A Peter Diamond mystery

Macallan CWA Silver Dagger Winner, 1996
Barry Award Winner, 1996
Macavity Award Winner, 1996

“Darling, if ever I’ve met a group of potential murderers anywhere, it’s the Bloodhounds.” Thus says the chic, amoral Jessica Shaw of the Bloodhounds of Bath, a society that meets in a crypt to discuss crime novels. But to Shirley-Ann Miller, their latest recruit, they are a gaggle of dotty misfits, until one of them reveals that he is in possession of an immensely valuable stamp, recently stolen from the Postal Museum.

Then theft is overtaken by murder when the corpse of one of the Bloodhounds is found in a locked houseboat, with the only key in the possession of a man with a perfect alibi. Burly Peter Diamond finds himself embroiled in a mystery that in more than one sense evokes the classic crime puzzles of John Dickson Carr.

UK Publisher: Little, Brown, 1996 ISBN 0-316-87838-3
US Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1996 ISBN 0-89296-645-9
UK Paperback: Time Warner, 1997 ISBN 0-7515-1851-4
US Paperback: Mysterious Press, 1997 ISBN 0-446-40369-5
Latest US Paperback: Soho Press, 2004 ISBN 1-56947-377-3
Latest UK Paperback: Sphere, 2014 ISBN 978-0751553659

“No one has done this kind of thing better since Dorothy L Sayers. A must for crime buffs, especially if they like John Dickson Carr.”
Frances Hegarty, Mail on Sunday

“Undoubtedly another award winner.”
Mat Coward, Morning Star

“A real brain-banger … This pyrotechnic teaser had my head spinning.”
Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Diamond in full dazzle … Lovesey’s crime fiction reaches from John Dickson Carr to Andrew Vachss as he skilfully pays homage to the old-style whodunit in this thoroughly modern mystery.”
Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)

A Peter Diamond mystery

Barry Award shortlist, 2002

When a woman is shot dead in Bath’s Royal Victoria Park, it is Diamond who goes to the scene and finds that the victim is Stephanie, his wife.

Traumatised, grief-stricken and angry for justice, Diamond is told that this is one case he won’t be allowed to work on. Not only that. As the victim’s spouse, he is an obvious suspect. While the police put their efforts into checking his alibi, Diamond starts his own unauthorised investigation. Soon he is sifting the dust of his entire career. This is Diamond’s most touching and demanding case.

UK Publisher: Little, Brown, 2002 ISBN 0-316-85985-0
US Publisher: Soho Press, 2002 ISBN 1-56947-291-2
UK Paperback: Time Warner, 2003 ISBN 0-7515-3249-5
Latest US Paperback: Soho Press, 2003 ISBN 1-56947-322-6
Latest UK Paperback: Sphere, 2014 ISBN 978-0751553628

“Lovesey’s writing is lucid and succinct, and he is a consummate story-teller. I am not myself at all perceptive in spotting the central deception of any whodunit. But this time I’d almost begun to work out the surprise denouement, since I guessed (rightly, I think) that Lovesey had given us slightly too big a clue at one point. Why ‘almost begun’? Because the author was still one jump ahead of the field with a sweetly satisfying second surprise, of which I had entertained not the faintest notion.”
Colin Dexter, The Oldie

“Lovesey takes his hero to emotional places he’s never been before while constructing a plot of infernal ingenuity.”
Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Lovesey will be hard-pressed to surpass this current effort for its combination of the puzzle and the personal, but based on his current achievement, it would be no great surprise if he did.”
Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)