LOVESEY, Peter - Bertie and the Seven Bodies - [Bertie # 2] - (Hardcover in Wrapper) *

Book and wrapper in good even though it belonged to a library before - 1st UK edition   >>>   Real and fictional characters mix as Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and his pals romp through a Victorian whodunit set during a hunt at a great home in Buckinghamshire.   >>>   Bertie, Prince of Wales, is delighted to be invited by Lady Amelia, a recently widowed young woman, to Desborough Hall for a week-long shooting party. The eleven other motley guests include a poet, a chaplain, and an Amazon explorer. The party promises a week of shooting, socializing, and feasting, but these expectations are soon shattered as one of the guests collapses face first into her dessert and dies before the night is out. At first, this death is believed to be an accident, and the party continues with their hunting plans for the week. But when another guest turns up dead the very next day, Bertie realizes that the deaths cannot be coincidence.   >>>  In 1890 twelve guests gather at Desborough Hall for a weeks shooting party hosted by the beautiful Lady Amelia Hammond. Months of planning have left nothing to chance, for the main guests are the Prince and Princess of Wales. But events take a sinister turn when the vivacious Queenie Chimes collapses face down in the chefs lovingly created bombe-glacée. More deaths follow and clues planted on the bodies point shockingly to a final tally of seven, one for each day of the week. Bertie is impelled to investigate.   -  Written in the tradition of the golden age detective story, the book was intended as a homage to Agatha Christie in the year of her centenary.