Customer Reviews

Diamond Dust: A Peter Diamond Mystery

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Peter Lovesey's Peter Diamond mysteries are very happily to my taste. I like Peter Diamond, the kind of person he is, what he stands for in the bigger picture. He reminds me of Ruth Rendell's Chief Inspector Wexford, except that he is a little lest prosperous and a little more philosophical. Or perhaps a better comparison would be with Henning Mankell's Inspector Kurt Wallander. Diamond is a richly drawn character and this story chases him into a maze that brings his personal life most horribly into context with his work. I got into the Peter Diamond series fairly late in the game and I've been toying with the idea of going back and starting from the beginning, kind of like we did with Reginald Hill's Daziel and Pascoe mysteries. There are some 22 books prior to this one and I don't know how many feature Peter Diamond. Another one or two like this one, and I know it will be worth the investment in time to find out.

As a fan of Peter Lovesey's stuff, I found this Diamond story the best yet. Coming to the end was almost like nearing the end of a great gourmet meal. After reading his earlier stories of Peter Diamond, the way this one begins comes as a shock, but the story plays out well after accepting the reality of what he is facing. First rate book!

I came upon Lovesey quite by accident & have been pleasantly surprised & entertained. I have now read all 8 of the series featuring the curmudgeonly Inspector Peter Diamond & they make for a quick, enjoyable romp. These are not taunt thrillers but tongue-in-cheek good old fashioned murder mysteries, set in Bath, England. Diamond & his team solve their puzzles one piece at a time in the way good Policemen do. I heartily recommend these engaging stories.

But -- I had some problems with the ending -- it didn't make sufficient sense to me.

On the other hand, this was a real page-turner. This British police procedural begins with the end of a trial; a convicted man insists that he was set up, that he was innocent. A woman attacks the police detective Peter Diamond who investigated the case. The next day, Diamond argues with his boss and then drops by a crime scene - a body has been discovered. I don't think I'm giving anything away (since the reader learns this early in the book) to say that the victim turns out to be Diamond's wife. Suddenly the crime scene jokes don't seem very funny any more, as he struggles to cope with this enormous loss. Was she killed by the woman who attacked him? Or is her murder related to the gangster just convicted? As husband of the victim, Diamond is himself a suspect and experiences what it's like to be a suspect.

Although Diamond isn't supposed to be involved in the investigation, he starts to poke around, because he's convinced that the investigation is not looking in the right directions.

Diamond is an interesting character; if you haven't discovered this series yet, if you like British police procedurals, I think you'll enjoy this book and the rest of the series. I only wish that the ending had made more sense to me logically. In addition, as some reviewers have pointed out, there are other things that don't make much sense (why a possible witness to the murder isn't sought after, for example). For all that, I think this is a five-star book because it held my attention so well.

Solid, but the plot has a couple of major logical holes (the killer is supposed to be clever; yet, he/she does some really stupid things), and I agree with the earlier reviewer that the con man character was criminally (hehehe... :-) underdeveloped.

Book has great possibility, but Lovesey simply can't slow down the action in the book to allow any cogitation by the reader. His characters are potentially interesting, but in his rush to get his story told, any depth of character is virtually impossible.
He also needs to give more depth and specifics to his settings, e.g. the Dorchester Hotel (probably unknown to most Americans) also to his characters, the con man in the plot re diamonds was a wonderful opportunity to write a fully fleshedd-out character. Most damaging is the dialogue: almost always the dialogue has this numbing sameness, so that the speaker's voice and content could come from almost any character. I hate the word, but Lovesey needs some "nuance" in his characters speech, some subtlety and shading. Also, major plot flaw re jogger. Why not make every effort to find her? Diamond's grief is genuine no doubt, but I (perhaps not other readers) found it factitious and unconvincing. A pretty good plot spoiled by an author who either cannot or will not deepen his writing.