trevor, in turn, gives Maeve a Toby jug — an unattractive antique pottery figure that turns out to have far more value than she would have expected. Maeve decides to donate the jug to the BHF, but on the way to the charity shop she accidentally breaks the jug beyond repair.
Feeling guilty, Maeve decides to collect money for the foundation by signing up for the Bath Half Marathon and finding people to sponsor her. With some advice from Trevor, but mostly by her own painful perseverance, she gets into shape in time for the event. During her semi- secret evening runs,
Maeve encounters a Russian woman named Olga, who has just been mugged. The two quickly become close friends.
Meanwhile, DS Diamond, who is hardly more enthusiastic about running than Maeve, is assigned as plainclothes security to prevent terrorism at the half marathon. Early into the race, Diamond notices a recently paroled criminal — Tony Pinto, a vicious sexual predator whom he put away a decade ago. When a young woman enrolled in the race goes missing halfway through, Diamond’s search leads him to some hitherto undiscovered subterranean quarries. These quarries would seem to be an ideal place to hide a body, and predictably, a body does turn up.
The author indulges in some detective story clichés that weaken his otherwise ingenious plot: a hostile ( female) superior officer who impedes Diamond’s progress, an injury in the quarry that further puts the detective out of commission, and an extraneous subplot about human trafficking of Albanian refugees. These are offset, however, by vivid images of Bath’s unknown underground, along with tantalizing tidbits that bring the reader into the heart of this ceaselessly alluring ancient city.