Diamond Dust

This is a dandy that will keep the reader guessing right up until the last couple pages. Lovesey has taken an ordinarily nasty story and dressed it up in a quite acceptable mystery. Poor Diamond runs down quite a few red-herrings before he finally gets on the trail. One unfortunate lapse is how Lovesey has everybody take up the apparent conclusion leaving it to Diamond to dive in to the finish by himself. I suppose it is okay for an author to be a bit abusive to the reader but it was an ouch.

A solid Diamond mystery, with a pretty grave subject. The mourning aspect here, I guess necessarily gets glossed over, but well-managed overall. I think Diamond is a character much better suited to the comedic rather than the tragic, but this succeeds in spite of that.

My first Lovesey and I will be back. Shocks on both ends of this mystery. In between, compelling characters, internal drama in Diamond's police unit and a mix of police procedural and unauthorized detective work.

Oh, this was heart-wrenching. The mystery was fantastic, too, and the solution made the crime even more painful, in that it was almost an afterthought.

Another excellent addition to the Peter Diamond series, where he becomes the chief suspect in a shocking murder, and is not allowed to be part of the investigation, but of course he continues to investigate on his own. This series continues to amaze me.

If you haven't read any of Lovesey's Peter Diamond mysteries, don't start with this one--start with one of the earlier ones. This is one of those series that can be read out of order, but you're better off reading them in sequence. All are very well written mysteries. Diamond's the sort of inspector who does not get along with the bureaucrats in the police department. An added note: if you ever get the chance to meet Peter Lovesey at a book signing, do so--he is wonderfully nice and takes an interest in each individual.

Average mystery, by far not my favorite in this series. The first, The Last Detective, is still the best of the Peter Diamond set.