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review 2019-08-15 20:01
“Killing With Confetti – Peter Diamond #18” by Peter Lovesey
Killing with Confetti - Peter Lovesey
 
 
 

Filled with surprising plot twists, illuminated with tense, well-written scenes between interesting but easy-to-relate-to people and set against a Bath I know well, "Killing With Confetti" was excellent entertainment.

 
 

I only discovered Peter Lovesey's series about Bath-based police detective Peter Diamond last year. For once, I didn't go back to the beginning but dived it at book seventeen in the series, "Beau Death" because I couldn't resist the premise of a long-dead body, dressed as Beau Nash, being found as a building is demolished.

 
 
 

I had such a good time with that, that I bought book eighteen, "Killing With Confetti", as soon as it came out.

 
 

It was also an entertaining read, although quite different from the previous book. It opens with a set of scenes about a prison riot and a related abduction. Peter Diamond was nowhere to be seen, but I didn't miss him because I rapidly became absorbed in what was happening in the prison. The scenes were tense, laced with a little humour and kept me turning the pages by going places I didn't expect.

 
 

When we do get to Peter Diamond there is no obvious link to the start of the book. Peter has been dragooned by the Deputy Chief Constable to provide personal protection to the father of the woman the DCC's son is getting married to, a local and much-feared crime boss who has just been released from prison.

 
 

In the story that follows, we get an close-up look at how posh weddings in Bath are staged (Ceremony at the Abbey and reception at private suite in the Roman Baths), follow an assassin planning and executing a hit, meet a truly scary hard man and watch Peter Diamond deal effortlessly with politicking senior officers but struggle when faced with tiny-but-wild bridesmaids and their not-so-tiny-but-really-wanting-to-be-wild mothers.

 
 

I enjoyed the mix of tension and humour in the storytelling. It kept things human without taking away a sense of threat. The details of Bath were spot on. I now know exactly how to plan to execute someone at a wedding in the Abbey and get away with it. I doubt that's knowledge I'll use but it was amusing to see such dramatic events worked out in my town.

 
 

The ending tugged hard on my suspension of disbelief but never actually snapped it. I'll be back for more Peter Diamond next year. I may even drop back in time and read some of the earlier books.

 
 

Peter Wickham does an excellent job as the narrator. You can hear a sample of his work by clicking on the SoundCloud link below.

 

https://soundcloud.com/hachetteaudiouk/killing-with-confetti-by-peter-lovesey-read-by-peter-wickham-audiobook-extract

 
 
 

 

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review 2019-07-07 15:19
Fascinating Look at Real Life Detective Entwined Within Fictional Book
FALSE INSPECTOR DEW - Peter Lovesey

So this book was really good. What I liked best though was that I started to put it together that the Inspector Dew was actually very famous and started reading up on him last night. And then I read up on Dr. Crippen and then I found out that Netflix's series "Murder Maps" did an actual episode on this guy and I just continued to fall down a rabbit hole.

 

"The False Inspector Dew" follows two people who will do anything to be together. The first character is Alma Webster who has fallen madly in love with her dentist, Walter Baranov. Walter is married to a an actress, Lydia, who doesn't really care about him. When Lydia decides to leave England in order to become an American film star with Walter also having to give up his dentist practice to follow her, Walter and Alma make moves to eliminate Lydia. With Lydia setting sail on the Mauretania, Walter books passage under a false name (Inspector Dew) in order for him and Alma to get rid of Lydia. Things get tricky though when a woman's body is found in the water and Inspector Dew (Walter) is called on to help figure out who the murderer is. 

 

First off, I disliked Walter and Alma. I was actively rooting against them. Of course I ended up laughing though because for all of their machinations, things keep getting worse for the pair. And I have to say that Lovesey did a good job with the secondary characters since they feel like they came out of a Christie novel at times. 

 

I did enjoy the writing and it resembled Agatha Christie a bit, though I have to say that Christie is more able to get me into people's heads. For some reason I felt slightly apart from Walter and Alma throughout the book. This is the main reason why I gave this book four stars. 

 

The setting of this book is 1920s Europe. We have a lot going on during this time period and we hear about real life things like Dr. Crippen, Charlie Chaplin, the sinking of the Lusitania. This was a nice murder mystery on a boat and definitely reads like a golden age mystery. 


I thought the ending was quite clever and thought that Lovesey did a great job with this. For those who knows what happens with the real Dr. Crippen and Inspector Dew, you can guess at what eventually happens to all parties. 

 

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text 2019-07-07 01:04
Reading progress update: I've read 59 out of 256 pages.
FALSE INSPECTOR DEW - Peter Lovesey

Enjoying the spy aspect aspect of the book. A little bit lost here and there but still a good flow to the book. Liked the historical references that includes Charlie Chaplin and the Lufthansa.

 

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text 2019-07-03 16:45
Fourth of July Rolls-Booklikesopoly for Obsidian Blue
FALSE INSPECTOR DEW - Peter Lovesey
Good Enough to Eat - Stacey Ballis
The Nantucket Inn - Pamela M. Kelley

Today is my regular roll day which means I get that roll and the three rolls that Moonlight is doling out for the Fourth of July.

 

7/3/19, Roll 19:

 

Landed on: 

 

 

Going to use my robot card to just ignore that one and roll again.

 

 

7/3/19 Roll 20 (4th of July Roll #1):

 

 

Landed on: 29. Scottie dog: Post a list or poll of 4 books, and ask your fellow players/followers to "fetch" you a book.

 

Separate post for this one coming up soon!

 

I get an extra roll because of the doubles. 

 

 

Landed on: 35. We took the Ferry to France, crossing the English Channel.

Read a book set in Europe, or that was written by an author who was born in a Europe, or that involves travel by boat or that has a picture of a ship on the cover.

 

 

Woot! I got books from Tigus and also books from when I visited Moonlight last year :-) I am going to read "The False Inspector Dew." My book has a ship and gun on the cover. 

 

7/3/19 Roll 20 (4th of July Roll #2):

 

 


Passed Go so need to add $5.00 to the bank. 


Landed on: 7. Most places have a lot of different opportunities for summer fun!

Read a book that has a house on the cover, or that is related to something unique about your community (for example, if your community has a strawberry festival, read a book with strawberries on the cover).

 

 

Hmm around this area (Northern VA) there are always wine and food festivals. So going to go for something related to that book wise. Picked "Good Enough to Eat" since it deals with a chef and food and the book has recipes in it as well. 

 

7/3/19 Roll 20 (4th of July Roll #3):

 

 

Landed on: 11. There are gorgeous beaches all over the world. My personal favorite beach is in Pacific City, Oregon. Read a book set in a coastal/beach region that you love, or would love to visit, or a book that has a beach or ocean on the cover.

 

Selected "The Nantucket Inn" since it takes place on a coastal/beach/region I want to go to visit someday. There is also a little sliver of ocean and you can see the beach on the cover too. 

  

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review 2018-11-13 10:24
"Beau Death" by Peter Lovesey
Beau Death - Peter Lovesey

I bought this book because it's set in Bath in the UK, a city I've just returned to after sixteen years away, which may explain why I've missed the previous sixteen books in this series featuring the career of Police Detective Peter Diamond dealing with crime in Bath.

 

I dived in to the latest book, without starting at the beginning of the series, because the idea of a skeleton, dressed in what appears to be the style of clothing worn by Beau Nash, being discovered in an attic of a condemned building in Twerton during its demolition was just so Bath I couldn't miss it.

 

The plot of Beau Death is a pergola supporting an artful display of Bath past and present. Diamond does investigate two deaths in this book and finds the guilty parties through a mix of detailed police work and imaginative insight but these activities seem secondary to exploring Bath, its neighbourhoods, its history, its remarkably diverse and often eccentric citizens and of course, the phenomenon that was Beau Nash.

 

The book is peppered with humour. One incident that made me laugh was a pet shop owner is giving the police the code to a smart lock. She tells them her mnemonic is "Hampsters".  They look blank. She explains that hampsters are cannibals. They still look blank. Then she tells them the code (read it aloud and you'll get the cannibal thing); 181182

 

I've been living in Bath since 1985 so I remember the Bath that the young police officers in this book think of as olden days. I recognised all the places and I remember how they used to be as well as how they are now. For example, for years Beau Nash's house contained a restaurant called Popjoy's (the name of Nash's mistress), It's been called something else for years now but it's still Popjoy's to old folks like Peter Diamond and me.

 

There's a lot of close observation of how class and wealth (not always the same thing) work in this town and a firm understanding of how policing here has changed (there is no real Police Station in this town of nearly 90,000 people any more - the old station now belongs to the University and the Police commute from halfway to Bristol when they're needed.

 

This is a pleasant, easy, entertaining read that works well as an audiobook. If you want to take a slightly unorthodox virtual tour of Bath, I recommend letting Peter Diamond be your guide.

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