BLOODHOUNDS by PETER LOVESEY
Bloodhounds
Diamond is assigned to investigate the theft of a rare stamp from a local museum, but before he can even get started, a body turns up inside a padlocked houseboat, the only key to which belongs to a man with an ironclad alibi. The victim belonged to a group of avid mystery lovers called the Bloodhounds, and Diamond wonders if one of them has decided to commit a perfect crime, a locked room mystery no one can solve. There are many scenes with the Bloodhounds, whose knowledgeable discussions about detective fiction are a special bonus for mystery fans.
Recommended similar title: A Conventional Corpse - Joan Hess
Book shop owner Claire Malloy is happy to do her small share in participating in "Murder Comes to Campus," a mystery writers convention in the small college town of Farberville, Arkansas. .... The author pokes some heartfelt jabs at current publishing trends in the mystery genre, and readers will have fun guessing which mystery authors the attendees are modeled after.
Peter Diamond Series:
The last detective (1991) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 1]
Diamond solitaire (1993) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 2]
The summons (1995) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 3]
Bloodhounds (1996) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 4]
Upon a dark night (1998) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 5]
The vault (2000) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 6]
Diamond dust (2002) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 7]
The house sitter (2003) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 8]
The secret hangman (2007) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 9]
Skeleton Hill (2009) [Peter Diamond mysteries, 10]
Peter Diamond series-- Recommended Similar Titles:
Dying Flames - Robert Barnard
The Graveyard Position - Robert Barnard
No Place of Safety - Robert Barnard
Suspicious Minds - Martin Edwards
Unlucky for Some - Jill McGown
The Water Room - Christopher Fowler
Story Collections
Butchers and Other Stories of Crime, (1985, 1987)
(Editor) The Black Cabinet: Stories Based on True Crimes, (1989)
The Staring Man and Other Stories, (1989)
The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown and Other Stories, (1994)
Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose (novellas and stories), (1998)
The Sedgemoor Strangler, and Other Stories of Crime, (2001)
(Editor) The Verdict of Us All, (2006)
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Sergeant Cribb Mysteries
Wobble to Death, (1970)
The Detective Wore Silk Drawers, (1971, 2008)
Abracadaver, Dodd (1972, 2008)
Mad Hatter's Holiday: A Novel of Murder in Victorian Brighton, (1973, 2009)
Invitation to a Dynamite Party, (1974, published as The Tick of Death, Dodd (New York, NY), 1974.)
A Case of Spirits, (1975)
Swing, Swing Together, (1976)
Waxwork, (1978)
Other Crime Novels
The False Inspector Dew, (1982, 2001)
Keystone, (1983)
Rough Cider, (1986, 1987)
Bertie and the Tinman, (1988)
On the Edge, (1989)
Bertie and the Seven Bodies, (1990)
Bertie and the Crime of Passion, (1993)
The Reaper, (2001)
The Circle, (2005)
Skeleton Hill, (2009)
Under Pseudonym Peter Lear
Goldengirl (novel), (1977, 1978)
Spider Girl (novel), (1980)
The Secret of Spandau, (1986)
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Lovesey has written novels of detective fiction as well as thrillers, short story collections, and plays. He is best known for his "Sergeant Cribb" and "Peter Diamond" series, and his work jumps continents and decades, from the 1880s to the present. According to Josh Rubins in the New York Times Book Review, Lovesey "has continued to stretch his talents" while earning the title "reigning master of the historical crime novel."
.....
Lovesey's interest in sport led him to write his prize-winning first novel, Wobble to Death. While researching the life of a Native American athlete, he found a description of the Victorian "wobble," a walking endurance contest. Later, while "perusing the personals columns of the [London] Times as Sherlock Holmes used to do," he stated, he discovered an advertisement for a crime novel contest. Wobble to Death was the result.
Wobble to Death is the first of a series of novels featuring Detective Sergeant Cribb and his assistant, Constable Thackeray. Critics have praised these books for their authentic evocation of Victorian atmosphere and restrained characterization
Lovesey again returned to the Victorian era with his "Bertie" books. This time, the author features a rather unusual detective--Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria's son and heir, who later became King Edward VII of England. ....
Lovesey's Peter Diamond books have contemporary settings--generally in and around the city of Bath, England. The Last Detective introduces Diamond, a middle-aged, overweight, and cantankerous police inspector who, while not amiss to using computers and lab analysis to solve murders, nevertheless does his best work as an old-fashioned puzzle-solver. "Diamond is a believably flawed soul, sexist and impulsive, yet essentially good-hearted," observed a Publishers Weekly contributor. New York Times Book Review contributor Rubins commented that The Last Detective provided "a bravura performance from a veteran showman: slyly paced, marbled with surprise and, in the end, strangely affecting."
Subsequent Diamond novels have adhered to the formula of The Last Detective. Lovesey has not forgotten his interest in the past, as some Diamond plots include allusions to Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, while others involve suspicious antiques dealers, history professors, or bibliophiles. In The Vault, for instance, Diamond investigates the discovery of a partial skeleton, unearthed from a vault underneath the house in which Shelley wrote Frankenstein. A Publishers Weekly contributor maintained that the plot of The Vault "crackles with wit and urbanity, snappy dialogue and deeper, fouler doings whispering from the wings." In 2002, Lovesey released Diamond Dust, in which Diamond learns that the victim of his newest case is his wife of almost twenty years. Stunned by the news and his swift removal from the investigation, Diamond must find a way to clear his name as he becomes the prime suspect. "Lovesey will be hard-pressed to surpass this current effort ... [but] it would be no great surprise if he did," commented a contributor to Publishers Weekly. Diamond's adventures continue with 2003's The House Sitter, which Connie Fletcher referred to as a "deft turn on the classic locked-room mystery" in her review for Booklist. The book's plot involves Diamond's investigation of the murder of a crime profiler, who had been researching the homicide of a film director and may have unearthed the identity of a serial killer. Fletcher noted: "An ingenious and complex novel, this is Lovesey at the top of his form."
Excerpts from Interviews
PW: What led you to concentrate for the moment on contemporary stories, as opposed to the historical mysteries with which you began your career?
PL: Someone wrote to my publisher saying she assumed I died many years ago because I wrote Victorian mysteries, but her husband thought I might still be alive, and they wanted the matter cleared up. She enclosed a stamped addressed envelope. After checking my pulse, I wrote a reply and then reflected on why I was so rooted in the past. It took a big effort making the change to modern settings, up-to-date forensic science and lively dialogue, but the change has been good for me. We all need new challenges. My contemporary books actually need more research because modern techniques of investigation are constantly moving on. If I write a book set in 1880, I know which books to use which papers to read. In 2005 I'm forever buying textbooks, cutting things out of magazines and papers and going to conferences on police procedures and watching documentaries to get the latest.
[Source:
Picker, Leonard. "An up-to-date Victorian." Publishers Weekly 28 Mar. 2005: 60. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 12 May 2010]
Peter Lovesey: A Diamond in Bath
Peter Lovesey, winner of this year's Crime Writer's Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, finds inspiration in Bath--the city, not the tub.
Lovesey's acclaimed Peter Diamond series is set in the noted English city, and although Lovesey has moved from the area, he returns regularly in search of "places a body could be discovered or a suspect could live. I have the plot sorted out in my mind, but to make it live it helps to find an exact place where an element of the story could happen." He takes along a pad and makes sketches and notes and often brings a camera to record images he wants to remember. "Bath has been a very fertile field for ideas. I've found that research is a confidence bringer; I want to make my stories real and solid for the reader." ....
But writing Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond as a contemporary character was not the only challenge Lovesey encountered. In the first book of the series, The Last Detective, Diamond lost his job. "It's important that characters should develop their own lives, but I hadn't expected he would leave the police," says Lovesey. "That left me with a bit of a problem in book two." Thankfully, Diamond returned to the force in book three.
Lovesey sees Peter Diamond "continuing for a bit. I'll know when he's gone far enough. Every writer should know when a character has come to the end--not because you're bored with them but because you've explored a person's character to the full." The sixth Peter Diamond, The Vault, is due this month from Soho Press; a starred PW review called it a "stunning tale of the macabre and the mundane."
And while Lovesey is scouring the streets of Bath for just the right locales for the next Peter Diamond opus, he may not be alone, In partnership with some local tour operations, the author sometimes takes fans of the series to visit scenes from his books. Sign up now and you may be lucky enough to discover "where they'll do it" in book number seven.
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