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

A Peter Diamond Mystery

Peter Diamond, head of Bath’s CID, takes a city break in Vienna, where his favourite film, The Third Man, was set, but everything goes wrong and his companion Paloma calls a halt to their relationship.

Meanwhile, strange things are happening to jobbing musician Mel Farran, who finds himself scouted by methods closer to the spy world than the concert platform. The chance of joining a once-famous string quartet in a residency at Bath Spa University is too tempting for Mel to refuse.

Then a body is found in the city canal, and the only clue to the dead woman’s identity is the tattoo of a music note on one of her teeth. For Diamond, who wouldn’t know a Stradivarius from a French horn, the investigation is his most demanding ever. Three mysterious deaths need to be probed while his own personal life is in free fall.

UK Publisher: Sphere 2013 ISBN: 978-0751550610
US Publisher: Soho Press 2013 ISBN: 978-1616952303

The Tooth Tattoo In The Washington Post
Patrick Andersen, reviewing The Tooth Tattoo for The Washington Post, said: “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.”
You can also read the full Washington Post review of The Tooth Tattoo.

The New York Times (Marilyn Stasio):
“For want of a better term, Peter Lovesey’s novels about Peter Diamond, the chief of detectves in the historic English city of Bath, are designated as police procedurals. But these erudite and wondrously witty books are unlike any police procedural you’ve ever read. THE TOOTH TATTOO is a case in point. Of course there’s a murder to be solved – a curious one, involving a young Japanese music lover who has come to Bath in hopes of hearing a celebrated string quartet known as the Staccati. But for the most part, the murder investigation provides the structural framework for a group portrait of the eccentric members of this captivating ensemble and the music they play with such rapturous devotion.

Lovesey’s droll humor is on ample display as the members of Diamond’s investigative team poach ideas from “CSI” and tease their gloomy chief for behaving like the depressive Scandinavian policemen in popular fiction (There are also inside jokes for the musically minded like the one about Odessa being the source of all the world’s great string players). Even the murder investigation is fun, but in its own peculiar way; but for death-defying thrills, nothing quite compares to the Staccati swinging into Beethoven’s Quartet in C sharp minor.”

And from The Daily Mail (Barry Turner):
CLASSIC CRIME
“I must resist saying Peter Lovesey is at the peak of his game since, judging by past experience, he will soon produce another book that is even better than THE TOOTH TATTOO. Let it suffice to say that this is one of his best.

For his latest outing, the thoroughly unpretentious Peter Diamond of Bath CID finds himself adrift in the world of classical music. What is the link between members of a highly regarded strong quartet and he death of a Japanese student who had come to Bath to hear them play? . . . Vivid characterisation and convincing dialogue confirm Lovesey’s reputation as a master storyteller.”

You can watch Peter discuss The Tooth Tattoo at this event organised by The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Arizona
[TheToothTattooPoisonedPen]

You can see this video on the Livestream website as well.

A Peter Diamond Mystery

Hero to zero.

Cop to Corpse.

One minute PC Harry Tasker is strolling up Walcot Street, Bath, on foot patrol. The next he is shot through the head. No scream, no struggle, no last words. He is picked off, felled, dead.

Peter’s new book appears from Sphere in the UK on 5 April, 2012 and from Soho Press in the USA in June, 2012. Bath detective Peter Diamond takes on the most dangerous assignment of his career when he goes in search of the Somerset Stalker, a killer who is targeting policemen in West Country towns. After a constable from Diamond’s own police station is murdered in the small hours of a Sunday morning a desperate hunt follows. Action, menace and courage in the face of extreme danger are the driving forces of this story laced with the surprises that always lie in wait in a Lovesey novel.

UK Publisher: Sphere 2012 ISBN: 978-1847445711 – April 2012
US Publisher: Soho Press 2012 ISBN: 978-1616950781 – June 2012

Cop to Corpse is now in paperback

“Who’s gunning for beat cops? That’s the frantic question Peter Diamond must try to answer in British author Peter Lovesey’s superlative twelfth novel featuring the irascible Chief Superintendent . . . Lovesey, winner of the CWA Gold and Silver Dagger, leavens the suspense with Diamond’s trademark gallows humor, and closes with one of his cleverest solutions.” Publishers Weekly

“Nobody but Lovesey could thump out a gritty procedural yet instill Bath with so much charm and history that readers will have to put it on their bucket lists.” Kirkus Reviews

“I’ve been a fan of Peter Lovesey’s ever since Sergeant Cribb investigated a Victorian murder in Wobble to Death. Lovesey’s Peter Diamond series is one of the best of the current crop of British cop-shop books. His books always have a tight plot and very professional sets of clues and investigators, and this one, the 12th, is one of his best . . . If you’re not already a fan of Lovesey and Diamond, start here.” Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail, Toronto

“There are some days when only a good book will do. You want a novel written by a master of his craft. You want characters sympathetically but never sentimentally drawn, with believable relationships, good and bad. You want a topical crime (as I write, a gunman in France is taking out policemen with an assault rifle) and even if it looks as if a serial killer is at work, you don’t want to sigh at the vicious predictability of the murders. You want action, but never excessive violence, and certainly no gratuitous, stomach-churning detail. You want pace, controlled as if by a conductor on his podium. You want an always readable style, with the author assuming you’ve got an intelligent, educated mind, but never being self-indulgent and signalling every clever turn of expression with a wave. You want a frisson of pleasure at the entirely satisfying denouement. You want Peter Lovesey’s latest crime investigation, Cop to Corpse. Set in present day Bath, this exemplary crime novel traces the investigation when the third policeman in the area is killed by a sniper within twelve weeks. This isn’t Bath of the warm stone and wonderful vistas set jewel-like amidst green hills. It’s a city where people live and die, and the scenery conceals places to hide and hinders police operations. I don’t need to say any more. Go and buy it now.” Judith Cutler, Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine

“The pacing is relentless in this well-plotted mystery. The engaging Peter Diamond is rarely far afield, involved in nearly every aspect of the criminal investigation . . . Cop to Corpse is a strong entry in this already strong series of mysteries and police procedurals.” Mysterious Reviews

“Peter Lovesey is one writer who rises to the challenge again and again. . . . The story may be unorthodox, but it is certainly entertaining and proof – were it needed – that one of Britain’s most distinguished mystery novelists is still as good at keeping us guessing as ever. Long may he continue to entertain his many fans.” Martin Edwards, Do You Write Under Your Own Name?

A Hen Mallin Mystery

“I could cheerfully murder my boss,” Gemma remarks over coffee. She and her friend Jo joke about fantastic ways of committing the crime. The game is so amusing that in a double date with Jake and Rick they discuss forming a murder society and soon the quartet are calling themselves “The Headhunters.” But some of Rick’s suggestions sound uncomfortably serious.

On the following Sunday morning, Jo is horrified to find a dead body on the beach at Selsey. By the time the police have identified the victim Gemma and Jo have found another corpse. This time it’s a colleague of Gemma’s. Worse still, Gemma’s boss is missing …

UK Publisher: Sphere, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-84744-213-0
US Publisher: Soho Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-1-56947-490-7

“Peter Lovesey excels in portraying ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events and The Headhunters is a splendid example … This is a very cleverly constructed mystery with well-rounded characters, and it confirms Lovesey’s place in the top echelon of British crime writers.” Susanna Yager (Sunday Telegraph)

“… a thoroughly delightful detective story, old-fashioned in the way that reminds us why we started reading and loving mysteries in the first place. If you are unfamiliar with the works of Mr Lovesey after nearly 40 years of excellence, it’s time to remedy that gap in your experience.” Otto Penzler (New York Sun)

“The Headhunters offers proof once again that nobody can write the modern traditional detective novel as perfectly as Lovesey.” Tom & Enid Schantz (Denver Post)

“You can always count on Peter Lovesey, one of England’s most respected mystery writers, to come up with a rollicking good detective yarn…. If you like a classic British mystery that keeps you guessing and moves quickly to a conclusion you’ll thoroughly enjoy The Headhunters.” Joseph Scarpato Jr. (Mystery Scene)