Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond's superiors arrest a woman for murder, but he's sure they are wrong. Forced to resign, he continues the investigation on his own and reveals the uncomfortable truth. The award-winning author's other crime novels include "The False Inspector Dew".
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From Publishers Weekly
Irascible, corpulent, cynical Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond of the Avon and Somerset murder squad attributes Britain's decline as a world power to the abolition of capital punishment in 1964. Spurning computer gadgetry, he sticks to common sense, index cards and gumshoeing: "Knocking on doors. That's how we get results." The almost clueless case of the naked woman's body found floating in Chew Valley Lake poses a supreme challenge for the detective, who is anxious to clear his name of recent charges of brutality. The belated identification of the victim as actress Geraldine Snoo, written out of a BBC soap opera two years before, leads to one surprise after another, including the claim of the victim's professor husband that she had tried to kill him, and culminating in the suspenseful trial of divorced mother Dana Didrikson whom Geraldine had accused of trying to steal her husband. Diamond refutes genetic fingerprinting evidence against Dana and, in a stunning last scene, reveals the killer's identity. Lovesy, winner of a Silver Dagger Award for Waxwork and a Golden Dagger for The False Inspector Dew, uses Bath as his setting, treating us to a great chase through the Roman baths for which the town is named. This witty novel gets the new Perfect Crime imprint (formerly Crime Club) off to a flying start.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Doubleday inaugurates their ``Perfect Crime'' imprint with a body in a lake, soon identified as former soap-opera actress Gerry Snoo. Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond, charged with but recently absolved of malicious interrogation techniques, focuses on the victim's husband, university professor Greg Jackman, a local hero for saving young Matt Didrikson from drowning in the weir. Did Greg kill his wife in order to dally with Matt's mum, Dana? Did Dana do it for love of Greg? Or? At odds with his supervisor over procedures, Diamond resigns from the force but then investigates on his own. Finally, when Dana is charged, he offers telling tidbits to establish her innocence--and cause the courtroom breakdown of her employer, a drug importer with ties to cocaine addict Snoo. Crafty authorial misdirection--including a subplot about the authenticity and robbery of a pair of Jane Austen letters--as well as writing skills that have justifiably earned Lovesey international awards, plus a PBS following for his Sergeant Cribb series. Top-form Lovesey. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Audio Cassette
I couldn't put the book down through 250 pages, thought the multiple-perspectives narration worked and in general thought it was a good detective novel. The problem unfortunately is that the solution is not up to the rest of the book . Sorry - but I won't say more so as not to spoil the book. A middling grade.
By S. Schwartz
Format:Paperback
I read all the Cribb/Thackery series awhile ago, and this is my first of Lovesey's series with Peter Diamond. I'm glad to be reading him again. He is a veteran novelist. Although this series is entirely different than Cribb and Thackery, Lovesey's talent as a novelist is very apparant. His writing is a bit painstaking at first as he sets up the scene for the murder and denouement, but it still keeps your interest. In this first book in the Diamond series we are introduced to Peter Diamond who is a Detective Superintendent in Bath, England. A body of a woman is fished out of the lake and when the body is finally identified it is determined that she was a television star. In trying to unravel the mystery of this death, Diamond finds out that Mrs. Geraldine Jackman was not a particularly nice person. Diamond finds himself at odds with his partner while trying to determine the murderer, and it ends up costing him is job with the police. Diamond still doggedly pursues enquiries on his own and is almost killed himself. Although I had guessed the murderer about halfway through the book, there were enough other surprises that kept coming up to keep my interest. I am very interested in reading other books in this series.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Discovered Peter Lovesey's novels two years ago--have read 6 or 7 since then. If you are a fan of mysteries, of detective fiction, I highly recommend his work. Wonderful range--the series with Cribb, the series with Diamond, and the stand-alones are all entertaining, compelling, and original. He is far more interesting than 99% of mystery fiction.
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3.8 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
New Directions for Lovesey
I have always had a love/hate relationship with Peter Lovesey's books for many years. I have a large number of his novels on my shelf, mostly from the Sgt. Cribb series. Read more
Published on April 13 2001 by Marc Ruby™
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit of a drag
Peter Diamond is something of an anachronism on the police force--a stickler for old-fashioned detection in a business that relies almost completely on state-of-the-art computers... Read more
Published on Oct 8 2000 by RolloTomasi
5.0 out of 5 stars
Peter Lovesey at his best!
The Last Detective is Peter Lovesey at his best. Peter Diamond, my favorite of Lovesey's many crimesolvers, resigns from the Bath police force in the middle of this complicated and... Read more
Published on Mar 29 2000
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