Upon a Dark Night

by Peter Lovesey, Michael Healy (Read by)

Overview

“The threads of Peter Lovesey’s new Peter Diamond mystery, Upon a Dark Night, twist up so neatly they make a perfect hangman’s noose—another triumph of plotting from this master of the classic puzzle form.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“Lovesey is . . . master of the traditional crime novel.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The characters are complex and well-drawn, the plot intricate but credible, the story well-told and the puzzles neatly tied up by the end.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“An extraordinary combination of classic puzzle with a contemporary police procedural; an immensely satisfying work by one of Britain’s foremost mystery novelists.”—Houston Chronicle

“Lovesey’s latest Peter Diamond novel offers everything a fan of classic detective fiction could want.”—Booklist

A young woman is dumped, injured and unconscious, in a private hospital’s parking lot. She is an amnesiac with no memory prior to her discovery by hospital personnel. Detective Inspector Peter Diamond of the Bath homicide squad is unwilling to become involved. He has other, more important cases to solve: A woman has plunged to her death from the roof of a local landmark while half the young people of Bath partied below, and an elderly farmer has shot himself. Are these apparent suicides really so, or are there sinister forces at work? And then he finds a connection to the amnesiac woman named, temporarily, Rose.

Peter Lovesey is the author of 24 highly praised mysteries and has been awarded The Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold, Silver and Diamond Daggers, as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665284431
Publisher:	Tantor
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Series:	Peter Diamond Series , #5
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Peter Lovesey, the author of more than thirty highly praised mystery novels, has been awarded the CWA Gold and Silver Daggers, the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, the Strand Magazine Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and many other honors.

Michael Healy trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and has appeared off-Broadway and off-off Broadway in many productions. He worked on Saturday Night Live for three years and has appeared in several national television commercials. In New York he has worked on stage with Harold Prince, Tatum O'Neal, and William Hickey, and in Rhode Island he has worked extensively with the Gamm Theatre, the Rhode Island Center for the Performing Arts, the Courthouse Center for the Arts, and the Firehouse Theater. He won an award for acting in 2007.

Editorial Reviews

For long stretches of the narrative, Bath's most cantankerous copper, outsized Peter Diamond, barely registers in the action as he investigates two deaths: a lonely old farmer sticks a shotgun under his chin and fires; and, at a wild party, a girl falls from the roof of a building. The dead girl is missing a shoe, and Diamond soon theorizes that the farmer's arms were too short to have pulled the trigger. Unknown to Diamond, the key to the two kills is an amnesiac woman found injured in a hospital parking lot. A shoplifter named Ada names her Rose and befriends her. Ada is able to stop a young man who tries to abduct Rose but then reluctantly releases Rose to a woman claiming to be her sister. Not fully convinced, the crusty shoplifter gives a skeptical Diamond an earful. Odd holes dug in the old farmer's yard indicate treasure hunting. One of the foursome who gave the ill-fated party is a hunter. The farmer's daughter is missing, and the German woman living at the hostel with Ada is revealed as the owner of the missing shoe. Lovesey (Bloodhounds, etc.) is a past master of the traditional crime novel. His clues are artfully placed, and Diamond is a believably flawed soul, sexist and impulsive, yet essentially good-hearted. Such a tangled plot would snare an author of less skill, but Lovesey maintains virtuosic control and delivers an unmistakable highlight in a long career already well-garlanded with awards and acclaim. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The threads of Peter Lovesey's new Peter Diamond mystery, "Upon A Dark Night," twist up so neatly they make a perfect hangman's noose -- another triumph of plotting from this master of the classic puzzle form. -- Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

Marilyn Stasio

It's tough heading a murder squad when nobody's getting murdered, and the good people of Bath persist in being good. Stressful is what it is, and it drives Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond to an ilk he detests: doctors. Diagnosis: hypertension caused by underwork. So, naturally, the brilliant if bumptious Diamond seizes on the apparent suicide of a lonely old farmer as an opportunity. Can he, in the interests of occupational therapy, convince the powers-that-be that suicide in this case is actually homicide? Resourceful bloke that he is, he pulls it off. Soon, then, there's another dead body on hand, this time a young woman's. Diamond's archrival, Detective Superintendent Wigfull, says the woman fell from the roof of the apartment building; Diamond insists she was shovedþand once again he carries the day. What's more, he manages to connect the deaths to each other and then both to the disappearance of yet another young woman, an amnesiac. Flimsy at first, the evidence suddenly gains substance, and somewhat to his surprise Diamond turns out to have been right all along. For admirers of this oft-decorated series (Bloodhounds, 1996, etc.), the fun is as much in Diamond the browbeater as it is in Diamond the inductive reasoner. And once again the fat, sly, manipulative detective pushes his oddball charm to the limit. Better than okay, if a little overlong, for this fifth in the series. It begins intriguingly, but then, like the great man himself, gets flabby in the middle. As Diamonds go, give it, maybe, a couple of carats.

Kirkus Reviews

"Such a tangled plot would snare an author of less skill, but Lovesey maintains virtuosic control and delivers an unmistakable highlight in a long career already well-garlanded with awards and acclaim." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review

From the Publisher