Description:
Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is the last detective: a genuine gumshoe, committed to door stopping and deduction rather than fancy computer gadgetry.
So when the naked body of a woman is found floating in the weeds in a lake near Bath with no one willing to identify her, no marks and no murder weapon, his sleuthing abilities are tested to the limit. Struggling with a jigsaw puzzle of truant choirboys, teddy bears, a black Mercedes, and Jane Austen memorabilia, Diamond persists, even after the powers-that-be have decided there's enough evidence to make a conviction.
Brief description:
Peter Lovesey (1936-2025) wrote more than thirty highly praised mystery novels, including the Peter Diamond mysteries, the Sergeant Cribb historical mysteries, and the Bertie Prince of Wales novels. His book have won the British Crime Writers' Association Silver and Gold Dagger awards, the Cartier Diamond Dagger, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, and the Strand Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award. In the United States, his books won an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, among others. He was named a Grand Master of the Swedish Academy of Detection and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.
Review Quotes:
"Witty...A perfectly realized murder mystery."
-- "Wall Street Journal"