Beau Death

When demolition workers tear into a condemned row of Bath townhouses, they unearth a skeleton dressed in authentic eighteenth-century clothing — and beside it, the unmistakable white tricorn hat of Beau Nash, the city's most flamboyant historical figure. Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is suddenly investigating a case that may be centuries old, one that blurs the line between history and homicide. The question of who this man really was — and whether the notorious Beau Nash ever actually made it to that pauper's grave — pulls Diamond into Bath's layered past in ways that feel personal and urgent, even across the distance of time.

Lovesey writes with a wit that never undercuts the mystery, and his love for Bath itself gives the novel a sense of place that functions almost like a character. The dual-timeline tension — present-day detective work bumping against eighteenth-century legend — is handled with a light, confident hand. Diamond remains one of crime fiction's most pleasingly stubborn and human detectives, and watching him work through a case this peculiar showcases exactly why this long-running series continues to find fresh momentum seventeen books in.