Vault - Peter Lovesey

When a severed hand from the vault of Bath Abbey churchyard arrives on Peter Diamond’s desk, he is delighted that, far from being a medieval relic, it is from the 1980s. But the vault is part of the house where Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written, and a fanatical American professor is thwarting their investigation at every turn. Events are further complicated when the professor’s wife goes missing …

Highly suspicious of the professor, but unable to prove anything, Diamond concentrates on trying to identify the remains, with a shocking result. Then the owner of Bath’s largest antique emporium is brutally murdered – and the last person to see her alive was the professor.