The Last Detective

THE LAST DETECTIVE (Peter Diamond # 1)
Peter Lovesey
SoHo Crime 
August 19, 2014


The Last Detective is a book that has been on my vast "to be read" list for a very long time. First published in 1992, it won the Anthony Boucher Award for Best Mystery Novel in that year and was considered groundbreaking. Overweight, technophobic, irascible and blunt to the point of rudeness, Peter Diamond was a different type of detective in British Crime fiction. I think I may have read one or two of the series but never the book that started it all. 

Set in Bath and Bristol, the nude body of a woman is found floating in the reservoir. The first challenge is to find out who she is in the absence of clothing, identification, jewelry or a wedding ring. Not even the cause of death is immediately apparent, but Diamond is sure that it was no suicide. Sending out a photo of the dead woman is the only solution when no woman matching her description has been reported missing. Diamond is first amused, then annoyed when a number of calls come in identifying her as a character in a long-running soap opera on TV. By the time this case is solved the lives of all who knew, loved or hated her are turned upside down; even the life of Peter Diamond.

I greatly enjoyed The Last Detective.The inclusion of undiscovered, then missing Jane Austen letters as part of the plot were a plus for me. The story was told in multiple viewpoints; most of which are unreliable in one way or another. There is plenty of humor and some pointed social commentary. Even after 25 years,The Last Detective holds up well.

Thanks to NetGalley and SoHo for a digital copy of this reissued crime classic in return for an honest review.

RATING-4 Stars