Imprint
- Sphere
- Sphere
Fiction, Crime & mystery, Thriller / suspense
A dark, delicious standalone, from award-winning Peter Lovesey.
Otis Joy is a very good vicar - he attracts record-breaking congregations, is admired and respected by all, and the village of Foxford is delighted to have him. What the citizens of Foxford don't realise, though, is that their beloved parish priest is a murderer.
When the bishop gets suspicious of Joy's channelling of church funds into his own bank account, Joy kills him - after all, such a trifling misdemeanour should not prevent him from carrying out his duties. However, this isn't the first time he's despatched 'busy-bodies' and rumours are beginning to circulate. So when the husband of his new treasurer is found dead, perhaps he's taken one life too many . . .
Peter Lovesey amply demonstrates that he is the acknowledged master of the whodunnit in this deliciously complicated and satisfying mystery.
Praise for The Reaper
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A mystery lover's dream - Mail on Sunday
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Otis is a wonderful creation . . . The plotting is devilish, the writing a pleasure - Sunday Times
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Features one of the finest creations in crime fiction - the unforgettable Otis Joy . . . Lovesey tells an almost Trollopian tale, satisfyingly complex and suspenseful but with wonderfully amusing insights into English village life - Daily Mail
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The flavour here is part Patricia Highsmith in her Ripley series and part Ealing comedy . . . It's a hard act to pull off - tone is everything - and Lovesey is a master practitioner - Washington Post
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If you've never read any of his 20-plus books this wickedly clever, beautifully written story of a murderous clergyman who earns our sympathy while dramatically whittling down his flock should make you an instant convert - Chicago Tribune
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Lovesey is such a master of black humour and macabre plot twists that the attitudes of Foxford's parishioners are no more predictable than Otis's outrageous behaviour . . . In this author's unorthodox church, there must be a pew for Patricia Highsmith - New York Times Book Review
Peter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey is the only living author in Britain to have received the two highest honours in crime writing - the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers Association and Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. He started with the Sergeant Cribb series set in Victorian London and later progressed to modern times with the award-winning Peter Diamond books set in Bath, his home for almost twenty years.
Now living in Shrewsbury with his wife Jax, whom he met at Reading University, he continues to reach and entertain new readers across the world.
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