Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} On the Edge by Lovesey. Peter On The Edge / Dead Gorgeous. Rose and Antonia had a good war. As WAAF plotters they had all the excitement and independence of a difficult and fulfilling job, and all the fun of being two women on an RAF base. But peacetime is a disappointment. Rose’s war-hero husband has turned brutal out. Antonia, bored with her rich manufacturer, wants to move to America with her lover. But what are plotters for, if not to plot? Antonia’s ruthless scheme would give them what they both want. If Rose doesn’t lose her nerve, they could get away with murder. UK Publisher: Century Hutchinson, 1989 US Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1989 UK Paperback: Arrow, 1990 US Paperback: Mysterious Press, 1990 Reissued as Dead Gorgeous by Time Warner Paperbacks, 2002 Latest US Paperback: Soho Press, 2002 ISBN 1-56947-309-9 Latest UK Paperback: Sphere, 2014 ISBN 978-0751553543. “Lovesey is one of the very best of the current generation of crime writers and he controls his plot like clockwork – everything timed to precision so that the final uncertainty is resolved just as the bell tolls … If I were judge I’d pencil this one onto the short list for the ’89 Gold Dagger.” Tim Heald, Evening Standard. “Brilliant is the only word for veteran Peter Lovesey’s latest venture into the macabre … A whipcrack pace, gasps all the way, and yet another winner for Lovesey.” Scotland on Sunday. “Never has Lovesey’s wizardry been so effective as in this tale of the duped and the duper … The story dodges from one unguessable outcome to the next.” Publishers Weekly. “Irrepressible joie de mort.” New York Times Book Review. TV, Film And Radio. A brilliant US sprinter prepares for a unique triple victory at the Moscow Olympics. The exploitation merchants close in and the mental and physical pressures lead to doubts whether she will ever reach her goal. Starring Susan Anton, James Coburn, Leslie Caron, Robert Culp and Curt Jurgens. Screenplay Jon Kohn, from the Peter Lear novel. Director Joseph Sargent. Also adapted as a TV mini-series. Susan Anton had a Golden Globe nomination as New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture. TELEVISION. WAXWORK. Granada Television, 1979. 90 minute play set in Victorian London about a woman condemned to hang for the murder of her husband. Sergeant Cribb investigates in the limited time before the execution. Starring Alan Dobie, Carol Royle and David Waller. Screenplay Pauline Macauley, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director June Wyndham-Davies. CRIBB (First Series) Granada Television, 1980. Seven one hour plays: this and the second series are frequently repeated on ITV3. In its first year, Cribb grossed the highest takings of any Granada production, outselling Coronation Street , Laurence Olivier Presents and World in Action . Audiences peaked at 12.5 million in the second series. It was sold across the world to more than 40 countries ranging from America’s PBS to Zimbabwe Television. Alan Dobie was nominated as Best Actor in the 1981 Emmy Awards and William Simons was nominated as Best Supporting Actor. In America, Cribb was chosen to launch the long-running Mystery! series on the Public Broadcasting Service. SWING, SWING TOGETHER. Three female students out for a midnight swim witness a body dumped into the river. Cribb and Constable Thackeray investigate and find themselves following the route of Three Men in a Boat . Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Heather Moray and Ronald Lacey. Screenplay Brian Thompson, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director June Wyndham-Davies. ABRACADAVER. A series of music hall accidents prompts an investigation by Cribb that uncovers the not so innocent pleasures indulged in by the cream of society. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Julia Chambers and Patsy Rowlands. Screenplay Bill MacIlwraith, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director Julian Amyes. THE DETECTIVE WORE SILK DRAWERS. Bare-knuckle fighting is illegal, but the hands on a headless body recovered from the Thames suggest it is going on. A Scotland Yard man goes undercover to investigate. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and Norma West. Screenplay Peter Lovesey, from his own novel. Director Alan Grint. THE HORIZONTAL WITNESS. The body of the king of London’s underworld is found in one of his brothels. Cribb discovers a link with a London hospital and as Thackeray has problems ‘of a personal nature’ gets him admitted to Charing Cross Hospital to observe a key criminal. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and James Coyle. Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey. Director Alan Grint. WOBBLE TO DEATH. A competitor drops dead in a six-day indoor endurance race at the Royal Agricultural Hall and while the show continues the versatile detectives have to decide if it was due to exhaustion, tetanus or strychnine. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Bobbie Brown and Michael Elphick. Screenplay Alan Plater, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director Gordon Flemyng. SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW. Thackeray is best man at a wedding, but Cribb is suspicious because the bride is 37 years younger than her intended and is wearing a secondhand wedding dress. Her previous elderly husbands seem to have died rather suddenly. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Charlotte Mitchell and Geoffrey Baylden. Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey. Director Oliver Horsbrough. A CASE OF SPIRITS. An investigation of the theft of a valuable painting and a vase leads to a murder enquiry as Cribb and Thackeray are forced to indulge in the Victorian craze for spiritualism and se’ances. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Judy Cornwell and Clive Swift. Screenplay Arden Winch, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director Bill Gilmour. CRIBB (Second Series) Granada Television, 1981. MAD HATTER’S HOLIDAY. In Brighton, Cribb and Thackeray have a breath of sea air and solve a gruesome murder. They meet the voyeuristic Mr Moscrop, with a passion for telescopes, and venture into the crocodile tank in the aquarium. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons and Fenella Fielding. Screenplay Bill McIlwraith, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director June Wyndham-Davies. THE LAST TRUMPET. Jumbo, the largest and most famous elephant in London’s Regent’s Park Zoo, is to be sold to the American, P.T.Barnum. A protest group is formed and it seems they will stop at nothing to keep Jumbo in London. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and Joyce Carey. Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey. Director Brian Mills. THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE. Cribb gets the royal seal of approval as he investigates a near fatality involving Queen Victoria and a pram containing her grandson. The nursemaid is dismissed, but is this the work of anarchists? Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Rosalie Crutchley and Jessica Spencer. Screenplay Peter & Director George Spenton-Foster. THE CHOIR THAT WOULDN’T SING. A Christmas episode finds Cribb and Thackeray in a Gloucestershire village investigating the death of a colonel member of the choir. Nobody seems to want to assist the police. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons and Elizabeth Spriggs. Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey. Director Mary McMurray. MURDER OLD BOY. The former school captain of a public school organises a selective reunion of distinguished former pupils. Suddenly the old school tie finds another use and the Yard’s help is urgently required. Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and John Carson. Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey. Director George Spenton-Foster. INVITATION TO A DYNAMITE PARTY. London is beset by Irish ‘dynamiters’ in 1884 and an attack on one of the royal family is planned. Cribb must infiltrate the terrorist gang and discover the sinister secret submarine. Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and Jeananne Crowley. Screenplay Arden Winch, from the Peter Lovesey novel. Director Alan Grint. Cribb series one and two were published in DVD and video by Acorn Media UK, 2004. www.acornmediauk.com. Questioned by a TV audience of children for the BBC programme In the Limelight with Lesley on 6 June, 1980, The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, revealed that she didn’t see much television, but enjoyed a programme that went out on Sunday evenings about a Victorian policeman called Cribb. TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED. Anglia Television, 1982. A MAN WITH A FORTUNE. An American called Smith travels to London with the ambition of researching his family tree and finds some unsuspected relatives. Starring Shane Rimmer, Cyd Hayman and Elizabeth Richardson. Screenplay Alan Seymour, from Peter Lovesey’s short story, How Mr Smith Traced His Ancestors. Director Herbert Wise. ENGLISH FILE: TELLING STORIES. Peter introduces and interrupts a dramatisation of his short story to demonstrate techniques of writing. Starring Michael Keating, Jason Rush and Denys Graham. Screenplay Peter Lovesey. Producer David Taft. DEAD GORGEOUS. Carlton Television, 2002. World War II has just ended and two ex-WAAFs meet again by chance and agree that the peace holds little excitement and their husbands are a dead loss. They think up an ingenious way of making the dead loss a reality. Starring Helen McCrory, Fay Ripley, Ron Cook and Loyd Owen. Screenplay Andrew Payne, from the novel On the Edge , by Peter Lovesey. Director Sarah Harding. ROSEMARY & THYME. Carnival Television, 2003-2007. Peter was story consultant for this light-hearted series about two gardeners turned sleuths. Starring Pam Ferris, Felicity Kendal. Screenplays by various writers including Clive Exton, Peter Spence, David Joss Buckley, Stephen Gallagher and Simon Brett. Directors Brian Farnham, Simon Langton. Producer Brian Eastman. RADIO. ABRACADAVER. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1973. For synopsis see TV production. Starring Frank Windsor, John Hollis, Helen Worth, William Eedle and Rolf Lefebre. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Producer David H. Godfrey. WOBBLE TO DEATH. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1975. For synopsis see TV production. Starring Timothy Bateson, William Eedle, Sydney Tafler, Trader Faulkner and Steve Hodson. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Producer Harry Catlin. THE DETECTIVE WORE SILK DRAWERS. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1977. For synopsis see TV production. Starring John Rye, John Hollis, Steve Hodson, Carole Boyd and William Eedle. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Producer Graham Gauld. A CASE OF SPIRITS. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1985. For synopsis see TV production. Starring Barry Foster, John Cater. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. SWING, SWING TOGETHER. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1987. For synopsis see TV production. Starring Barry Foster, John Cater, Moir Leslie, Brian Hewlett and Roger Hume. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Director Vanessa Whitburn. WAXWORK. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1987. For synopsis see TV production. Starring Brian Cox, John Cater, Sarah Berger, Roger Hume and Don Henderson. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Director Vanessa Whitburn. BERTIE AND THE TINMAN. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1990. Bertie, Prince of Wales, investigates the alleged suicide of Fred Archer, the royal jockey. Starring Timothy West, John Moffatt, Marcia King, Simon Treves and Geoffrey Whitehead. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Director Matthew Walters. BERTIE AND THE SEVEN BODIES. BBC Saturday Playhouse, 1991. Bertie, Prince of Wales, honours a house party with his presence, and there is a murder each day of the week. Starring Robert Lang, Marcia King, Susannah Fellowes, Joan Moon, Siriol Jenkins and Timothy Carlton. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Director Matthew Walters. KEYSTONE. BBC Saturday Playhouse, 1992. Warwick Easton, an Englishman, is recruited to the Keystone Cops and finds himself involved in murder and romance as well as comedy. Starring Mark Straker, Jennifer Ehle, Roger Gartland and Lorelei King. Adapted by Michael Z Lewin. Director Matthew Walters. THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW. BBC Radio Drama in five parts, 1993. Dentist Walter Baranov plans to murder his wife Lydia aboard the liner Mauretania in 1921 and pass himself off as a detective, but complications ensue. Starring Ronald Pickup, Fiona Fullerton, Oona Beeson and Steve Hodson. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Director Matthew Walters. ROUGH CIDER. BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1994. What did Theo really see as an evacuee on a Somerset farm where a terrible murder was committed? Twenty years later he returns to relive the dramatic events. Starring Rob Edwards, Briony Glassco, Oona Beeson, Peter Whitman, Neville Jason and David Jarvis. Adapted by Michael Z Lewin. Director Matthew Walters. BERTIE AND THE CRIME OF PASSION. BBC Drama in four parts, 1995. Bertie, Prince of Wales, turns sleuth again to solve a murder at the Moulin Rouge, aided by the divine Sarah Bernhardt. Starring Robert Lang, Jane Lapotaire, Olivier Pierre, Andrew Branch, Roger May and David Timson. Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews. Director Matthew Walters. TV, Film and Radio. Susan Anton in Goldengirl. Waxwork: Carol Royle, Alan Dobie, James Warrior. Waxwork: Peter in the Chamber of Horrors with James Warrior, Bernard Archard and waxwork. On the Edge by Lovesey. Peter. ON THE EDGE by Peter Lovesey Soho, November 2002 204 pages $12.00 ISBN: 1569473099. This mystery novel, ON THE EDGE, has been filmed as a TV show due to be shown in the U.S. on PBS in summer 2003. It was shown in England late last year with excellent reviews. As for the book, they don't come much better. Rose and Antonia worked together in the women's RAF auxillary in 1941, but when they meet accidently in London in 1946 they hardly recognize each other. They compare notes. Rose married that dashing wing commander, who as a husband turned into a lazy, boring, sometimes abusive nobody. Antonia married a rich widower of foreign origin who gave her everything except love, but she was able to find that elsewhere. Now she wants to go with her lover to America, but he won't take her as a married woman. Rose wishes her husband would have an accident and die. Antonia, the more sophisticated and bold one, wishes her husband would drop dead, too. Gradually they start daring to think the impossible. Antonia follows Rose's husband to his underground station, and, as a train nears, she gives him a push. Mercifully he dies instantly. Now Rose owes Antonia one. Ah, you're thinking, Patricia Highsmith's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, only with two women conspirators instead of men. Far from it. Any similarity quickly ends. Antonia's husband, Hector, is quite tolerant and knows she has a boy friend, but they can still talk together. While Antonia is working on Rose to help her murder Hector, Antonia is also telling Hector that she plans to murder Rose. Rose knows too much and Antonia is afraid she might crack. Hector listens nonchalantly as Antonia discusses her plans for Rose. After all, murder is not strange to them, not after they did away with Hector's first wife in a swimming accident so they could marry. Antonia introduces Hector to Rose and the three have dinner together in a fancy restaurant. Although Antonia, as usual, finds her husband's talk boring, Rose thinks Hector is quite interesting, and she can't understand why Antonia wants to do away with him. Hector, too, enjoys talking to the attentive Rose, and he can't understand why Antonia wants to do away with her. Ah, I'm thinking, Rose and Hector will compare notes and discover that Antonia has fatal plans for both of them. So naturally, think I, since they're quite compatible anyway, they'll decide to get rid of Antonia, marry, and live happily ever after. All right, so I'm wrong, too. Lovesey's humorous murder plot is not quite that easy to figure out. Humorous? A summary review can't do justice to the delicate souffle lightheartedness of this story. At one point the two women drive around in Antonia's Bentley all day trying to dispose of a body as one "perfect" plan for disposal after another collapses. They're getting desperate, but, oh, "It's past teatime." Nothing will do but they must stop on a busy street and sit by an upstairs window at Yarner's while they have tea with sandwiches, crumpets, and chocolate cake. So it goes. Every time you think you have it figured out, you find you don't. The author keeps you guessing in a compellingly fast-paced, easy-reading story. Chalk up another fascinatingly interesting tale by this never-let-you-down master artist of unusual mysteries. Read it, you'll like it. Soho Press. Rose and Antonia were WAAF plotters during World War II, enjoying independence, a fulfilling and challenging job, and all the fun of being two women on an RAF base. But peacetime is a disappointment. Rose’s war-hero husband has become violent, and Antonia, bored with her rich manufacturer husband, wants to move to America with her lover. Rose and Antonia were WAAF plotters during World War II, enjoying independence, a fulfilling and challenging job, and all the fun of being two women on an RAF base. But peacetime is a disappointment. Rose’s war-hero husband has become violent, and Antonia, bored with her rich manufacturer husband, wants to move to America with her lover. A chance encounter in the street leads to a ruthless scheme, and if Rose doesn’t lose her nerve, they could get away with murder. On the Edge. “[A] vivid postwar environment that confers plausibility, ingenious plot twists that heighten the suspense and two stunning character studies that confound our facile presumptions about women who kill.” — The New York Times Book Review. Rose and Antonia were WAAF plotters during World War II, enjoying independence, a fulfilling and challenging job, and all the fun of being two women on an RAF base. But peacetime is a disappointment. Rose’s war-hero husband has become violent, and Antonia, bored with her rich manufacturer husband, wants to move to America with her lover. A chance encounter in the street leads to a ruthless scheme, and if Rose doesn’t lose her nerve, they could get away with murder.