Customer Reviews

Upon a Dark Night (Peter Diamond Mystery)

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Bath's head of the murder squad, Peter Diamond, is investigating two recent deaths. The first is that of a farmer, who apparently killed himself with a shotgun. The second case involves a suicide also. A woman took a nose dive off of the roof of a building. Everyone else in the department figures these are two obvious suicides, but Peter thinks otherwise. He feels someone has cleverly killed two people and set the deaths up to look like the victims had taken their own lives.

A third case surfaces when an amnesiac, dubbed Rose, is taken from the local homeless shelter by her sister. Ada Shaftsbury, a renowned thief, tells Peter that Rose was kidnapped. She nags him until he agrees to look into what appears to be a simple family matter. Soon, all three cases merge as Peter continues to investigate what may or may not be a crime wave in Bath.

Peter Lovesey is already acknowledged as one of the masters of the English police procedural. His latest novel, UPON A DARK NIGHT, will enhance that deserved reputation as it might be his best book to date. The story line is extremely complex, but in the hands of a master like Peter comes together in a brilliant tying of sub-plots. Peter is great because of all his flaws. Who else roots for homicides because he is bloody bored? This reviewer strongly recommends the entire Diamond series because they are all quite good, but this novel is simply incredible.

Harriet Klausner

UPON A DARK NIGHT is one of my favorites in the Peter Diamond series. In spite of his gruff, rather unloveable personality, Peter Diamond has an amazing ability to tease out the link between two apparently unrelated deaths, a farmer, who apparently killed himself with a shotgun and a woman, who jumped/fell off of the roof of a building. While everyone else in the department figures, including his rival, John Wigfall, concludes each died by suicide, Diamond comes to believe that the cause of death is not so obvious. Complicating the cases is a missing person named Rose, reported by a notorious shoplifter named Ada, who has not exactly endeared herself to the Old Bill. Soon, Peter connects all three cases with an unlikely suspect and he races against time to prevent another murder disguised as suicide.

Peter Lovesey is one of the best crime fiction writers today. This is not an English cozy, but an extremely well-written police procedural mystery, well-paced with an intricately woven plot. I would highly recommend both the series and this book.

The Peter Diamond series is a great series, and this book is a good one. Peter is suffering from the stress of lack of work in Bath. Then there seems to be a lot of unexplained suicides on his patch. He begins by investigating one of them, and it turns out to have a lot of unexplained puzzles. Could it be murder? And what about the other suicide? Introduce a young girl with unexplained amnesia and Peter's got more puzzles than he knows what to do with. Lovesey characterizations are wonderful and this book is no different. It's complicated, neat and has a great plot.

Things have been so quiet lately; Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond suffers from hypertension caused by ennui as he has not had a homicide to keep his blood pressure level. Normally Diamond would ignore an apparent suicide by a farmer, but with nothing else to occupy his time, he decides to take a quick look. First thing he realizes that the farmer's arms were too small to pull the trigger of a shotgun placed under his chin

Peter simultaneously investigates what he believes is a homicide while trying to persuade his superior that someone killed the farmer. At about the same time, a girl falls off a rooftop during a party. Initial reaction was it was a tragic accident, but Diamond sees incongruities with that explanation. He investigates both deaths while an amnesiac is found in a hospital parking lot by a shoplifter Ada who reluctantly releases the woman to someone claiming to be a sister. Ada talks with Diamond, who reluctantly follows up her comments and links the two deaths and the abduction with a fourth party as he begins to find the buried connection.

UPON A DARK NIGHT is a fantastic Diamond police procedural as the cop is at his curmudgeon worst due to absolute boredom from no cases; only someone like Diamond could bemoan a major drop in the murder rate. Thus two homicides would have probably remained under the radar screen with the killer free except that Diamond basically had nothing interesting to do. The mystery is brilliantly established so the audience like Diamond's boss sees no foul play until Diamond's inquiries begin to cleverly prove otherwise. Peter Lovesey is at his best with this awesome who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

This was my first Peter Diamond novel, and I immediately liked the character. Despite a surfeit of gruff and unlikeable middle aged English detectives, Diamond still stands out as well-drawn and interesting.

At the beginning of the book, the only threat facing Diamond is that he might die of boredom. He starts investigating apparent suicides in Bath out of a lack of more obvious murders to pursue. When his investigation ties in with the mysterious case of the amnesiac found wandering the roads of Bath, his life gets rather more exciting than he might have wanted.

I had some issues with the way that the two major threads of the story were knitted together. I felt as though this affected the pacing-- particularly in the second half of the novel. Still, I liked both threads and the book kept me reading.

Recommended for fans of British police procedurals. I will be picking up another in the series when I get the chance.

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.

As usual Peter Lovesey spins a tale that you won't know where it will take you. Of course, there is always some whimsey with the Peter Diamond character.

First Sentence: A young woman opened her eyes.

An unconscious woman, found in a hospital parking lot, awakens to find she has no memory. Released to social services, she is placed in a hostel and befriended and named "Rose" by Ada Shaftsbury; a good soul with a large personality and a penchant for shoplifting. The Bath police have their own problems with the apparent suicides of an elderly farmer by shotgun and a woman off a roof. But were they suicides and how do they link to Rose, whom Ada is pushing the police to find after she's not seen her for two weeks. It's up to DS Peter Diamond to figure it out.

There is nothing better than a book that not only has an intriguing beginning but also causes you to wonder what you'd do in a similar situation.

An unusual facet to this story is that Diamond doesn't begin to play a major role until quite a ways into the story, but what a dynamic, and flawed, character he is. I enjoy the relationship he has with his wife, Stephanie, and their cat, Raffles. At the same time, he is not an easy person for others to deal with, particularly Detective Inspector Julie Hargreaves. Diamond respects her, but releases his frustration publicly on her and it is through his imperfections and some of their interchanges that we get to know Diamond better. Ada, with all her faults, is a pivotal character and often allows Lovesey to exhibit his delightfully dry humor..."While her old man was refusing to admit to anything, she was singing like the three tenors."

What I most appreciate, however, is the plotting. It takes you down interesting, unexpected roads where you learn about everything from film shooting schedules, ancient English history and detectorology and treasure troves. The inclusion and care of such details is only one element that sets Lovesey apart as a writer. I particularly like that DS Diamond investigates the case by looking for evidence, doing the research, working his team and following the clues rather than working from assumption. There are good climatic twists and a very well done ending. I am delighted that there are many more books in the series waiting for me to read.

UPON A DARK NIGHT (Pol Proc-Det. Super. Peter Diamond-Bath, England-Cont) - Ex
Lovesey, Peter - 5th in series
Mysterious Press, ©1997, US Hardcover - ISBN: 0892966696

This is my favorite Lovesey of the 4 I've read so far. They are all pretty easy to take--some action but mostly puzzlers with a police procedural flavor. The protagonist tends to pull apparently separate mysteries together in solving them. I think whether one likes the Detective Superintendent (DS) Diamond books depends a lot on the characters. Diamond himself is self-centered and sometimes nasty but once in a while can be quite sympathetic. In this particular book there is a dramatic change in personnel (not a big surprise, I think), but the "guest" characters were more interesting IMHO. The perpetrator is difficult to envision as real though it does make for a surprise ending--I find it hard to see how any reader could have figured out the mystery--not a fair "Agatha" type book. However, the book is quite enjoyable--I esp. liked the character Ada who was a riot! The ending gets rather exciting--trite perhaps--but exciting nonetheless. I enjoyed the book quite a bit.

This was my first Lovesey/Diamond book. I'll be back for more.