Diamond Dust [Import] [Hardcover]

Peter Lovesey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2002 | Series: A Peter Diamond Mystery

A detective learns to suppress his feelings when a verdict is announced. Peter Diamond, the head of the Bath's murder team, reveals no joy when the gang leader Jake Carpenter is sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. But the next day, when a woman is shot dead in Royal Victoria Park, Diamond's self-control dissolves in an instant. The dead woman is Stephanie, his wife. Traumatised, grief-stricken and angry for justice, Diamond is told that the case he is desperate to solve is the one he won't be allowed to work on. Not only that. As the victim's spouse, he must face the ignominy of being treated as a suspect. While the police put their efforts into checking him out, Diamond starts his own unauthorized investigation. Might someone be getting back at him? Starting with Jake Carpenter, he begins examining recent cases to see who might have exacted this cruel revenge. Soon he is sifting the dust of his entire career. Sharply plotted and perfectly executed, Diamond Dust finds Peter Lovesey's acclaimed detective up against it as never before, in his most touching and demanding case.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316859850
• ISBN-13: 978-0316859851
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

More About the Author

PETER LOVESEY is the author of the Peter Diamond mysteries, well known for their use of surprise, strong characters and hard-to-crack puzzles. He was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2000, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, the Anthony, the Ellery Queen Readers' Award and is Grand Master of the Swedish Academy of Detection. He has been a full-time author since 1975, and was formerly in further education. Earlier series include the Sergeant Cribb mysteries seen on TV and the Bertie, Prince of Wales novels. The Diamond novels, set in Bath, England, where Peter lived for some years, feature a burly, warm-hearted, but no-nonsense police detective whose personal life becomes as engaging to the reader as the intricate mysteries he solves. His team in Bath CID includes the ex-journo Ingeborg Smith, the long-serving Keith Halliwell and the meticulous John Leaman, all involved in what is essentially a fair-play procedural mystery series. Peter and his wife Jax, who co-scripted the TV series, have a son, Phil, also a teacher and mystery writer, and a daughter Kathy, who was a Vice-President of J.P.Morgan-Chase, and now lives with her family in Greenwich, Ct. Peter currently lives in Chichester, England. His website at www.peterlovesey.com gives fuller details of his life and books. "Try him. You'll love him," wrote the doyen of the mystery world, Otto Penzler, in the New York Sun.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peter Diamond, murder suspect, June 15, 2002

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Diamond Dust: A Peter Diamond Mystery (Hardcover)

The sharp-witted Peter Diamond series takes a turn into darker territory when the acerbic Bath detective shows up at a murder scene to discover the victim is his wife, Stephanie. From the first moments of shock through the months of grinding frustration and grief, Diamond learns what it is to be on the receiving end of impersonal police professionalism.

Devastated as he is, Diamond knows they're right to take him off the case - he can't even bear the casual, distancing language of murder scenes and grief has made him numb and slow-witted and consumed by guilt that one of his collars killed her in revenge. Why else would anyone kill kind-hearted likeable Steph, the sunny antithesis to his mordant personality? But when the revenge theory fizzles, Diamond himself is fitted for the frame and he doesn't like it one bit.

Lovesey does a superb job of portraying Diamond in extremis. The outrage as what he has done to countless others is done to him - the hard-nosed intrusion on private grief, the exposure of every tic and blemish and tiny secret, the shame and horror of suspicion - all mark him indelibly. The plot is equally well-constructed, replete with plausible dead-ends and red herrings and one big, awful question - why was Steph in the park at all and who is the "T" she went to meet? Operating outside the official investigation and hampered by the lack of official resources, Diamond reaches the devastating solution through a combination of sharp observation and intimate knowledge of the victim.

A bleak and masterful novel which leaves the reader wondering what repercussions will follow in future Diamond novels. The man is irrevocably changed - how will it affect his work? Will gruff, blunt Diamond become more sensitive to the feelings of suspects? And, of course, romance is now a possibility.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cracker of a Book!, April 4, 2004

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Diamond Dust: A Peter Diamond Investigation (Paperback)

I wondered how this book would play out after the shocking beginning, but I shouldn't have doubted Peter Lovesey's skill. He writes a great book! His plots and characterizations are wonderful. In this book the curmudgeonly detective Peter Diamond is confronted with a crime that comes too close to home. He is sidelined by the brass for this, the biggest murder case of his career, but he vows that he will use his unique talent to bring his wife's killer to justice. There are more red herrings and leads for him to follow, and we the readers think it's a whole slew of different people, but Lovesey plays it out until the startling conclusion. This is a thickly textured and compelling book, and it is also a watershed book for Diamond. We wonder at the end what kind of man and detective we will have in subsequent stories. This is probably the strongest entry in an already strong series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Diamond so far, July 30, 2003

By 

C. Robinson (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Diamond Dust: A Peter Diamond Investigation (Paperback)

Having read all the previous Peter Diamond mysteries, I found "Diamond Dust" to be even better than the others, and the others are excellent. From the kick-in-the-stomach beginning to the trapdoor-under-your-feet ending, it's a winner. Just when you think you've got it nailed, it springs back. Can't wait to read the next one.