Motives for Murder: A Celebration of Peter Lovesey on his 80th Birthday

This superior tribute anthology boasts an impressive roster of British talent, including authors Catherine Aird and Andrew Taylor. Some of the 19 original short stories (and one sonnet) make good use of Lovesey’s own creations, such as Kate Ellis’s “The Mole Catcher’s Daughter,” which features Victorian constable Edward Thackeray, Sergeant Cribb’s sidekick, and Thackeray’s nephew as central characters; they investigate a poisoning case while Cribb himself tracks a serial killer. David Roberts does an effective job with a pastiche starring Cribb in “Unfinished Business.” Liza Cody (“Ghost Station”) and Michael Ridpath (“The Super Recognizer of Vík”) feature shout-outs to the Peter Diamond series, while others successfully capture Lovesey’s gift for crafting short stories with a nasty bite in their endings. In an afterword, Lovesey wittily recounts his experiences on joining the Detection Club, the legendary association of crime writers; the initiation ceremony included swearing on a skull dubbed Eric. (Nov.)