Peter Diamond Books In Order

Publication Order of Peter Diamond Books

The Peter Diamond Series features a 41-year-old English Superintendent Peter Diamond. Peter is overweight, hates scientific methods and computers, and he normally wears a brown trilby over the bald head with a silver fringe. Peter Diamond strikes most of his colleagues as opinionated and overbearing. However, he’s without question a great detective with proof of various solved murders. He believes that the old methods are always the best: interviews and knocking on doors. Nevertheless, he reluctantly, when the situation requires it, admits to relying on the forensic evidence. He also resists any use of computers; a task that he leaves to his younger staff members like John Wigfull, his new assistant.

Let’s take a closer look at two early books in Peter Diamond series:

The last detective

The Last Detective is the first book in the Peter Diamond series. It was published back in 1991. Peter Diamond, the Bath detective who is brilliant at rooting out murder cases, is peeved at the prospect of being diverted to Professional Standards so as to enquire into an accident involving police car. Arriving late at the accident scene, Peter Diamond discovers an extra victim who is thrown onto an embankment –unnoticed and unconscious. Diamond administers CPR. However, there’s no one who can say whether the aging tricyclist will pull through.

However, why had the elderly man been out right in the middle of the night together with an urn containing human ashes? Peter Diamond’s suspicions grow just after he identifies the victim as Ivor Pellegrini. Pellegrini is a well-known railway enthusiast and local eccentric. A search of Ivor’s workshop proves beyond question that he’s involved in a series of several uninvestigated deaths. While Ivor lingers on life support, Peter Diamond wrestles with the abysmal possibility that he has actually saved the life of a serial killer. Only the full-on murder investigation shall uncover the truth.

Diamond is suspicious of John Wigfull. He is very sure that Wigfull has been placed as the assistant in preparations to replace him should the outcome of the police investigation into the previous case go against Peter Diamond. Diamond is accused of using excessive force during an interrogation of a certain ultimately convicted suspect. Unfortunately, the suspect gave a false confession to the crime he did not commit. Peter has a forceful personality yet he did not even lay a finger on this suspect. Nonetheless, Peter Diamond now bears a cloud over his head that he will have to get rid of.

A body is then recovered from the lake. It’s a beautiful redhead resembling a popular actress in soap operas, even though she had been fired from the show 2 years ago. Having been originally hired as the ingénue of 19, she’s now 32. As such, the producers wanted to have another young girl who could play the part. However, there have been no missing person reports filed on this actress by her husband. As such, Diamond is pretty sure that the dead woman can’t be her. He then sets his staff members in motion to discover the identity of the body and waits for the report from the pathologist. Jack Merlin, the pathologist, soon returns with the report that he can’t tell with any certainty how the girl died, since the dead body does not have any classic drowning clues.

Frustration mounting, Peter Diamond knows that lots of eyes are on him from the Head Office. He definitely has to solve the case.

The Last Detective’ is a very entertaining book. The author, Peter Lovesey, has his tongue firmly inside his cheek and he’s knowingly looking back at Agatha Christie classics of 1940’s. There’s a gentle humor that permeates this medium-violent cozy, together with lots of satisfying turns and twists. Some squeamish individuals of sensitive natures might find some scenes in the book to be a bit tough. However, that’s not the case unless you think of the book in a very graphic manner. For a gentle reader, this is a great book about murder and the guilty characters who try to hide crimes peripheral to the major death. It has also been written for an audience that has a bit of more exposure to the modern television because it has multiple points of view.

The ending of this book is an interesting twist even though some people might think that it’s very odd. In fact, you won’t see it coming but you’ll be very puzzled by Peter Diamond’s innocent and misguided response.

Diamond Solitaire

Diamond Solitaire is the second novel in Peter Diamond series. In case you liked the first novel in this series then you’ll certainly have to pick this one up. The second outing in this series is quite different from the first one. Peter Diamond is not a policeman any more. The books begins with Diamond serving as the Harrod department’s store security man; a job that he doesn’t last long as once it’s discovered that a small kid has managed to breach the security.

Losing his job at Harrod store has left Peter Diamond with time in his own hands. Having ben intrigued by the fate of the unclaimed Japanese kid, he begins developing a relationship with her and decides to investigate how the child ended up in the Harrod’s store. The investigation trots all over the world and it involves cut throat business of the pharmaceutical manufacturing as well as the quest for the big drug that will follow. Naomi, as she’s known to Diamond, seems to be autistic and suffering from the selective mutism condition. Perter Diamond is very determined to see the little girl safe at home and solve this mystery surrounding her.

This second book is just as well written as the first one in the series but in a different style. There’s more of a thriller and international chase feel to the book. You will certainly enjoy. You might still find it a little far-fetched, especially to do with the treatment of Naomi. The kid is discovered, not claimed and she’s then placed in a certain school for autism where Peter Diamond is granted unlimited access to the child. A woman later shows, then claims the kid and walks away with her. Nevertheless, the whole pharmaceutical plot and the villain were done well and it was tied together with the child in a satisfying resolution.