Diamond Dust

Rating:
Summary: Best yet
Review: As a fan of Peter Lovesey's stuff, I found this Diamond story the best yet. Coming to the end was almost like nearing the end of a great gourmet meal. After reading his earlier stories of Peter Diamond, the way this one begins comes as a shock, but the story plays out well after accepting the reality of what he is facing. First rate book!

Rating:
Summary: Best yet
Review: As a fan of Peter Lovesey's stuff, I found this Diamond story the best yet. Coming to the end was almost like nearing the end of a great gourmet meal. After reading his earlier stories of Peter Diamond, the way this one begins comes as a shock, but the story plays out well after accepting the reality of what he is facing. First rate book!

Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining, but underdeveloped.
Review: Book has great possibility, but Lovesey simply can't slow down the action in the book to allow any cogitation by the reader. His characters are potentially interesting, but in his rush to get his story told, any depth of character is virtually impossible.
He also needs to give more depth and specifics to his settings, e.g. the Dorchester Hotel (probably unknown to most Americans) also to his characters, the con man in the plot re diamonds was a wonderful opportunity to write a fully fleshedd-out character. Most damaging is the dialogue: almost always the dialogue has this numbing sameness, so that the speaker's voice and content could come from almost any character. I hate the word, but Lovesey needs some "nuance" in his characters speech, some subtlety and shading. Also, major plot flaw re jogger. Why not make every effort to find her? Diamond's grief is genuine no doubt, but I (perhaps not other readers) found it factitious and unconvincing. A pretty good plot spoiled by an author who either cannot or will not deepen his writing.

Rating:
Summary: Best Diamond so far
Review: Having read all the previous Peter Diamond mysteries, I found "Diamond Dust" to be even better than the others, and the others are excellent. From the kick-in-the-stomach beginning to the trapdoor-under-your-feet ending, it's a winner. Just when you think you've got it nailed, it springs back. Can't wait to read the next one.

Rating:
Summary: Best Diamond so far
Review: Having read all the previous Peter Diamond mysteries, I found "Diamond Dust" to be even better than the others, and the others are excellent. From the kick-in-the-stomach beginning to the trapdoor-under-your-feet ending, it's a winner. Just when you think you've got it nailed, it springs back. Can't wait to read the next one.

Rating:
Summary: A cracker of a Book!
Review: I wondered how this book would play out after the shocking beginning, but I shouldn't have doubted Peter Lovesey's skill. He writes a great book! His plots and characterizations are wonderful. In this book the curmudgeonly detective Peter Diamond is confronted with a crime that comes too close to home. He is sidelined by the brass for this, the biggest murder case of his career, but he vows that he will use his unique talent to bring his wife's killer to justice. There are more red herrings and leads for him to follow, and we the readers think it's a whole slew of different people, but Lovesey plays it out until the startling conclusion. This is a thickly textured and compelling book, and it is also a watershed book for Diamond. We wonder at the end what kind of man and detective we will have in subsequent stories. This is probably the strongest entry in an already strong series.

Rating:
Summary: A cracker of a Book!
Review: I wondered how this book would play out after the shocking beginning, but I shouldn't have doubted Peter Lovesey's skill. He writes a great book! His plots and characterizations are wonderful. In this book the curmudgeonly detective Peter Diamond is confronted with a crime that comes too close to home. He is sidelined by the brass for this, the biggest murder case of his career, but he vows that he will use his unique talent to bring his wife's killer to justice. There are more red herrings and leads for him to follow, and we the readers think it's a whole slew of different people, but Lovesey plays it out until the startling conclusion. This is a thickly textured and compelling book, and it is also a watershed book for Diamond. We wonder at the end what kind of man and detective we will have in subsequent stories. This is probably the strongest entry in an already strong series.

Rating:
Summary: Peter Diamond, murder suspect
Review: The sharp-witted Peter Diamond series takes a turn into darker territory when the acerbic Bath detective shows up at a murder scene to discover the victim is his wife, Stephanie. From the first moments of shock through the months of grinding frustration and grief, Diamond learns what it is to be on the receiving end of impersonal police professionalism.

Devastated as he is, Diamond knows they're right to take him off the case - he can't even bear the casual, distancing language of murder scenes and grief has made him numb and slow-witted and consumed by guilt that one of his collars killed her in revenge. Why else would anyone kill kind-hearted likeable Steph, the sunny antithesis to his mordant personality? But when the revenge theory fizzles, Diamond himself is fitted for the frame and he doesn't like it one bit.

Lovesey does a superb job of portraying Diamond in extremis. The outrage as what he has done to countless others is done to him - the hard-nosed intrusion on private grief, the exposure of every tic and blemish and tiny secret, the shame and horror of suspicion - all mark him indelibly. The plot is equally well-constructed, replete with plausible dead-ends and red herrings and one big, awful question - why was Steph in the park at all and who is the "T" she went to meet? Operating outside the official investigation and hampered by the lack of official resources, Diamond reaches the devastating solution through a combination of sharp observation and intimate knowledge of the victim.

A bleak and masterful novel which leaves the reader wondering what repercussions will follow in future Diamond novels. The man is irrevocably changed - how will it affect his work? Will gruff, blunt Diamond become more sensitive to the feelings of suspects? And, of course, romance is now a possibility.