The Last Detective cover art

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  
This is a great book. I’ve never heard of this writer but I like him. In the beginning I didn’t like the detective but as the book progressed I warmed to him. A good story too.

Marvellous fun

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I bought this book because I really enjoyed Peter Lovesey's Sergeant Cribb series. But this will probably be my only venture into the world of the Last Detective. What a charmless old sod he is.

Boring, with no likeable characters.

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