Scan barcode
bethnellvaccaro's review
4.0
I have finally caught up in the Peter Diamond series. Now I will have wait for the next one.
nini_f's review
4.0
After enjoying spate of cozy mysteries I decided to return to my first love of crime fiction a good old police procedural. I thoroughly enjoyed this book its main plot is a very current theme however whilst issues are addressed it never once seems to be preaching ideas. The mystery was top knotch with a suitably surprising twist ending and as always the character of Diamond helps to inject a bit of humor into proceedings.
nonna7's review
4.0
Harry, a local bobby, is walking his beat like he normally does. Suddenly he's shot apparently by a sniper who has already taken out two other police officers. DI Peter Diamond's team is a part of the investigation which he is working with Serial Crimes head, Jack Gull. The problem is, of course, that Diamond sees things differently. When he sees things so differently that he suspects that Harry, may have been "bent" as the Brits say, he becomes very unpopular with his team. However, that doesn't stop him from putting a plan in place.
Diamond is never the most popular guy on the force by any means, and he really stretches his popularity with this one. In the usual Lovesey style, nothing it is ever as it seems, and there is a series of turns and twists that lead to an interesting end. The great thing about Lovesey is that he doesn't write "down" to the reader. One review was grateful for Lovesey's assumption that he is writing for an intelligent audience. This is not a book full of sexual inuendo and car chases although Diamond does nearly get run down by a motorcycle.
Lovesey's "Diamond" novels take place in the city of Bath in England, a place beloved by tourists but, like most cities, with an underbelly of crime. I came into the Diamond series late. This is only the third book I've read in the series. However, as always I found it riveting, intelligently written and full of surprises.
Diamond is never the most popular guy on the force by any means, and he really stretches his popularity with this one. In the usual Lovesey style, nothing it is ever as it seems, and there is a series of turns and twists that lead to an interesting end. The great thing about Lovesey is that he doesn't write "down" to the reader. One review was grateful for Lovesey's assumption that he is writing for an intelligent audience. This is not a book full of sexual inuendo and car chases although Diamond does nearly get run down by a motorcycle.
Lovesey's "Diamond" novels take place in the city of Bath in England, a place beloved by tourists but, like most cities, with an underbelly of crime. I came into the Diamond series late. This is only the third book I've read in the series. However, as always I found it riveting, intelligently written and full of surprises.
marystevens's review
4.0
DCI Peter Diamond on the case of a serial killer who is picking off bobbies on the beat. Three in three nearby towns in the space of three months. Very good police procedural. Turf battles and red herrings.
flogigyahoo's review
3.0
I love Peter Lovesey's Peter Diamond series. I don't know what happened in this one, but he portrays Peter Diamond, who is supposed to be a really smart detective as a stupid buffoon, who goes running after his suspects without backup and who seems bent on making silly blunders. Is Peter Diamond getting too old? From this book, I think so. Not one of the good ones in this series.
samhouston's review
5.0
Because Cop to Corpse is my first exposure to Peter Lovesey’s Peter Diamond series, I am certainly no expert on the character or its development over the course of the series’s eleven previous books. But if the other eleven are as entertaining as this one, this detective series should be investigated by all police procedural fans looking for a new detective to follow. Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond is far closer to the end of his career than to the beginning, and it shows in his attitude and how he approaches an investigation. Readers will enjoy watching him play the game his way.
PC Harry Trasker is the third policeman in the Bath area, Diamond’s home turf, to be shot dead by a sniper in just a few weeks. As were the two previous victims, Trasker was killed instantly by a clean shot to the head, indicating that the shooter is a well trained, skillful marksman. More disturbing, perhaps, is the shooter’s uncanny ability to commit the murders without ever being seen or leaving behind a trace of evidence the police can use to track him. This, however, begins to change with the murder of Harry Trasker.
This time someone calls police immediately following the shooting and they arrive on the scene within minutes, something the killer never expected to happen. When the young policeman in charge at the scene of the crime decides that capturing the killer on his own before backup arrives would be a great career move, things get interesting. That is when Peter Diamond arrives – only to learn that the investigation has already been claimed by a rather pompous rival of his from a neighboring jurisdiction, Chief Superintendent Gull.
Gull, though, will prove to be the least of Diamond’s problems because, after Diamond becomes convinced that the shooter might be a fellow cop, he will face a rebellion within the ranks that forces him to investigate that theory on his own. Despite being left on crutches after a near fatal encounter with a darkly helmeted motorcycle rider, Diamond follows the leads wherever they take him. Along the way, he suffers the abuse of grieving police widows, a loss of respect from his own investigating team, and the indignity of reporting to the fool officially in charge of the Somerset Sniper investigation.
Cop to Corpse shows that Peter Lovesey is a crime writer still very much at the top of his game despite having been awarded 2000’s Cartier Diamond Dagger for “lifetime achievement in crime writing.”
PC Harry Trasker is the third policeman in the Bath area, Diamond’s home turf, to be shot dead by a sniper in just a few weeks. As were the two previous victims, Trasker was killed instantly by a clean shot to the head, indicating that the shooter is a well trained, skillful marksman. More disturbing, perhaps, is the shooter’s uncanny ability to commit the murders without ever being seen or leaving behind a trace of evidence the police can use to track him. This, however, begins to change with the murder of Harry Trasker.
This time someone calls police immediately following the shooting and they arrive on the scene within minutes, something the killer never expected to happen. When the young policeman in charge at the scene of the crime decides that capturing the killer on his own before backup arrives would be a great career move, things get interesting. That is when Peter Diamond arrives – only to learn that the investigation has already been claimed by a rather pompous rival of his from a neighboring jurisdiction, Chief Superintendent Gull.
Gull, though, will prove to be the least of Diamond’s problems because, after Diamond becomes convinced that the shooter might be a fellow cop, he will face a rebellion within the ranks that forces him to investigate that theory on his own. Despite being left on crutches after a near fatal encounter with a darkly helmeted motorcycle rider, Diamond follows the leads wherever they take him. Along the way, he suffers the abuse of grieving police widows, a loss of respect from his own investigating team, and the indignity of reporting to the fool officially in charge of the Somerset Sniper investigation.
Cop to Corpse shows that Peter Lovesey is a crime writer still very much at the top of his game despite having been awarded 2000’s Cartier Diamond Dagger for “lifetime achievement in crime writing.”
More...