A Peter Diamond Mystery
Anthony Award Winner
The naked body of a woman is found floating in the weeds in a lake near Bath. No one is willing to identify her. There are no marks and there is no murder weapon – a real test of the sleuthing ability of Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond. He is the last detective, not some lad out of police school with a degree in computer studies, but a genuine gumshoe whose heroes wore trilbies and raincoats and solved crimes by question and answer, doorstepping and deduction.
Challenged by petty office politics, frustrated by obstructive tactics, Diamond strikes out on his own. Despite disastrous personal consequences, the last detective exposes the uncomfortable truth.
UK Publisher: Scribners, 1991
US Publisher: Doubleday, 1991
UK Paperback: Warner Futura, 1992
US Paperback: Bantam, 1992
Latest US Paperback: Soho Press, 2000 ISBN 1-56947-209-2
Latest UK Paperback: Sphere, 2014 ISBN 978-0751553680
“This is his first crime story with a contemporary setting, and it is a brilliant performance … We shall be lucky if we get a more baffling or entertaining crime puzzle to read this year.”
Julian Symons, Times Literary Supplement
“The master of the Victorian detective novel turns, for the first time, to a modern whodunit; and a terrific job he makes of it.”
Marcel Berlins, The Times
“Mr Lovesey maintains a wonderful tone throughout, pitched somewhere between the ring of truth and the call of the loon … A comedy of bad manners, full of oddball characters and wacky events develops into a perfectly realized murder mystery whose skilful misdirection never oversteps the bounds of fair play.”
Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
” The Last Detective is a bravura performance from a veteran showman: slyly paced, marbled with surprise and, in the end, strangely affecting.”
Josh Rubins, New York Times Book Review
“A marvellous achievement – masterfully plotted and totally absorbing over its entire 330 pages.”
Allen J. Hubin, Deadly Pleasures
