Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




Peter Lovesey (page 2)


Cover art for THE CIRCLE
FICTION
Released: June 1, 2005

"Lovesey, who can out–Christie Dame Agatha when he sets his mind to it, offers a smorgasbord of red herrings, a nifty plot twist, charming bits of doggerel and delicious digs at writers of the unpublishable."
An old-fashioned whodunit with the style and deviousness you'd expect from a master storyteller. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE HOUSE SITTER
FICTION
Released: June 1, 2003

"Brusque Diamond and plainspoken Mallin make an engaging team, and few, if any, can top Lovesey in not only creating believable red herrings and plot twists but whetting an appetite for rereading the English classics from Austen to Coleridge."
The master of the cozy cerebral mystery pairs the Bath Murder Squad's cantankerous Peter Diamond (Diamond Dust, 2002, etc.) with cigar-smoking Henrietta "Hen" Mallin, Senior Investigating Officer at Bognor Regis, and sets them loose to find the audacious murderer of crime profiler Emma Tysoe, who was strangled on a Sussex beach alongside other bathers who noticed nothing amiss. Read full book review >
Cover art for IN SUSPENSE
FICTION
Released: Dec. 1, 2001

"Any psychiatrist who calls his dinner companion "little lady" ought to be defrocked, but Lovesey does offer a perceptive analysis of TV types, university infighting, and sublimations that barely mask psychosis."
First published in Great Britain a dozen years ago, this minor work by Diamond Dagger winner Lovesey is set, atypically for him, in New York City, where doctoral candidate Sarah Jordan's preeminence in spider research is being challenged by Don Rigden, a new graduate student at Henry Hudson University. Read full book review >
Cover art for DIAMOND DUST
FICTION
Released: June 1, 2001

"Fully dimensional characters, juicy plotting, and more twists than the Hampton Court maze."
About to be shunted off to Bristol and replaced as the head of Bath's Murder Squad on the eve of his 50th birthday, irascible Peter Diamond is gleeful at the reprieve a body found in Royal Victoria Park buys him—until he gets a good look and realizes it's his own wife Stephanie with two bullet holes in her head. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE REAPER
FICTION
Released: April 1, 2001

"Gleefully demonic, offsetting church homilies with garden poisons, piety with avarice, and a proper tea with a libido-unleashing tumbler of Scotch."
Lovesey, a recipient of the British Crime Writers' Lifetime Achievement award, proves his mettle here with a deliciously wicked village mystery centering on Otis Joy, the rector of St. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE SECRET OF SPANDAU
FICTION
Released: Feb. 1, 2001

"A bit too much Goodbody derring-do, however, but Lovesey adds nice classic-puzzle elements."
Lovesey, honored this year with the British Crime Writers Association's Diamond Dagger award for lifetime excellence, sets three reporters loose to discover why Hitler confidante Rudolf Hess, the Nazi who secretly reoutfitted a Messerschmitt and flew it from Germany to Scotland to establish peace negotiations during WW11, was the sole occupant of Spandau prison never to be released. Read full book review >