Bloodhounds (Peter Diamond Series #4)

by Peter Lovesey

Overview

“Peter Lovesey tosses off a real brain-banger in Bloodhounds, the fourth book in a challenging series . . . I am mad for these pyrotechnic teasers, and this one had my head spinning.”—The New York Times Book Review

A rare stamp and a corpse are discovered in Bath within hours of each other. As he investigates, Inspector Peter Diamond discovers that both the person who found the stamp and the victim belong to the Bloodhounds, an elite group of mystery lovers, who now urge Diamond to bring the murderer to justice. But there’s a hitch: the body lies inside a padlocked houseboat and the only key is in the pocket of a man with an airtight alibi.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781569477953
Publisher:	Soho Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/01/2004
Series:	Peter Diamond Series , #4
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Peter Lovesey is the author of more than thirty highly praised mystery novels. He 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. He lives in West Sussex, England.

Editorial Reviews

A real brain-banger....This pyrotechnic teaser had my head spinning. -- New York Times Book Review

Marilyn Stasio

[A] fast-moving, full-bodied, engrossing tale...Diamond is a great invention.

Mystery News

The fourth of Lovesey's contemporary Peter Diamond procedurals (The Summons, 1995, etc.)—a series that has added substantially to his collection of awards—is cast in the form of a homage to mystery fans. In bustling Bath, a small band of eccentrics gather in a church crypt to argue the virtues of the various genres of crime fiction. As Golden Age devotees face off with noir adherents, local Detective Superintendent Diamond and his colleagues begin receiving rhymed notes threatening theft. And, indeed, a priceless stamp is taken from the Postal Museum; just as the mystery aficionados are considering varying their program to discuss the case, the stamp appears in one of the participants John Dickson Carr paperback! Sooner than you can say "locked room," the body of another participant is found in a locked—um—boat. The formal interviews of the Bath police impinge piquantly on the private gossip and even more private weaknesses—adultery, drunkenness, poor taste—of this group of colorfully drawn obsessives. Lovesey, always something of a Golden Age writer out of his time, provides some ingenious variations on the old "locked room" mystery formula while gleefully lecturing the reader on genre lore.

Still, the author violates the prewar code among mystery writers that protected the reader, handling some of his more sympathetic characters with absent-minded brutality. Adequate Lovesey, then, but hardly destined to be a favorite.

Kirkus Reviews

Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement Recipient
Mystery Writers of America 2018 Grandmaster

Praise for Bloodhounds

Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger Winner
Mystery Readers International Macavity Award Winner
Deadly Pleasures Barry Award Winner

“Peter Lovesey tosses off a real brain-banger in Bloodhounds, the fourth book in a challenging series . . . I am mad for these pyrotechnic teasers, and this one had my head spinning.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“No one has done this kind of thing better since Dorothy L Sayers. A must for crime buffs, especially if they like John Dickson Carr.”
—Mail on Sunday
 
“A perfect blend of psychology and technique.”
—Boston Review 

“Lovesey gives us his laconic Bath policeman Peter Diamond in full dazzle . . . With this especially effective conclusion, Lovesey demonstrates that his embrace of crime fiction reaches from John Dickson Carr to Andrew Vachss as he skillfully pays homage to the old style whodunit in this thoroughly modern mystery.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Lovesey, always something of a Golden Age writer out of his time, provides some ingenious variations on the old ‘locked room’ mystery formula, while gleefully lecturing the reader on genre lore.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Peter Diamond series

“Peter Diamond is impatient, belligerent, cunning, insightful, foul, laugh-out-loud funny . . . A superb series.”
—Louise Penny
 
“I’m jealous of everyone discovering Lovesey and Diamond for the first time—you have a wonderful backlist to catch up on. Me, all I can do is wait for the next book.”
—Sara Paretsky
 
“What'll it be today? A knotty puzzle mystery? A fast-paced police procedural? Something more high-toned, with a bit of wit? With the British author Peter Lovesey, there's no need to make those agonizing decisions, because his books have it all.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Mr. Lovesey's narrative is swift, but he takes time out for local color and abundant humor, the latter springing from the book's quirky characters . . . Lovesey is a wizard at mixing character-driven comedy with realistic-to-grim suspense. And in a writing career spanning four decades, he has created a stylish and varied body of work.”
—The Wall Street Journal
 
“Next to Jane Austen, Peter Lovesey is the writer the tourist board of Bath, England, extols most proudly . . . The enduring draw of the Peter Diamond books derives both from the beguiling Bath cityscape and the brusque character of Diamond himself.”
—NPR

From the Publisher