King and Joker - Hardcover

Dickinson, Peter

3.76

178 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394406036 ISBN 13: 9780394406039

Publisher: Pantheon Books, 1976

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The monarchy is not what it used to be. King Victor II may be the grandson of Queen Victoria, but political and economic realities have intruded even on Buckingham Palace, where family breakfasts center on proposals for tightening the household budget and the King, a licensed physician, fumes at Parliament's refusal to permit him to practice medicine for fear of lawsuits. Nor has royal dignity been spared. A practical joker has invaded the palace, but his tricks, initially amusing, have turned deadly, and seem increasingly to be focused on the teenage Princess Louise. The trickster, it seems clear, wants her to divulge some secret to the Greater British Public, but which one?

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About the Author:

Peter Dickinson was born in Africa but raised and educated in England. From 1952 to 1969 he was on the editorial staff of Punch, and since then earned his living writing fiction of various kinds for children and adults. His books have been published in several languages throughout the world.

The author of twenty-one crime and mystery novels for adults, Dickinson was the first to win the Gold Dagger Award of the Crime Writers’ Association for two books running: The Glass-Sided Ants Nest (1968) and The Old English Peepshow (1969). Dickinson was shortlisted nine times for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for children’s literature and was the first author to win it twice.

Dickinson served as chairman of the Society of Authors and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2009 for services to literature. Peter Dickinson died on December 16, 2015, at the age of eighty-eight.

Review:

“Wry, witty, irresistible.” —Financial Times

“[Dickinson] outdoes himself this time. . . . A most unusual and original mystery.” —Publishers Weekly

“[Dickinson] has written a mystery story with an unusual detective, and with logical, well worked-out development. The result is typical Dickinson—sensitive, different, yet within the conventions of the genre.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Triumphantly touching, with genuinely interesting characters . . . exceptional.” —Newsweek

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