Diamond Dust (Peter Diamond #7)
Combative and curmudgeonly, Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond has  never been a favorite with his fellow cops. However, this head of the Bath,  England, murder squad could always count on the loyalty and affection of his  wife, Stephanie. Until now. Her broad-daylight shooting inDiamond Dust,  the seventh of Peter Lovesey's scrupulously polished Diamond mysteries, has the  stout detective sidelined in favor of other investigators less prone to turn the  case into a personal vendetta, yet still determined to find a motive for his  spouse's slaying. "Throughout their marriage," Diamond muses, "Steph... had  never directly benefited from the one skill he had: sleuthing. She was entitled  to it now. He would find her killer, and to hell with the problems it  raised."So, even as Diamond becomes the prime suspect in this tragedy (the murder weapon  was an old revolver he'd secreted in his attic), he pursues more probable  perpetrators--including a local gangster clan and Stephanie's ex-husband, a  ne'er-do-well chef who might also be connected with an elaborate jewel-theft  scheme and the recent disappearance of another cop's wife. Lovesey created two  historical series before tackling the Diamond books, and his experience shows  here as he carefully weaves together profuse plot threads, while simultaneously  (and convincingly) forcing his protagonist's evolution through misfortune. That  he succeeds in making the testy-before-his-time Peter Diamond an endearing  figure is, alone, credit to Lovesey's authorial aptitude.Diamond Dustfans should hunt up previous installments of this witty series, especiallyBloodhoundsandThe Vault.--J. Kingston  Pierce--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.