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The Last Detective

Detective Peter Diamond Book 1

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The Last Detective

By: Peter Lovesey
Narrated by: Michael Tudor Barnes
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About this listen

A woman's naked body is found floating in the weeds of a lake near Bath by an elderly woman walking her Siamese cats. No one comes forward to identify her, and no murder weapon is found, but sleuthing is Superintendent Peter Diamond's speciality. A genuine gumshoe practising door stopping and deduction: he is the last detective.

Struggling with office politics and a bizarre cast of suspects, Diamond strikes out on his own, even when Forensics think they have the culprit. Eventually, despite disastrous personal consequences, and amongst Bath's rambling buildings and formidable history, the last detective exposes the uncomfortable truth....

©1991 Peter Lovesey (P)2015 Hachette Audio UK Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Detective

Critic reviews

"A brilliant performance." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"A terrific job." ( The Times)
"Mr Lovesey maintains a wonderful tone throughout.... A comedy of bad manners, full of oddball characters and wacky events develops into a perfectly realised murder mystery whose skilful misdirection never oversteps the bounds of fair play." ( The Wall St Journal)
"A bravura performance from a veteran showman: slyly paced, marbled with surprise and, in the end, strangely affecting." ( New York Times Book Review)
All stars
Most relevant
So glad I have discovered Peter Lovesey and his Peter Diamond books. I was put off initially as I thought it was the dreadful TV series, but no resemblance at all. Peter Diamond is literally a gem. Proper detective fiction, no gratuitous gore, sex of swearing, just great characterisation and plot. Not mad about the narrator as accents seemed to wander about a bit... but otherwise, excellent.

Great!

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Would you try another book written by Peter Lovesey or narrated by Michael Tudor Barnes?

Yes to both

What could Peter Lovesey have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

He could have paid a little more attention to detail. While much of the book maintains a credible story, (without wishing to give any spoilers), the post career choices of the main character are simply not credible and the denouement comes without any reasonable evidence - just a hunch.

Which character – as performed by Michael Tudor Barnes – was your favourite?

The main character

If this book were a film would you go see it?

It would have to be structured rather differently.

Any additional comments?

Eye for details and consistency let this down.

Could have been excellent but let down by details

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enjoyed this book from the start and how it ended that twist was good as I thought no way !
going to work my way the rest in order as recommended

very enjoyable

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I have to say I don't bond with the last detective in any way - terrible bigoted old bugger that he is. But strangely once I had got past the 'I'm going to bin this' cut off I couldn't help but get drawn into the story which isn't bad at all. It may not rate 5 stars but I think I will very probably download the next in the series - just to see how things go!!!!

Was going to bin after 10 minutes - glad I didn't

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An enjoyable story but I found the narration like torture: so much lip smacking, dry mouth noises and loud swallows. I actually got angry listening. Some terrible accents too, every one seemed to be a bad variation on Yorkshire despite it being set in Bath, and the bloke who lived in America had a strange accent unlike anything I've ever heard before.

I'd advise buying a paper copy and reading it yourself

Don't buy if you are bothered by mouth noises

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