The House Sitter (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #8) (Paperback): The Vault (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #6) (Paperback):ĭiamond Dust (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #7) (Paperback): Upon a Dark Night (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #5) (Paperback): The Summons (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #3) (Paperback):īloodhounds (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #4) (Paperback): The Last Detective (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #1) (Paperback):ĭiamond Solitaire (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery #2) (Paperback): Diamond, and true to the best of theater traditions, the show goes on.This is book number 11 in the A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery series. Murder fails to shutter the grande dame thanks to the quick thinking of Det. Lovesey's first rate mysteries are set for the most part in Bath, England which supplies Lovesey with historical buildings that figure prominently in his memorable adventures, this time out the Theatre Royal which first opened its doors in 1805 and is described in loving detail throughout the story. Her gruesome death is first seen as either a freak accident or a suicide but Diamond is uncomfortable with those findings as much as he'd like to get away from the theater environs as he discovers a phobic fear that grips him when-ever he comes into the building.

Then the distraught employee who'd applied the pancake is found dead in a fall from the soaring fly tower above the stage. Her face is burning from a caustic solution apparently mixed into her makeup that leaves her badly scarred. One of the most endearing of the supporting characters is the gay dramaturge who wants to convince Diamond of the existence of an other-worldly 'grey lady' lurking in the historic theater whose appearance foretells tragedy.įading pop star Clarion Calhoun hired to play Sally Bowles in 'I Am A Camera' has barely made her entrance when she lets out ungodly shrieks.

The annoying Dawkins is one of a cast of eccentrics perceptively drawn by Lovesey you might well find backstage, which makes this mystery amusing as well as intriguing for readers who know theater people at all. Sergeant Dawkins who choreographs musicals on the side, has to Diamond's dismay, an 'in' with his own superior officer, anxious about her debut in an amateur production of the murdering barber's tale 'Sweeney Todd' no less and Diamond sees a whole lot more of Dawkins than he would have liked. The cunningly plotted 'Stagestruck' (Soho Crime) is solid evidence that the author is writing at his prime.Ī flamboyant uniformed copper with ambitions to join Diamond's CID unit whose specialty is murder investigations irritates the superintendent to no end with his inability to speak to the point and outlandish stagy manner. Not all divas trod the boards, as Peter Lovesey humorously portrays in his clever 11th mystery featuring Det.

Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey