Jane Austen’s Catherine Morland journeys to Bath in Northanger Abbey to “walk and be seen” and is quite taken with the city.
I will be visiting there this coming week to walk in the footsteps of Jane Austen herself, albeit hoping to see, rather than be seen.
This is the city of Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond as well, and I will be watching for all of the landmarks described in author Peter Lovesey’s mysteries. I am eagerly awaiting the newest book in the series, The Secret Hangman, which is due out in early summer.
The advance publicity offers this clue as to its contents: “Widowed Inspector Peter Diamond is being pursued by a secret admirer as he pursues a serial killer.” Perhaps a romance is in the offing? Fans who were distraught over the death of his wife would be happy to see that happen.
There is a recent series by Morag Joss also set in contemporary Bath that feature Sara Selkirk, a cellist, who sometimes plays in the Pump Room at teatime. I noticed that she has a detective named Lovesey in one of the books, perhaps in tribute to the legendary author.
For a glimpse of Bath in the mid-eighteenth century try Murder by the Waters, one of Robert Lee Hall’s Benjamin Franklin mysteries.
I wonder what Austen would think of herself as a detective, as she is portrayed in the Stephanie Barron series. Or of the investigative skills of her characters Elizabeth (née Bennet) and Fitzwilliam Darcy in the Carrie Bebris books?
I think she would be greatly amused.
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”