Of all the weird characters Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond has met in Bath, this one is the most extreme: a twenty-first-century private eye called Johnny Getz, whose office is over Shear Amazing, a hairdressing salon. Johnny has been hired by Ruby Hubbard, whose father, an antiques shop owner, has gone missing, and Johnny insists on involving ‘Pete’ in his investigation.
When Diamond, Johnny and Ruby enter the shop, they find a body and a murder investigation is launched. Diamond is forced to house his team in the dilapidated Corn Market building across the street. His problems grow when his boss appoints Lady Bede, from the Police Ethics Committee, as an observer. Worse still, Johnny conducts his own inquiry by latching onto Ruby’s stylish friend, a journalist called Olympia.
Shootings from a drive-by gunman at key players create mayhem and the pressure is really on. Can the team stop more killings in this normally peaceful city? What happened to Ruby’s father? And will Johnny crack the case before Diamond does?
When Diamond, Johnny and Ruby enter the shop, they find a body and a murder investigation is launched. Diamond is forced to house his team in the dilapidated Corn Market building across the street. His problems grow when his boss appoints Lady Bede, from the Police Ethics Committee, as an observer. Worse still, Johnny conducts his own inquiry by latching onto Ruby’s stylish friend, a journalist called Olympia.
Shootings from a drive-by gunman at key players create mayhem and the pressure is really on. Can the team stop more killings in this normally peaceful city? What happened to Ruby’s father? And will Johnny crack the case before Diamond does?
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Reviews
Peter Lovesey scores with a rattling good tale.
Glory be! British crime novelist Lovesey is back, bringing along his beloved series hero, the grumpy, darkly funny, and - beneath it all - strictly business Peter Diamond, Detective Inspector with the Bath constabulary. It's all here: mystery, sparky writing, and a cast of characters who come alive on the page, moving through a tricky plot that we know is playing us for suckers
Peter Lovesey writes feel-good crime yet he never lets the comedy vitiate the mystery
It's one thing to be prolific. To be prolific and innovative is quite another. Yet Peter Lovesey, more than fifty years after he burst on to the crime writing scene, continues to try out new ideas - [a] good-
natured jeu d'esprit.
As with all the Diamond books, the characterisation is superb. . . The plot is fascinating, with several subtle red herrings that keep the reader guessing until the end
The action builds to a Poirot-like solution.
Diamond and the Eye is an almost non-stop giggle as well as a classic police detection episode . . It's the perfect prescription for those who've been taking their lives (or their crime fiction reading) too seriously . . . Through the non-stop campy humor runs a solid and clever little mystery with some great red herrings and a fine twist before solution.
Longtime PI buffs will take a shine to the dodgy Getz's wannabe ambitions, and procedural buffs should enjoy how Diamond and company work the case. It's the mutual aggravation society of the two mismatched sleuths, however, that really has me itching for a rematch.
