Booklog: The Last Detective (Peter Lovesey)

July 6, 2009

[I’m going to have a difficult time catching up with my 999 Challenge reading if I keep reading books that even I can’t creatively fit into one of my categories. Nonetheless, I do keep reading, though I have fallen off the wagon when it comes to making entries here. So…]

Peter Lovesey’s The Last Detective is the first in a series of contemporary British mysteries featuring the—I must invoke the necessary clichés here—irascible and cynical Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond. I picked the book up by chance, intrigued by the description and having been impressed (as you’ll see in future entries here) with other novels in the Soho Crime series.

In many ways, Peter Diamond is one of a number of stereotypical detectives—cantankerous and gruff but with some softness left in his heart, bright and tenacious but not politically adept—but Lovesey portrays him in such a way that it’s impossible not to like him even if the reader sometimes has to cringe while doing so. Given these facts, that Diamond is regularly in the midst of political intrigues in which his continued employment—much less his present position—are at risk almost goes without saying.

The Last Detective’s plot is a bit convoluted, involving the death of a washed-up actress, a complex of events surrounding various suspects—including her English Literature professor husband, and some missing letters by Jane Austen. I did guess who the killer was about 2/3 of the way through, but I couldn’t be sure until the end… and there was plenty of plot left to be interested in.

Lovesey’s novel has an interesting construction, featuring two interludes in which primary suspects tell their story rather than relaying it through the process of interrogation. This worked well, though the voices weren’t wholly convincing… they escaped the fate of sounding too much like the main character, but they didn’t exactly sound authentic either.

All in all, a very satisfying debut of an interesting character in a novel that deservedly won an Anthony Award for Best Novel. In fact, after reading the second in the series (more on that later), I revised my opinion of the novel even higher as I start to see a better picture of how unique Peter Diamond really is. Recommended.

Tags: booklog, mystery, peter diamond, peter lovesey, reading