Diamond dust

Lovesey, winner of the Diamond Dagger Award for Lifetime Achievement and long celebrated for his witty, intricately plotted mysteries, sets the bar very high for himself in his latest excursion. The seventh Diamond mystery, starring Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad in Bath, England, has the avuncular copper off the murder beat and assigned to an investigation of Bath's Mafia family. News of a murder in the city's Victorian formal gardens sends Diamond's spirits soaring, confident he will be returned to his home turf. As he draws back the plastic sheet over the woman's body, however, he discovers that the victim is his own wife. Reeling from his grief and forbidden to join the homicide team, Diamond investigates on his own, unveiling a skein of motives, including, most disturbingly, his wife's own past, to account for the murder of a woman seemingly loved by all. The shock here comes early and lingers. Only a master could pull off such an emotionally wrenching subject without sounding false or forced. Lovesey succeeds brilliantly. --Connie Fletcher

Lovesey more than clears the impressive hurdle he creates for himself in his seventh Peter Diamond mystery (after 2000's The Vault). The series enters new territory when Diamond responds to a fresh crime scene only to discover that the murder victim is Stephanie, his wife of almost 20 years. His personal stake in the inquiry leads to his replacement as chief investigating officer and to his eventual role as the prime suspect. Tellingly, his aversion to casual chitchat and preference for his own company leave Diamond without an alibi, even though he was at work at the Bath police station at the time. Distrustful of the official approach, he conducts his own investigation, consumed by guilt over the possibility that his wife was killed, as an act of revenge, by one of the many criminals he's brought to book. This tightly plotted fair-play mystery presents numerous suspects, including Stephanie's first husband, a possible serial killer targeting police spouses and a mobster recently released from prison. The author manages to keep Diamond his crusty, disagreeable self, while still evincing the devastating and permanent blow he has suffered. Diamond remains one of the most human of series detectives: an uncertain participant in the petty tussles of office politics, gruff to those who attempt to reach out to him, but dogged in his determination to see justice done. Lovesey will be hard-pressed to surpass this current effort for its combination of the puzzle and the personal, but based on his current achievement, it would be no great surprise if he did. Author tour. (June) FYI: Lovesey has won the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement from the British Crime Writers Association. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Eager to maintain his posting as senior homicide inspector in Bath, Peter Diamond swiftly initiates an investigation only to discover that the victim is his wife. Baffled and grieving, Peter is removed from the case and "fitted for a frame" by his replacement. Using the resources and skills he has developed during his career, Peter starts his own investigation to clear his name and satisfy a promise made to his wife. This prime British mystery is wondrously full of scoundrels, hoodlums, perplexing situations, and story elements that seem to mean one thing when they really mean another. Narrator Steve Hodson brings all these elements to life; his accents (to this Midwesterner's ear) are accurate and completely engaging. Diamond Dust is an absolute gem; very highly recommended.-Ray Vignovich, West Des Moines P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About to be shunted off to Bristol and replaced as the head of Bath's Murder Squad on the eve of his 50th birthday, irascible Peter Diamond is gleeful at the reprieve a body found in Royal Victoria Park buys him-until he gets a good look and realizes it's his own wife Stephanie with two bullet holes in her head. To prevent bias, DCI Curtis McGarvie is put in charge of the investigation, and Diamond soon finds himself, as the husband, the prime suspect. Appalled, grieving, and determined to bring his beloved Steph's killer to justice, Diamond mounts an unofficial parallel investigation, concentrating on miscreants he's jailed. Then, weeks later, another cop's wife, an ex-cop herself, is declared missing, then found dead along the rail tracks in Woking with wounds similar to Steph's. Diamond allies himself with the other widower, Stormy Weathers, and the two track cases and villains they worked on together at the Met. Along the way, they find ties between a diamond snatch planned for the Dorchester Hotel and Steph's first husband, ex-RAF caterer Edward Dixon-Bligh; then the body of Dixon-Bligh himself with his tongue cut out, possibly for ratting out the Dorchester deal. All signs point to the heroin-addicted Dixon-Bligh as killer of both wives, but Diamond, stymied by his unbreakable alibi, begins digging more deeply into the Weathers marriage, with catastrophic revelations. Another example of why Lovesey's Diamond series (The Vault, 2000, etc.) sets awards committees tingling. Fully dimensional characters, juicy plotting, and more twists than the Hampton Court maze.

Lovesey, winner of the Diamond Dagger Award for Lifetime Achievement and long celebrated for his witty, intricately plotted mysteries, sets the bar very high for himself in his latest excursion. The seventh Diamond mystery, starring Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad in Bath, England, has the avuncular copper off the murder beat and assigned to an investigation of Bath's Mafia family. News of a murder in the city's Victorian formal gardens sends Diamond's spirits soaring, confident he will be returned to his home turf. As he draws back the plastic sheet over the woman's body, however, he discovers that the victim is his own wife. Reeling from his grief and forbidden to join the homicide team, Diamond investigates on his own, unveiling a skein of motives, including, most disturbingly, his wife's own past, to account for the murder of a woman seemingly loved by all. The shock here comes early and lingers. Only a master could pull off such an emotionally wrenching subject without sounding false or forced. Lovesey succeeds brilliantly. ((Reviewed March 1, 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

Lovesey more than clears the impressive hurdle he creates for himself in his seventh Peter Diamond mystery (after 2000's The Vault). The series enters new territory when Diamond responds to a fresh crime scene only to discover that the murder victim is Stephanie, his wife of almost 20 years. His personal stake in the inquiry leads to his replacement as chief investigating officer and to his eventual role as the prime suspect. Tellingly, his aversion to casual chitchat and preference for his own company leave Diamond without an alibi, even though he was at work at the Bath police station at the time. Distrustful of the official approach, he conducts his own investigation, consumed by guilt over the possibility that his wife was killed, as an act of revenge, by one of the many criminals he's brought to book. This tightly plotted fair-play mystery presents numerous suspects, including Stephanie's first husband, a possible serial killer targeting police spouses and a mobster recently released from prison. The author manages to keep Diamond his crusty, disagreeable self, while still evincing the devastating and permanent blow he has suffered. Diamond remains one of the most human of series detectives: an uncertain participant in the petty tussles of office politics, gruff to those who attempt to reach out to him, but dogged in his determination to see justice done. Lovesey will be hard-pressed to surpass this current effort for its combination of the puzzle and the personal, but based on his current achievement, it would be no great surprise if he did. Author tour. (June) FYI: Lovesey has won the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement from the British Crime Writers Association. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.