It is a slightly bittersweet session. At the same time, Peter Lovesey’s latest virtual appearance at The Poisoned Pen includes a summary of his career, and a conversation about some of the greats of British crime writing such as Robert Barnard, Catherine Aird, and an homage to Agatha Christie. Lovesey and Barbara Peters, owner of The Pen, discussed the Bertie mysteries, the Sergeant Cribb ones, and the Peter Diamond books. In fact, the bittersweet occasion came about because of the publication of the final Peter Diamond book, Against the Grain. There are only a couple more copies still in stock in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4ikE3bk
Here’s the summary of Against the Grain.
Detective Peter Diamond goes undercover at a seasonal festival in this delightful and bittersweet conclusion to the multi-award-winning series.
Detective Peter Diamond, chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is taking a short holiday in the country. His former colleague Julie Hargreaves has invited Diamond and his partner, Paloma, to visit the idyllic village of Baskerville (no relation to the Sherlock Holmes story, so he’s told). It turns out Julie’s invitation was not without ulterior motives. The woman who owns the village’s largest dairy farm has been convicted of manslaughter following a terrible accident in her grain silo. Julie’s ex-investigator instinct tells her there has been a miscarriage of justice and a murderer is on the loose—but Julie’s been keeping secrets of her own, and can’t take her inquiry any further.
Diamond takes the bait; the case is a fascinating one, and he’s quite enjoying his incognito information-gathering, getting to know the villagers as they prepare for their annual Harvest Festival. The deeper into the cow dung Diamond mucks, the more convinced he becomes there was foul play. But maintaining his innocent tourist facade becomes harder as he closes in on his suspects. To protect his alias, he might have to learn how to operate a tractor or drive a herd of wayward cows. He might even be forced to attend a hoedown—not that he’d dance, not even to catch a killer. Or would he? The curmudgeonly detective has plenty to learn about himself as he tries on some new hats: undercover private investigator; village detective; country gentleman.
Over 30 years and 21 other novels, Peter Lovesey has bewitched his enormous fandom with the wry, stubborn, and fiendishly clever Peter Diamond. Now he brings his Anthony, Macavity, and CWA Dagger–winning series to a close with this delightful and bittersweet final installment.
Peter Lovesey is the author of more than forty highly praised mystery novels including the Peter Diamond investigations and the Sergeant Cribb investigations. He has been honored with the two highest awards in mystery fiction, Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association as well as many other international accolades. He lives in Shrewsbury, England.
Enjoy this conversation with Peter Lovesey.
I’m a big Lovesey fan, having read his books for 50 years or so, starting with the early Sgt. Cribb series. I particularly enjoyed some of his stand alones, like KEYSTONE and ROUGH CIDER and ON THE EDGE, and, of course, his short stories, of which I’ve read many, all that I could find. Crippen & Landru has done 3 collections of his stories. I also liked his amusing “Bertie” books, about Queen Victoria’s eldest son, the future King Edward VIII. I know everyone loves the Peter DIamond books, but I found the ones I’ve read too long and less interesting to me than some of his other stuff.
I read and loved the Sergeant Cribb books years ago, Jeff, discovering them when they were on PBS. I never read the Peter Diamond books. But, it was fun to listen to him reminisce about his books and the authors he knew.
I’m glad he talked about Robert Barnard, an author I really liked. He had a bunch of different series, but he had some outstanding stand alone books, like THE SKELETON IN THE GRASS (period leading up to WWII) and OUT OF THE BLACKOUT (London blitz) that really need to be read. Trust me. Just wonderful stuff. I liked his often snarky, sarcastic short stories too.
Jeff, I’m leaving at the end of next week for my Mom’s. I’ll have to look for those books when I come home.
We just made a reservation to go see my sister in Scottsdale next Tuesday to Friday. I won’t mind getting out of the cold for a few days of 70 degrees.
I don’t blame you, Jeff. And, stop in at The Poisoned Pen while you’re there!
Never have read any of his books. Don’t think I ever saw anything on PBS.
Masterpiece Theater, Kevin, about 1980. You were probably too busy raising a family to care.