Customer Reviews

Secret Hangman

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bath Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond still grieves the death of his wife even as he feels some guilt over her being murdered. He currently pretends to not be excited over a secret admirer sending him notes, but inside he is thrilled and albeit a shade more guilt.

On the job, Diamond investigates the public park hanging death murder of waitress Delia Williamson, a mother of two young girls. He quickly finds three prime suspects: her former spouse, her current significant other, and a traveling salesman witnessed as having dined with her just before she died. When they find the ex Danny dead hanging in a cave, Diamond believes two murders occurred while his boss Assistant Chief Constable Georgina Dallymore insists it was a murder-suicide. As he digs deeper to prove his theory, Diamond uncovers a shocker of similar double murders by a serial killer on the loose.

THE SECRET HANGMAN is an exciting Diamond English police procedural. The serial killer case is cleverly drawn so that Diamond and Dallymore can argue over the deaths of Delia and Danny; whereas all these Ds mean delightful to fans as the crusty widower soon seeks a diabolical brilliant serial killer who hides his or her work in the guise of murder-suicide. This is a wonderful entry in a strong crime series.

Harriet Klausner

Gruff, sharp and very much in charge, Bath Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond, still mourning the murder of his wife, Stephie, contends with a secret admirer as well as a murderer in this ninth outing.

The story opens with an anonymous letter from a reasonable and cultured sounding woman who Diamond decides to ignore. When a woman is found hanging in a public park his solicitous underlings offer to spare him the trauma (he discovered his wife's body in a park), but Diamond deals with that in summary fashion.

The victim was murdered then strung up to look like a suicide. When her husband is found hanging from a bridge a few days later Diamond suspects murder though his superiors prefer a neat murder-suicide solution.

Meanwhile, Diamond has met a woman, a charming lady who, it will surprise no one, is his spurned secret admirer. Diamond feels used when Paloma gets around to admitting this, but he gets over it. Meanwhile, he has found a pattern in the hanging case - two very similar cases, with nothing to connect them but the method.

While as witty and sharp as ever, this is not the strongest in the Diamond series. There are a couple plot holes big enough to drive a truck through and the tension with his boss, Georgina, while clever, sometimes seems unnecessary. Still, Diamond is always entertaining and Lovesey remains a cut above most.

Peter Diamond reminds me of several shadowy fictional British detectives doing the rounds. Collin Dexter's Inspector Morse is one that springs to mind. Just didn't really get a feel for the guy or why I should think him special or even interesting. I found the style a bit sterile, the dialogue often unconvincing (too many "guv"s), and the humor mostly unfunny. I twigged early (earlier than Diamond) on a couple of crucial clues. However, all this aside, there were action scenes where I literally couldn't put the book down and the background on the old town of Bath was well done. Possible SPOILER follows:
Now, I have to ask: A woman called dove in Spanish? As if this alone wouldn't give someone pause...

Readers familiar with the Peter Diamond series have grown to anticipate a rapidly moving plot with as many twists as a French pretzel. No one will be disappointed with the twists in this book.

Set in Bath, as always, the book follows the course of a series of murders in which the victims are found hanging in public. Paralleling these murders is a a gang of crooks who heist cars, crash them into shops, and make off with the goods.

Diamond also develops a love interest in his life, three years after his wife was murdered. Of course, all of these things and more are intertwined in ways one cannot imagine at the beginning of the book, but get wrapped up nicely in the end.

Lovesey's plotting is top flight and this is a great book to read on a rainy afternoon which is what I did.

I thought this book gave the best personal picture of Peter Diamond ever. You saw more of the inside man, along with a great mystery.

This is my 3rd Lovesey Diamond book (The Vault & Diamond Dust) and it's my least favorite so far. I found Diamond to be less endearing and sympathetic--his treatment of his staff was so unsatisfactory that Inge called him on it. He seems very self-absorbed in this book--possibly due to his widower status. One wonders if the descriptions of his boss are highly colored by Diamond's psychology--though there are such bosses in real life. Yet, the book is well-written and enjoyable and a quick read. But, the title itself is a spoiler. The reader knows at once that *SPOILER* there's a serial killer responsible. Indeed, most of the mystery seems obvious (his love interest "coincidences" and the hangman). The 3rd (Ram robbers) is mostly a red herring. The best part IMHO is the humor (though less than in The Vault) such as p. 256: "from their faces her colleagues might have been watching Lucrezia Borgia at a wine-tasting." Also, I'm glad (as implied in Diamond Dust) that Ingeborg joined the squad--she's a very interesting, uplifting character IMHO.

Recovering from the murder of his beloved wife three earlier, gruff Inspector Peter Diamond is slowly starting to emerge from his cocoon of grief. He has a secret admirer, a new relationship, and a murder to investigate -- a series of hangings that first appear to be murder-suicide, but proves to something more evil.

It always feels like a long time between Peter Diamond novels most probably because it is. No matter how long though, it always feels like revisiting an old friend. Peter Diamond is not the most lovable or most tactful fictional detective but he is one of the most real. He's not superhuman or even brilliant most of time. Luck plays a big part in his cases, but nonetheless he gets the job done. THE SECRET HANGMAN is another engaging entry in a very solid series from Peter Lovesey.

I've read and enjoyed all of Peter Lovesey' crime series starring Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond whose bailiwick is Bath, that gorgeous British city gem with its Georgian architecture. In his latest outing, "The Secret Hangman," overweight and middle-aged Diamond has to endure the advances of a secret female admirer while, at the same time, trying to stop an executioner who is targeting and hanging couples. The murderer first hangs the wife in a very public place and shortly does the same with the husband, making both hangings look like suicides.
Lovesey has a delightful sense of humor, and the story, though grim, is told with wry and sly comic asides. Often the comedy arises from the by-play of the characters. Diamond can be a funny man. He's a fully realized creation who in this book has been a widower for three years since the murder of his beloved wife Stephie. He makes a breakthrough and finds happiness and sex with an attractive and successful woman who dotes on him. He's not a music buff like Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks nor a boozer like Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse.
Diamond has to solve these grisly crimes by looking for a common thread that ties the victims together. His fully individualized detective team members keep one eye on their case and the other eye on the other on their unpredictable and intuitive boss.
Vivid descriptions of the city and sharp characterization move the story along. This latest addition to the Diamond-Lovesey canon is smart, funny, insightful and a pleasure to read.

The Secret Hangman, a Peter Lovesey detective novel, is good, not great. The plot is fine; it's the character of detective Peter Diamond that didn't impress me. Like so many other homicide detectives on the scene, he's a flawed person: out of shape and facing middle age. Perhaps my "oh, yeah, here's another one" is based on the fact that I'm already so familiar with Kurt Wallander, Harry Hole and Harry Bosch. My main criticism about the characterization of a curmudgeon Diamond is the description of his being so critical of the other members on his team. Hole and Bosch pride themselves on working alone, so maybe those comparisons aren't apples to apples. So my comparison is really with the character of Henning Mankell's Wallander, who does appreciate the work of his associates. It's better when the reader likes the hero, and my problem with the character of Peter Diamond is that I didn't particularly like this protagonist. This was the first novel I've read in the series by Peter Lovesey. But I'm not eager to run out and read another one.

I became a Diamond junkie about three weeks ago and have read all the books in that time including The Secret Hangman. Maybe I've gone overboard but found this novel, while interesting and entertaining, not up to the level of the previous books. Perhaps the clues are easier for Americans to pick up on, given the pro-life, pro-choice movement but I placed my bet on the villain almost as soon as he was introduced, and was right. The character of Paloma was somewhat difficult to understand and to warm to. The ending was especially mindboggling given what she had just experienced but she was still worried about continuing to see the Supt. Diamond in the future! That was a bit hard to accept. And good old Diamond was a bit too cantankerous in this novel. He really is tough on his team. However, it was still a good read and the lovely descriptions of Bath make the town almost another character.