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Another One Goes Tonight

A Peter Diamond Mystery

Another One Goes Tonight was published in July 2016 by Sphere in the UK and Soho Crime in the USA.

Peter Diamond, the Bath detective brilliant at rooting out murder, is peeved at being diverted to Professional Standards to enquire into a police car accident. Arriving late at the scene, he discovers an extra victim thrown onto an embankment – unconscious and unnoticed. Diamond administers CPR, but no one can say whether the elderly tricyclist will pull through.

But why had the man been out in the middle of the night with an urn containing human ashes? Diamond’s suspicions grow after he identifies the accident victim as Ivor Pellegrini, a well-known local eccentric and railway enthusiast. A search of Pellegrini’s workshop proves beyond question that he is involved in a series of uninvestigated deaths. While Pellegrini lingers on life support, Diamond wrestles with the appalling possibility that he has saved the life of a serial killer. Only a full-on murder investigation will uncover the truth.

UK Publisher: Sphere 7 July 2016 ISBN: 978-0751564655
US Publisher: Soho Crime 5 July 2016 ISBN: 978-1616957582

Paeons of Praise for Another One Goes Tonight:

‘”You’re on your own in this game,” Peter Lovesey gives fair warning in Another One Goes Tonight, his latest impeccably constructed mystery featuring the unpredictable but ever-entertaining Detective Peter Diamond of the Bath Constabulary . . . For all the witty jabs taken at English eccentricities, this is a classic whodunit. As Diamond notes, “Taken as problem solving, plotting a murder could be treated like any other engineering project, constructing a turbine or a tunnel.” The same might be said of deconstructing a good murder mystery.”
Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

‘Edgar-finalist Lovesey’s superior 16th whodunit featuring Det. Supt. Peter Diamond (after 2015’s Down Among the Dead Men) offers fair play fans a delightfully clever puzzle that toys with their expectations . . . Lovesey taunts readers with extracts from what appears to be a serial killer’s diary while building up to an ingenious final reveal that highlights his gift for misdirection.’
Publishers Weekly

‘Lovesey’s fans will be overjoyed to watch his series hero, Diamond – smart, obstinate, slyly funny – back in action and they’ll love just as much being made into chumps by a complex plot that the author takes pains eventually to clarify – just before he lets us know we’ve missed everything. Pacing, dialogue, exposition, backstory – nobody handles them better than Lovesey, who always writes elegantly while spinning a tough-minded police procedural.’
Booklist

‘Another absorbing, resourceful English procedural from one of the best.’
Kirkus Reviews

Peter Lovesey sprang to success when his first book won a crime fiction competition. Since then he has collected almost every prize there is, at home and internationally . . . A series of surprises leads up to a skilful and unexpected solution. Another triumph for the old master.
Jessica Mann in the Literary Review

‘If you’re looking for a perfect summer holiday read, pick up Another One Goes Tonight by Peter Lovesey . . . Marvellous misdirection crowns a cunning story, told with gentle humour.’
Mat Coward, Morning Star

‘The story is engaging from the very first scene. Lovesey’s storytelling is darkly funny, with richly drawn characters, detailed police procedure, brilliant dialogue and impeccable plotting.’
Steve Steinbock, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

‘Peter Lovesey is a master of the intricately plotted murder mystery . . . This is easily one of the best and most entertaining mysteries I’ve read in a long time.’
Joseph Scarpato Jr, Mystery Scene

‘With his ear for authentic dialogue laced with black humour, Peter Lovesey opens a tale that is at once improbable but totally convincing. It takes a five-star crime writer to pull off that trick.’
Barry Turner, Daily Mail

‘Awards, including lifetime achievement awards from Malice Domestic (the Agathas) and the Crime Writers Association (the Daggers) have already accrued to Peter Lovesey; yet he continues to produce mysteries that are entertaining, insightful and witty. Another One Goes Tonight is the sixteenth Peter Diamond investigation, and it showcases the author’s clever plotting . . . brilliantly puzzling story.’
Robert C. Hahn, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

‘Peter Lovesey, where have you been all my life? I just met you in book 16 of your series starring the curmudgeonly Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond . . . My bookshelves sag with British authors’ series, so how the heck did I miss Peter Lovesey? No more, my friends, no more. What can be more delightful than finding a witty and erudite author with a huge backlist to devour like chocolate ganache bon bons?’
Roz Shea, Bookreporter.com

‘Delightful . . . the brilliance of the slightly cantankerous and overweight detective superintendent still shines strong. Bringing the beautiful city of Bath and the political problems plaguing modern police departments vividly to life, Another One Goes Tonight is an irresistible entry in the Diamond series.’
Shelf Awareness

‘The character are colourful and engaging; the dialogue is witty; and Lovesey’s prose carries readers effortlessly along a fairly lengthy book. Plus, his puzzle-making skills are top-notch. Matching wits with Diamond makes for a pleasant night’s entertainment. But you’re unlikely to solve the mystery before he does. Lovesey is a master of the genre.’
Doug Childers, Richmond Times-Dispatch

‘If you love to read a mystery that has a wonderfully convoluted plot with lots of misdirection, get your hands on Peter Lovesey’s Another One Goes Tonight: it is a delight. Fast pace. Marvelous plot. Plenty of humor. Stolen treasures. Good solid police work. Another One Goes Tonight is just plain fun to read.’
Kittling Books

‘Peter Lovesey writes some of the most interesting and intricately complex mysteries published today, and Another One Goes Tonight is no exception . . . An absolute thrill.’
Mysterious Reviews

‘Lovesey lays out a classic British mystery here, full of lively twists. Put this one on the summer reading list for pure enjoyment.’
Kingdom Books

‘A sound professional approach to crime, with clues readers can ponder, red herrings to lead them astray . . . who better to turn to for all this, along with an impeccable style and sly wit, than that consummate professional, Peter Lovesey?’
Reviewing the Evidence

‘Lovesey’s prose is so smooth and economic – no wasted words and no dry spots. Just pure reading pleasure. Another One Goes Tonight is a wonderful homage to the puzzle mysteries of the Golden Age, with the added bonus of characters who are fully fleshed out. . . . Long live Peter Lovesey!’
George Easter, Deadly Pleasures

‘The twists and turns; the multiple plotting that leads Diamond in the end to the right answer is never bullying or inhumane; and it is Lovesey’s humanity which makes him the popular – and admired – author he has been for decades.’
Ruth Morse, Crimetime.co.uk

‘Another One Goes Tonight is the latest entry in Peter Lovesey’s long-running series featuring Bath cop Peter Diamond. And the first thing to say is that it’s a hugely enjoyable read with a discursive but ingenious plot in which a whole bunch of inter-related strands are brought together quite splendidly at the end . . . This novel is an example of Peter Lovesey at his best and I recommend it highly.’
Martin Edwards, Do You Write Under Your Own Name?

Foreword To The Last Detective

by Louise Penny

(This text appears in the 2014 Soho Press edition of The Last Detective)

Welcome to THE LAST DETECTIVE, a novel that changed the face of detective fiction when it was released in 1991. It broke every template, every tradition, every ‘rule’ of the genre. Indeed, not only does Peter Lovesey break the rules with this book, so does his brilliant new protagonist. To say that Superintendent Peter Diamond, of the Bath Regional Police, is unruly would be a gross understatement.

Peter Diamond is impatient, belligerent, cunning, insightful, foul, laugh-out-loud funny, and so engaging that this wondrous book went on to spawn a series. The Peter Diamond books have won major awards for crime fiction internationally, hit bestseller lists, and inspired a generation of crime writers who saw that a novel can be a police procedural, a traditional mystery, an exploration of social issues. It can be literary, terrifying, funny, comforting all at once.

And it all started with the book that you hold in your hands.

As you’ll discover as you read THE LAST DETECTIVE, Peter Lovesey also plays with perspective, with the trustworthiness of the narrator, with your loyalties as a reader. And he does this by engaging not just your head, but your heart. What is crime fiction, after all, without caring?

THE LAST DETECTIVE is not simply a puzzle to be solved. It delves into why we do the things we do. Our choices. The suspect’s, the victim’s, the detective’s choices.

But at it’s heart, at the core, stands the conflicted, human, unpredictable man who will become our companion through the series. Peter Diamond. Who often seems to have a life independent of what his creator might have planned. And such is the mark of a great creation, and a brave writer. Peter Lovesey lets Diamond live and breathe and head off in unexpected, and endlessly fascinating, directions.

I am so excited for you, to be at the very beginning of this trend-setting, beautifully written, vivid series.

On a personal note, I first met Peter Lovesey at a Crime Writers Association awards gala in London, before my first book had even been published. He was hosting a table and I was so in awe of him I could barely look in his direction, never mind speak. But he made the unknown Canadian and her husband feel like the most important and precious people in the room.

I have long loved Peter Lovesey’s books. That day I fell in love with the man.

He went on to read, and endorse, my first book, which was generous beyond description and made a huge difference to my career. In a profession rich with supportive colleagues, Peter Lovesey manages to be in a category all his own. A creative, courageous and gifted writer, who is also a gracious, generous and kind man. A gentleman.

This is a wonderful book. The beginning of a superb series. It is such a pleasure to introduce you to one of the great (and thankfully not the last) detectives in crime fiction.

Down Among The Dead Men

A Peter Diamond Mystery

Starred review in Booklist: “Diamond is a wonderfully rounded character whose lines are witty and whose observations about people’s characters and motives are brilliantly insightful. Vintage Diamond mystery, spiced by his comic encounters with his supervisor: a must for devotees of character-driven British crime fiction.”

Down Among The Dead Men was published in July 2015 by Sphere in the UK and Soho Crime in the USA.

A nightmare discovery in the boot of a stolen BMW plunges car thief Danny Stapleton into the worst trouble of his life. So what links his misfortune to the arrival of charming art teacher Tom Standforth at a private school for girls in Chichester? In the local police, a senior detective is accused of misconduct and another force is called in to investigate. Orders from above propel Peter Diamond of Bath CID into a situation that has him reluctantly dealing with spirited schoolgirls, eccentric artists and his formidable old colleague, Hen Mallin.
Multi-award-winning author Peter Lovesey returns with a twisty tale that will delight fans of the series and draw in anyone who loves pitch-perfect traditional British crime fiction.

UK Publisher: Sphere 2 July 2015 ISBN: 978-0751558876
US Publisher: Soho Crime 7 July 2015 ISBN: 978-1616956264

Praise For DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN:

“What’ll it be today? A knotty puzzle mystery? A fast-paced police procedural? Something more high-toned, with a bit of wit? With the British author Peter Lovesey, there’s no need to make these agonizing decisions, because his books have it all . . . a resolution that is technically brilliant, subversively funny and – quite brave of him – rather cruel.”
Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times

“This is the best mystery I’ve read in the past few years, and one of Lovesey’s best.”
Joseph Scarpato Jr in Mystery Scene

“Lovesey’s style is pure joy. He tells a rattling good story without ever resorting to the literary pretensions that bedevil so much crime fiction. His characters are never less than believable.”
Barry Turner in the Daily Mail

“Diamond fans will be delighted by this instalment in the long-running series, which sees Lovesey on absolutely top form.”
Mat Coward in the Morning Star

“Lovesey is a masterful plotter, and that alone would earn him praise and fans, but his characters are memorable, and Diamond is a glittering gem among them. In addition to those strengths Lovesey adds wit, humor, and finely structured prose.”
Robert C Hahn in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

“Vintage Diamond mystery, spiced by his comic encounters with his superior; a must for devotees of character-driven British crime fiction.”
Booklist

“Practice makes perfect, as evidenced by the latest Peter Lovesey novel . . . a fine beach read – heck, a great fireside chair read, a straphanger commuter read, a stolen-moments-during-a-busy-day read, an anytime read.”
Carolyn Haley in New York Journal of Books

“The Diamond-and-Dallymore” pairing is a devilishly inspired bit of story crafting, and it generates enough tension to fuel a handful of entertaining books.”
Doug Childers in Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Master craftsman Lovesey weaves his threads to make a spider’s web of theories, evidence and incidents that he finally spins together into a silken bow of a present for us all at the finish.”
Stephen Thornley in Shots

“Simply delicious . . . Peter Lovesey is a master of the police procedural. His high quality writing is always a joy to read. I especially liked this one.”
George Easter in Deadly Pleasures

“This is a wonderful and compelling read crafted by a master of mystery and intrigue and I urge you all to read it. Highly recommended.”
Maggie Hayes in Mystery People

“I had trouble putting the book down. Just had to keep reading and putting life on hold until the last page. Great plotting and exciting action!”
Audrey Lawrence in Fresh Fiction

“Peter Lovesey is a marvel. If you love or even like mysteries, he needs to be at the top of your must-read list.”
Joe Hartlaub in 20SomethingReads

“Lovesey’s plotting is smart, his style engaging and drily funny.”
Steve Steinbeck in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

“I really enjoyed this very gripping book which had such an unusual plot . . . Extremely well recommended.”
Terry Halligan in Eurocrime

“Another terrific book in this series . . . Highly recommended.”
Betsy in Mysterious Reviews

“This is the kind of clever densely packed puzzle we don’t see much these days and it’s neatly plotted by the award-winning master of the British police procedural.”
Janice Okun in the Buffalo News

“An excellent entry in a consistently good series.”
Barbara Fister in Reviewing the Evidence

Every step of the way, the plot becomes more fascinating and compelling, complicated and wonderful in the way the threads are finally joined . . . a wonderful, satisfying read.”
L.J.Roberts in Booksaremagic

“Diamond is always witty, erudite and thoroughly engaging. Here, the verbal jousting between Dallymore and Diamond adds a delightful dimension. Peter Lovesey’s Down Among the Dead Men gives us Diamond at his best.”
Irma Heldman in Open Letters Monthly

“When you finish reading Down Among the Dead Men, you’ll have a smile on your face, knowing that you’ve just been given a lesson in deduction by a master.”
Cathy in Kittling:Books

The Stone Wife

A Peter Diamond Mystery

The Stone Wife was published in 2014 in the UK by Sphere and in the USA by Soho Crime.

Just as the bidding gets exciting in a Bath auction house, three armed men stage a hold-up and attempt to steal Lot 129, a medieval carving of the Wife of Bath. The highest bidder, appalled to have the prize snatched away, tries to stop them and is shot dead.

Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad, soon finds himself sharing his office with the stone wife – until he is ejected. To his extreme annoyance, the lump of stone appears to exert a malign influence over him and his investigation. Refusing to be beaten, he rallies his team. The case demands someone goes undercover. The dangerous mission falls to Sergeant Ingeborg Smith, reverting to her journalistic persona to get the confidence of a wealthy criminal through his pop star girlfriend, Soon, murder makes a reappearance.

UK Publisher: Sphere 2014 ISBN: 978-0751554052
US Publisher: Soho Crime 2014 ISBN: 978-1616953935

Praise For THE STONE WIFE:
Daily Mail
“It will hold you to your deckchair even if the sun is not shining.”
– Barry Turner

Library Journal
“A great procedural whodunit with an interesting maguffin. This is the 14th book in the Peter Diamond series and it’s enough to make the readers flip back through the previous thirteen.”
– Douglas Lord

Kirkus Reviews
“All the pleasures you expect from much-honored Lovesey are here.”

Wall Street Journal
“English author Peter Lovesey is himself a master of historical mysteries, but The Stone Wife merely has a historical hook. This lively, surprise-filled police procedural featuring Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond turns on a fatally botched auction-house robbery of a 14th century carving.”
– Tom Nolan

New York Times
“The murder mystery is solved along traditional lines, but it’s the wonderful tidbits of Chaucerian scholarship that enliven the novel . And whatever you think of Peter Diamond, he proves himself a ‘verray parfit gentil knight’.”
– Marilyn Stasio

New York Journal of Books
“Winner of the CWA Gold and Silver Daggers, the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, as well as the Macavity, Barry and Anthony Awards, Mr Lovesey more than lives up to his reputation as a brilliant wordsmith, he exceeds it. Superintendent Peter Diamond is a warm, witty and wonderful creation by one of England’s most talented crime writers.”
– Doris R. Meredith

Suspense Magazine
“Peter Diamond is back, embroiled in a mystery that offers a wealth of wit and a true puzzle linked to a historical literary genius . . . As always, the character and his team are sharp, funny, and grab the reader’s attention from beginning to end.”
– Mary Lignor

Deadly Pleasures
“Adding a thriller element to the excellent police procedure, DS Ingeborg Smith goes undercover to try to track down the source of the fatal handgun used in the murder. Nobody writes better crime fiction in the UK than Peter Lovesey. I consider Lovesey to be the reigning king of British crime fiction.”
– George Easter

The Tooth Tattoo – Washington Post Review

A Peter Diamond Mystery

Washington Post, April 28, 2013

‘The Tooth Tattoo’ offers fascinating glimpse into string quartets, by way of procedural
By Patrick Anderson

I have no idea how many string quartet aficionados enjoy crime fiction, but they should hasten to read the veteran British writer Peter Lovesey’s fascinating “The Tooth Tattoo.” Strictly speaking, the novel is a police procedural, but the kicker is that the prime suspects in three murders are the members of a world-class string quartet called Staccati.

I hasten to add that readers who, like me, know little or nothing about string quartets (my musical highlight each year is the Birchmere’s Hank Williams tribute) can still savor this ingenious novel.

At the outset, Peter Diamond, who heads the criminal division of the Bath, England, police, is vacationing in Vienna with his elegant friend Paloma. She wants to visit Beethoven’s home, but he’s more interested in seeing highlights — the sewer, the Ferris wheel — of Carol Reed’s Vienna-based 1949 movie classic, “The Third Man.” As they wander, the couple chance upon a flower-strewn memorial to a young Japanese woman who drowned in the Danube a few years earlier. Paloma is moved by the tragedy, but it’s not Diamond’s case, so he’s indifferent. Naturally, she berates him for his alleged inability to express his feelings. “What do you expect?” the detective retorts. “I’m a bloke.”

In this country he’d say, “I’m a guy,” but it’s all the same. So is the outcome: The argument escalates, he stubbornly defends his right to be a guy, and she dumps him.

Soon the drowned woman in Vienna becomes newly relevant when another young Japanese woman is fished out of a canal in Bath — for that is Diamond’s case. He learns that both women loved string quartets, and that Staccati was playing in both Vienna and Bath at about the time they went missing — and possibly were murdered. One of the women had a “tattoo” on her tooth that featured a musical note, although they really aren’t tattoos but small chips that can be glued on. That’s the source of the book’s title, which is the only thing I didn’t like about it.

We soon learn a lot about the four members of Staccati. Ivan, a dour Russian violinist, co-founded the group with a woman called Cat, who is huge (“the girth of a sumo wrestler”), bawdy and a virtuoso on the cello. Andrew, the second violinist, is brilliant musically, although he rarely speaks and is thought by the others to be autistic. Finally, there’s Mel, the newcomer to the group, who plays the viola, chases girls in his spare time and was recruited to replace Harry, who mysteriously vanished after a concert in Budapest. The four argue a lot and have little in common except their love of music, but that’s enough to keep them together.

Lovesey has won many prizes for his crime fiction; we expect fine writing and devilish plots from him. But the wonder of this novel is how deep he carries us into the world of a string quartet. He knows the music, and he makes clear its beauty, its challenges and the passions it arouses in both musicians and their audiences.

One highlight of the novel is a two-page, all but microscopic description of the quartet’s rendition of Beethoven’s Opus 131. Here’s a small sample: “Toward the middle of the first movement the violins speak to each other with the last six notes of the fugue motif and then viola and cello take up the dialogue in one of the loveliest passages in the entire quartet repertoire.”

This novel will probably teach you more than you ever expected to know about string quartets. Did you know that celebrated players often use instruments on loan from wealthy collectors? Mel is using a rare 1625 Amati viola, valued at more than a half-million dollars, and only too late he discovers that there’s no such thing as a free viola.

You’ll learn of their frustrations, too. Cat denounces what she calls the “music merchants,” of whom she says: “They take second-rate artists with pretty faces, groom them, call them the voice or the player of the century, and turn them into stars. .?.?. The quality of the sound is crap, they’re off-key, and the great gullible public doesn’t seem to notice.”

Eventually, the deaths of the two young women are followed by that of someone close to the group. We agonize over whether one of these dedicated musicians could be a killer — or is the culprit an outsider? — but Diamond sorts things out with his usual aplomb. Lovers of good music and a good mystery should not miss this delightful tale.

Anderson regularly reviews mysteries and thrillers for Book World.

THE TOOTH TATTOO

By Peter Lovesey

Soho. 348 pp. $25.95

See more information about The Tooth Tattoo here on PeterLovesey.com

[This review originally appeared in the Books section of the Washington Post]