In the six years since the start of the hit British TV show “Swift,” its cast and crew have been plagued by misfortune, beginning with the star actress’s pulling out of the show before it began. By now there have been multiple injuries by fall, fire or drowning; two deaths; and two missing persons cases. The media quickly decides it’s a curse, but who’s to say there isn’t a criminal conspiracy afoot? Now that the filming has moved to Bath, Peter Diamond, Chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is on the case. While the investigation into one fatal accident is underway, a cameraman goes missing, challenging even the most credulous to wonder if he might have been the victim of foul play rather than a jinx. How can so many things go wrong on one set in such a short time?

More than 50 years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey’s lifelong passion for short form crime fiction. On the occasion of his 100th short story, Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection --- 18 yarns of mystery, melancholy and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theater, a monastery and the book publishing industry. The collection includes that first story that launched his story-writing career, as well as three exclusive new stories. In addition, Lovesey fans will delight in a personal essay by the author about the historical inspirations --- and in an appearance by the irascible Bath detective Peter Diamond.

If there's one thing Bath detective Peter Diamond has no patience for, it's a dumb git trying to get involved in one of his investigations --- for example, a Philip Marlowe-wannabe private investigator like the self-styled Johnny Getz (his card claims he Getz results). But fate has saddled Diamond with this trial. A Bath antiques dealer, Septimus "Seppy" Hubbard, has disappeared without a trace, and his daughter, Ruby, has hired Johnny Getz to find him. When a dead body is discovered in Seppy's locked-up store, the missing persons case becomes a murder investigation, and now Diamond has to collaborate with the insufferable private eye.

Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Sherlock Holmes' one-time nemesis, Irene Adler, finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this collection of 18 holiday stories will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe --- from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.

Through a particularly ill-fated series of events, Maeve Kelly, an elementary school teacher whose mother always assured her “curvy” girls shouldn’t waste their time trying to be fit, has been forced to sign up for the Other Half, Bath’s springtime half marathon. The training is brutal, but she must disprove her mother and collect pledges for her aunt’s beloved charity. Meanwhile, Detective Peter Diamond is tasked with crowd control on the raucous day of the race --- and catches sight of a violent criminal he put away a decade ago. Diamond’s hackles are already up when he learns that one of the runners never crossed the finish line and disappeared without a trace. Was Diamond a spectator to murder?

As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline, the daughter of notorious crime baron Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. The problem is that Ben’s father, George, is the Deputy Chief Constable. A wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are arranged before the career-obsessed DCC can step in. Peter Diamond, Bath’s head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Will the photo session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving’s speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon?

A wrecking crew is demolishing a row of townhouses when they uncover a skeleton in one of the attics. The dead man is wearing authentic 1760s garb, and on the floor next to it is a white tricorn hat --- the ostentatious signature accessory of Beau Nash, a fashion icon who some say ended up in a pauper’s grave. Or did the Beau actually end up in a townhouse attic? Chief Inspector Peter Diamond, who has been assigned to identify the remains, begins to fantasize about turning Nash scholarship on its ear. But one of his constables is stubbornly insisting the corpse can’t be Nash’s and threatens to spoil Diamond’s favorite theory, especially when he offers some pretty irrefutable evidence.

Two police officers are about to head home when they receive one last call. En route to investigate, the patrol car spins off the road, killing one of the exhausted cops and leaving the other in critical condition. Detective Peter Diamond, who is assigned to look into the case, discovers that a civilian on a motorized tricycle was involved in the crash and has been lying on the side of the road for hours. Diamond administers CPR, but the man’s fate is unclear. As he lingers on life support, Diamond must wrestle with the fact that he may have saved the life of a serial killer.

In a Sussex town on the south coast of England, a widely disliked art teacher at a posh private girls’ school disappears without explanation. Meanwhile, a Sussex detective has been suspended for failing to link DNA evidence of a relative to a seven-year-old murder case. When detective Peter Diamond realizes that the suspended officer is an old friend who is not known to make such mistakes, he begins to notice unsettling connections between the cold case and the missing art teacher. Could the two mysteries be connected?