Every once in a while I stroll down the mystery aisles in my local library (my home away from home). Wishful thinking. I haven't found any mystery novels to my liking in quite some time. Contemporary mystery/suspense novels tend to be too graphic or too gross or too fluffy or worse yet, too poorly written.
Recently, I stumbled upon a series of mysteries by British author Peter Lovesey. Pure happenstance. And now I've found a new detective hero: Peter Diamond.
Diamond is a detective superintendent with the local police department in Bath, England. He's a middle-aged, technophobic curmudgeon, and a darn good detective. He has little finesse and loves to make frequent stops at the chips shop.
My favorite stories have included a murder that's too close to home, a murder committed in broad daylight at a crowded beach, and the discovery of a body buried underneath the house where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Not only are the puzzles intriguing in each book, but the supporting characters are memorable and well drawn.
I can't help but be a little sad reading The Secret Hangman, the tenth and latest Peter Diamond mystery. What will I do when I've read the last page? I'm already craving more.
2 comments:
I'm not sure if you've read any of the Charles Paris by Simon Brett, but it's an English series featuring a mostly-out-of-work actor who mostly stumbles into mysteries and solves them. Almost all of them are theatrical in nature, but they're very charming, not at all graphic, witty, and great entertainment.
If you've never tried 'em, I'd go for it.
Hi Kim!
Have you heard of the #1 ladies detective agency? It's a series...I haven't gotten around to reading any yet, but I hear they are pretty good.
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