The Bones in the Attic

New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2001. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good. [6], 244, [6] pages. Illustration. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Signed by the author on the title page. Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 - 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. Barnard said that his favorite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie. Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement. Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard published two standalone novels and two alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age. Derived from a Kirkus review: A genteel inquiry into the grave problem of what happens when one's future is shanghaied by one's past. Soccer star-turned-media personality Matt Harper has just bought a rambling house in Leeds, with plans to settle down with his love Aileen and her three children. Surveying the attic he discovers a tiny body that DI Peace identifies as a two-year-old who died 30 years ago. That time-frame fits the year Matt lived in Leeds and played five-a-side soccer with his mates. Several of those mates have passed on; one has become a lush; still another is as smug and cantankerous as ever, at least according to Matt's memory. When DI Peace admits that a death so long ago will scarcely be a top priority for the CID, Matt perseveres on his own, interviewing those five-a-side chums, figuring out just who lived in which house back then, and tracking down a hippie squatter couple and their lovechild-as well as the identity of one ballplayer's emotionally warped secret mentor.