Page Updated: 04/09/2007

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Peter Lovesey - Page 2

Diamond Dust The Reaper The Vault Do Not Exceed The Stated Dose Upon a Dark Night

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First British Edition Little,Brown (2002)

Paperback - timewarner (2003)

Diamond Dust
Winner of the 2000 CWA/Cartier Diamond Dagger Award
A detective learns to suppress his feelings when a verdict is announced. Peter Diamond, the head of Bath’s murder team, reveals no joy when the gang leader Jake Carpenter is sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. But the next day, when a woman is shot dead in Royal Victoria Park, Diamond’s self-control dissolves in an instant.
The dead woman is Stephanie, his own wife.
Traumatised, grief-stricken and angry for justice, Diamond is told that the case he is desperate to solve is the one he won’t be allowed to work on. Not only that. As the victim’s spouse, he must face the ignominy of being treated as a suspect.
While the police put their efforts into checking him out, Diamond starts his own unauthorised investigation. Might someone be getting back at him? Starting with Jake Carpenter, he begins examining recent cases to see who might have exacted this cruel revenge. Soon he is sifting the dust of his entire career.
Sharply plotted and perfectly executed, Diamond Dust finds Peter Lovesey’s acclaimed detective up against it as never before, in his most touching and demanding case.
'Britain has spawned many great crime writers, Peter Lovesy among them… Lovesey's storytelling talents… propel the readers to the end and leaves them panting for more' Time Out
'Peter Diamond may be my favourite fictional police detective - perky, dogged and very clever… a dazzlingly cunning denouement' Scotsman

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First British Edition Little,Brown (2000)

The Reaper
See Review by Cath Staincliffe - Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
Winner of the 2000 CWA/Cartier Diamond Dagger Award
The bishop's body lies at the bottom of a quarry. In his car are a suicide note, a copy of Men Only and a Bible underlined at the text, ‘… hath devoured thy living with harlots’. His last phone call, the police discover, was to one Madame Swish.
Devoured by guilt? Or did someone help the bishop move closer to the Lord? He was last seen alive by Otis Joy, the charming young rector of the Wiltshire village of Foxford. Adored by the ladies in his congregation, who fill his pews and collection plates each Sunday, the Reverend Joy had become less popular with the bishop, who had discovered irregularities in the church accounts.
The bishop's demise is only the first of a series of sudden deaths in Foxford.
Rich as the devil's food cake at the church fête, The Reaper is a dark, delicious crime story from the award-winning Peter Lovesey.
‘Another satisfying mystery from a superb storyteller’ Daily Mail

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First British Edition Little,Brown (1999)

Paperback - Warner (2000)

The Vault
The remains of a human hand are brought into Bath Police Station in a pizza box. It was found in a vault lying at the entrance to the Roman Baths.
The same vault was an underground cellar below the site of the house in the Abbey Churchyard where Mary Shelley wrote most of Frankenstein.
Superintendent Peter Diamond gets on the case, which becomes more complicated by a visiting American professor, Joe Dougan, obsessed by the under-publicised connection between Bath and the legendary horror story. Dougan attempts to track down the origins of a book of poetry by John Milton which he is sure belonged to Mary Shelley.
When the professor's wife goes missing, Diamond targets him as prime suspect. Then a woman's body is washed up in the Avon, which sets the indefatigable detective a further challenge. The corpse is Peg Redbird, a canny antique dealer, whose shop Dougan had visited earlier that day in search of Mary Shelley's writing box. A key had not been found to unlock the box, and the professor had left the shop reluctantly.
When a police colleague is found in a field after a vicious attack, Peter Diamond's dogged yet brilliantly intuitive investigative skills prove once again that he is the best in the business.
'Pure joy' Gerald Kaufman, Scotsman
'One of the very best of the current generation of crime writers' Evening Standard
'A beguiling story' The Times
'Combines the classic English Detective novel with a bit of Gothic horror' Scotland on Sunday
'No one has done this kind of thing better since Dorothy L. Sayers… A must for crime buffs' Mail on Sunday

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Paperback - Warner (1999)

First British Edition Little,Brown (1998)

Do Not Exceed The Stated Dose
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
"To tell it to you straight, your comfort is not high in my priorities." Peter Lovesey (from the Foreword)
Not to be read in one sitting…
Beware of long-lost friends, sleepy cats, and Santa's grotto. Think twice about gypsy curses, squawking parrots, and peach-coloured thermal underwear - for any one of them can confound your expectations and shatter a cosy world.
In this addictive new collection, Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose, master crime writer Peter Lovesey prescribes fifteen fiendishly clever stories featuring the man in the street along with the ever-popular detectives Peter Diamond and the self-important Bertie Prince of Wales.
Here, the genteel mix easily with the sordid in a nasty but effective concoction of mayhem and suspense. lt's a mixture that will make your heart beat faster - and there are twists that will take your breath away…
'Wayzgoose, set in Bath, is funny, intriguing, cleverly plotted' The Scotsman
'Lovesey's short stories are highly addictive… small, maybe, but perfectly formed.' Yorkshire Post
More Praise for Peter Lovesey
'Peter Lovesey shows a Heath Robinson inventiveness - always worth a look' Oxford Times
Diamond Solitaire
'I have to confess to being unable to put Diamond Solitaire down ... The thing began to grip and it was phone-off-the-hook time' Mike Petty, Independent
The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown and Other Stories
'Full of sly humour and teasing misdirections, rich in chilling insights into human nature and characters that leap off the page, these stories are bon-bons to be lingered over' Hampstead & Highgate Express

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Paperback - Warner (1998)

Upon a Dark Night
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
See Review by Andrew Taylor - author of the highly acclaimed Roth & Lydmouth Series
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Who is the young woman, and why was she dumped unconscious in a hospital car park upon a dark night?
Named Rose by the social worker, the amnesiac is taken to a hostel until her memory returns. There she meets Ada Shaftsbury, a huge, boisterous shoplifter and compulsive eater, who takes Rose under her wing. Throwing her quite considerable weight into the investigation, Ada helps Rose uncover the trail that will lead to her identity.
Peter Diamond, Bath's top detective, is investigating a suspicious death and is unwilling to get involved. A woman has plunged to her death from a roof in the Royal Crescent, while half the young people of Bath partied in the house below. Accident, suicide or murder?
Badgered by Ada, galvanised by another gruesome death, Diamond is forced to admit that the deaths may be linked, and Rose is the key to the mystery.
'This enjoyably complicated puzzle is unravelled by Peter Lovesey with his customary skill' Sunday Times
'Intriguing ... Mr Lovesey never lets you down' Irish Independent

'Lovesey has an extraordinary talent for picking up the conventions of the classic English detective novel and delivering them with an entirely contemporary twist ... The English police "cosy" at its best' Val McDermid
'I have lost count of the number of detective series that Peter Lovesey has been running during the past 30 years; but none, however good, can compare with his marvelous Peter Diamond mysteries' The Scotsman
'It is masterfully plotted stuff, and distinguished by Lovesey's array of neatly sketched characters and his deft handling of amnesia' Observer
'This enjoyably complicated puzzle is unravelled by Peter Lovesey with his customary skill' Sunday Times

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