The Sinful Stones

Scotland Yard detective James Pibble travels to a remote Scottish island to free an old man from a dangerous cult of self-proclaimed saints and saviors in this mystery by CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter DickinsonNinety-two-year-old Sir Francis Francis summons James Pibble to an isolated island in the Hebrides to find out who pilfered the memoirs he was in the process of writing. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist was one of the builders of the first atom bomb. Is Francis senile? Paranoid? Was the manuscript really stolen? What''s the real reason he sent for Pibble?As Pibble tries to untangle the mystery of the missing document, he starts to suspect that the devout millenarian religious sect inhabiting the island may be less virtuous than it seems; the community is strangely hell-bent on preventing Francis from ever leaving. It''s up to Pibble to seek out the truth and find his own salvation before the walls of Jericho come tumbling down forever."Fantastically inventive . . . a story full of imaginative detail with a stirring, sardonic end." -TheDaily Telegraph"Here is that rare bird among thrillers: one that combines sheer speed and subtlety, through sheer writing skill." -The Sun"A delight to read." -The Times Literary Supplement"Splendid." -The Times (London)"So richly contoured as to demand comparison with the best contemporary fiction." -The Scotsman"Peter Dickinson is a master of the bizarre. . . . The Sinful Stones is bewildering and yet believable, marvelously mad but perfectly logical. . . . I had an usually good, and often gripping time with it." -Louis UntermeyerPeter 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 has earned his living writing fiction of various kinds for children and adults. His books have been published in several languages throughout the world.The recipient of many awards, Dickinson has been shortlisted nine times for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for children''s literature and was the first author to win it twice. The author of twenty-one crime and mystery novels for adults, Dickinson was also the first to win the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers'' Association for two books running: The Glass-Sided Ants'' Nest (1968) and The Old English Peepshow (1969).A collection of Dickinson''s poetry, The Weir, was published in 2007. His latest book, In the Palace of the Khans, was published in 2012 and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.Dickinson has served as chairman of the Society of Authors and is 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.