Peter Lovesey

Reader, I Buried Them And Other Stories

My sixth collection of short stories was published in 2022 by Soho Press (USA) and Sphere (UK).

It includes a ‘story within a story,’ telling of an embarrassing encounter forty years ago with Ellery Queen (the late Fred Dannay) after I submitted my first-ever short story to his magazine in 1981. The Bathroom is reprinted in the new collection together with my account of the real murders that inspired it.

“The sixteen dazzling selections in this inviting collection from MWA Grand Master Lovesey range from his first published short story, ‘The Bathroom’ (1973) to three new ones . . . This is a thoroughly entertaining compendium of the best of the best by one of the best.” Publisher’s Weekly starred review

“The sixteen remarkable tales . . . beg the question: with Peter Lovesey in the world, why does anyone else bother writing mysteries at all? His fiction, both long and short, is charming, the narrative always so smooth it seems effortless, and the plots clever enough to keep even the most suspicious reader guessing (and thrilled) all the way to the delicious end.” Mystery Scene

“Lovesey, whose fans regard him as a one-man Golden Age of Detective Fiction, is with us again bearing 16 short stories plus a history lesson plus a bouncy poem. The qualities that make his work special are all on display here.” Booklist

“A celebratory display of the many things an accomplished veteran can do with the short mystery.” Kirkus Reviews

“Each of the stories is a small gem with a touch of macabre humor. Anyone who knows Peter Lovesey’s work will be delighted by this collection and those who won’t will have a pleasant introduction.” Mystery & Suspense Magazine

Showstopper

SHOWSTOPPER will be published by Soho Press in the United States on December 6 2022 and Sphere in the United Kingdom on January 12 2023.

This is the twenty-first Peter Diamond mystery in a series that started with THE LAST DETECTIVE. The pre-publication reviews speak for themselves:

“ANOTHER TRIUMPH FOR A VETERAN SLEUTH WHO’S PRETTY UNSTOPPABLE HIMSELF” Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“MORE THAN 30 YEARS INTO THIS SERIES, LOVESEY SHOWS NO SIGN OF LOSING STEAM OR INGENUITY”  Kirkus Reviews

“PETER LOVESEY CONTINUES TO AMAZE WITH HIS INGENIOUS PLOTTING AND PLEASING STYLE” Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

“AN ENTICING, FAST-PACED MYSTERY THAT WILL LEAVE READERS GUESSING AT EVERY TURN” Goodreads

Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond doesn’t believe in jinxes. When he is ordered to investigate a top TV series plagued by a series of misfortunes, he is unmoved. The incidents were spread across six years and Diamond is no fan of Swift – a long-running show that glorifies criminals and mocks the police. He decides that the local newspaper is making a sensation out of nothing. He puts the junior member of the squad on the case.

But when young officer Paul Gilbert goes on location with the TV unit and witnesses another near-death incident, the jinx must be taken more seriously. The press learn that Diamond himself is taking charge, putting him under pressure to account for the mishaps, accidents and disappearances and come up with a solution. But his troubles have barely started. Behind this so-called jinx lurks a killer who must be found and stopped.

Diamond And The Eye

DIAMOND AND THE EYE was published in the UK by Sphere on July 8, 2021
and in the US by Soho Press on October 12, 2021

THE SHEAR AMAZING SLEUTH

Of all the weird characters Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond has met in Bath, this one is the most extreme: a twenty-first century private eye called Johnny Getz, whose office is over Shear Amazing, a hairdressing salon. Johnny has been hired by Ruby Hubbard, whose father, an antiques shop owner, has gone missing, and Johnny insists on involving ‘Pete’ in his investigation.

When Diamond, Johnny and Ruby enter the shop, they find a body and a murder investigation is launched. Diamond is forced to house his team in the dilapidated Corn Market building across the street. His problems grow when his boss appoints Lady Bede, from the Police Ethics Committee, as an observer. Worse still, Johnny conducts his own inquiry by latching onto Ruby’s stylish friend, a journalist called Olympia.

Shootings from a drive-by gunman at key players create mayhem and the pressure is really on. Can the team stop more killings in this normally peaceful city? What happened to Ruby’s father? And will Johnny crack the case before Diamond does?

This is the twentieth Peter Diamond novel. Books in the series have twice won the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger as well as the Anthony, Barry and Macavity awards and been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Peter is the only living British author to have been honoured with the two top honours in crime writing: the CWA/Cartier Diamond Dagger and Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America.

Here’s a dip into the opening page:

‘Mind if I join you?’
Peter Diamond’s toes curled.
There’s no escape when you’re wedged into your favourite armchair in the corner of the lounge bar at the Francis observing the last rites of an exhausting week keeping a cap on crime. Tankard in hand, your third pint an inch from your mouth, you want to be left alone.
The stranger’s voice was throaty, the accent faux American from a grainy black-and-white film a lifetime ago. This Bogart impersonator was plainly as English as a cricket bat. His face wasn’t Bogart’s and he wasn’t talking through tobacco smoke, but he held a cocktail stick between two fingers as if it was a cigarette. Some years the wrong side of forty, he was dressed in a pale grey suit and floral shirt open at the neck to display a miniature magnifying glass on a leather cord.
‘Depends,’ Diamond said.
‘On what?’
‘Should I know you?’
‘No reason you should, bud.’
No one called Diamond ‘bud’. He’d have said so, but the soundtrack had already moved on.
‘I got your number. You’re the top gumshoe in this one-horse town and you’re here in the bar Friday nights when you’re not tied up on a case. What’s your poison? I’ll get you another.’
‘Don’t bother.’ Diamond wasn’t getting suckered into getting lumbered with a bar-room bore who called him bud and claimed to have got his number.
‘You’ll need something strong when you hear what I have to say.’ The bore pulled up a chair and the voice became even more husky. ‘Good to meet you, any road. I’m Johnny Getz, the private eye.’
‘Say that again, the last part.’
‘Private eye.’
Against all the evidence that this was a send-up, Diamond had to hear more. ‘Private eye? I thought they went out with Dick Tracy.’
‘Dick Tracy was a cop.’
‘Sam Spade, then. We’re talking private detectives, are we? I didn’t know we had one in Bath.’
‘What do you mean – “one”? I could name at least six others. The difference is they’re corporate. I’m the real deal. I work alone.’
‘Where?’
‘Over the hairdresser’s in Kingsmead Square.’ An address that lacked something compared to a seedy San Francisco side-street, which was probably why the self-styled private eye added, ‘The Shear Amazing Sleuth. Like it?’

The Finisher

Published in the UK in July 2020 in the USA in August 2020.

Fifty years after his career was launched with Wobble to Death, Peter returns to running as a theme in his new book The Finisher.

A killer strikes in the Bath half-marathon. No one in the local CID understands at first why Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is so agitated when he sees Tony Pinto paying unwanted attention to a young woman soon after the start. But Diamond remembers putting Pinto away for a vicious attack on a student, and now the man is on parole after years of good behaviour. Diamond’s fixation with this ex-convict will bring him into trouble from every side, including his boss Georgina and police headquarters.

Unknown to anyone at this stage, a murderer known as the Finisher has already been active in the city. Will the next victim be Maeve, who is running to salve her conscience after accidentally destroying a valuable item intended for charity? Olga, a rich Russian determined to shed weight and streamline her figure? Belinda, a painfully shy IT expert taking part in memory of her mother? Or Spiro, an Albanian fugitive on the run from modern slavery?

First, Diamond must prove that murder has been done and then discover where the corpse is hidden, a dangerous quest that leaves him with a crippling injury. Only he can unmask the Finisher …

UK Publisher:
Sphere 14 July 2020 ISBN: 978-0751580846

US Publisher:
Soho Crime 4 August 2020 ISBN: 978-1641291811

The Critics’ Verdict on The Finisher

‘In a peerlessly plotted mystery, Lovesey brings back his prickly rule-abhoring detective, Peter Diamond of the Bath police, who’s investigating a murder at a half-marathon. As readers who love the Diamond series know, the picture-perfect old British city, honeycombed with sluices, drains and sewers, offers unrivaled facilities for disposing of bodies. “The light and dark imagery is a fixture of Bath novels,” Marilyn Stasio writes in her crime column, “in which life is lived on many levels, some in full sunshine and others buried in shadow.’ Gregory Cowles in The New York Times

‘MWA Grand Master Lovesey’s masterly, atmospheric 19th investigation for Bath, England, Det Supt Peter Diamond . . . Lovesey neatly ties together all the disparate threads as the plot twists and turns to its taut conclusion. On the 50th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, Lovesey is still going strong.’ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

‘It is 50 years since Lovesey’s first novel, which also featured running. British mystery fiction’s reigning head of state returns to that sporting setting with his customary wit, humanity and unpredictable turns of plot.’ Mat Coward in The Morning Star

‘Threaded through this elegantly written mystery are vivid and timely subplots concerning Russian oligarchs and Albanian fugitives from modern slavery gangs. Peter Lovesey may now be in his 80s, but he tells his tale with all the verve and wit of a much younger man.’ Myles McWeeney in The Irish Independent

‘A witty, steadily absorbing procedural marked by Lovesey’s customary inventiveness and an unguessable solution.’ Kirkus Reviews

‘There’s a deeply satisfying symmetry in Peter Lovesey’s The Finisher, bringing the prolific and much-honored British writer’s 50-year career full circle by echoing his debut. His witty, low-key police detective, D.S. Peter Diamond, is leading security for a charity race, the Other Half, in his home city of Bath. . . . Throughout, Diamond remains his usual appealing self, and Lovesey retains his knack for tight plotting and supple prose.’ Adam Woog in The Seattle Times

‘Lovesey’s mystery fans will be sorry when The Finisher is over . . . On the 50th anniversary of his first novel, the British writer has created a brisk, colorful page-turner centered on mayhem at the springtime half-marathon in the city of Bath . . . Mr Lovesey’s descriptive passages will have armchair explorers champing at the bit.’ Robert Croan in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

‘I came away impressed by the storytelling, the relative pace of the plot and of the frequent twists and turns that made this a compelling read.’ Malavika Praseed in the Chicago Review of Books

‘This is a story firmly set in the present day (or at least the immediate pre-pandemic present day!), but Peter Lovesey’s storytelling skills, and certainly his gift for constructing a fair-play puzzle, match those of the finest exponents of Golden Age fiction.’ Martin Edwards in Do You Write Under Your Own Name?

‘Lovesey brilliantly weaves all these disparate characters and storylines into a wonderfully entertaining and compelling story. His work is the gold standard for UK crime fiction writing.’ George Easter in Deadly Pleasures

‘There are those among us who would read Lovesey if he took to writing on the backs of cereal boxes. Blessedly, that hasn’t happened. Instead, we have the nineteenth novel featuring His Grumpiness, Detective Inspector Peter Diamond of the Bath Constabulary. All the signature elements of this acclaimed series are present: the gin-dry humor, the engaging characters, the ending that kills you before you know you’re dead. . . . Slowly, but with relentless pacing and magical writing – a rusty hinge “groans like a soul in torment” – the plotlines converge. Surprises abound, like the corpse with a mind of its own. Lovesey likes to tease his detective, describing him as “out of a ’40s film, a sleuth on the trail of Sidney Greenstreet.” But the finale reminds us that Diamond is a relentless, hard-edged, strictly business copper.’ Don Crinklaw in Booklist (starred review)

Killing With Confetti

Launched July 2019 in UK and USA

As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline, the daughter of notorious crime baron, Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. The problem is that Ben’s father, George, is the Deputy Chief Constable. A more uncomfortable set of in-laws would be hard to imagine. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are arranged before the career-obsessed DCC can step in.

Peter Diamond, Bath’s head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Ordered to be discreet, he packs a gun and a guest list in his best suit and must somehow cope with potential killers, gang rivals, warring parents, bossy photographers and straying bridesmaids. The laid-back Joe Irving seems oblivious to the danger he is in from rival gang leaders while Brace can’t wait for the day to end. Will the photo session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving’s speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon?

UK Publisher:
Sphere 9 July 2019 ISBN: 978-0751577495

US Publisher:
Soho Crime 9 July 2019 ISBN: 978-1641290593

The Critics’ Verdict on Killing with Confetti

‘Mr Lovesey’s book seems like a combination of Romeo and Juliet and The Day of the Jackal . . . Mr Lovesey has been writing his Peter Diamond series for nearly three decades, and it’s a pleasure to note no discernible flagging of energy in author or detective. And how refreshing to hear the inimitable Diamond erupt in righteous expletives, ‘F – forensics . . . We’re detectives . . . We investigate.’
Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

‘Lovesey plants clever clues, a big surprise and a tense climax in the labyrinthine ruins of the town’s Roman baths.’
Adam Woog, The Seattle Times

‘Fun is something guaranteed by the name Peter Lovesey on a book cover . . . There’s certainly going to be a killing, but as Lovesey fans will expect, there’ll be plenty of twists and misdirections before the story behind the death is finally unravelled.’
Mat Coward, The Morning Star

‘The crafting of all this is superb, and consistent with the author’s handling of the series. Killing with Confetti is book 18 in Lovesey’s Diamond mystery series, and it has yet to let readers down.
Carolyn Haley, New York Journal of Books

‘Two seemingly unconnected events are brought together in this marvelous mystery . . . Peter Lovesey brought us his first mystery in 1970 and since then has enjoyed a sterling career with many, many highlights along the way.’
George Easter, Deadly Pleasures

‘We’re treated to Lovesey’s enchanting style, urbane wordplay and sucker-punch plotting. Don’t believe anyone who says, “I knew it all along.”
Booklist

‘Lovesey connects the dots plausibly and as always lightens the plot with dry wit.’
Publishers Weekly

‘When I closed the cover, I thought, Where has this man been all my life? . . . Lovesey’s series is rich with the history of the scenic area of Bath, England, and laced with wit, danger, pathos, love and loss. His protagonist, Peter Diamond, is a fully rounded human being with his own unique crime-solving methods . . . So kick back and enjoy a delightful summer escape from the drumbeat of real-world events that pays off with a surprising, page-turning denouement.’
Roz Shea, BookReporter

‘I absolutely loved Peter Diamond. He’s a no-nonsense policeman and Lovesey is a no-nonsense writer. I felt like I was watching an episode of a British crime series and enjoyed every minute of it. I completely forgot I had jumped in at book 18.’
Kerry Hammond, Mystery Playground

‘A new novel by Peter Lovesey is always an event to be savoured . . . in breathtaking manner, Lovesey turns the story around so that we finish up with a highly entertaining puzzle involving an impossible crime and a reconstruction of what actually happened that results in a brilliant plot twist. This is an unexpected book by a master of tales of the unexpected.’
Martin Edwards, Do You Write Under Your Own Name?