The Last Detective cover art

The Last Detective

Detective Peter Diamond Book 1

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The Last Detective

By: Peter Lovesey
Narrated by: Michael Tudor Barnes
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About this listen

A woman's naked body is found floating in the weeds of a lake near Bath by an elderly woman walking her Siamese cats. No one comes forward to identify her, and no murder weapon is found, but sleuthing is Superintendent Peter Diamond's speciality. A genuine gumshoe practising door stopping and deduction: he is the last detective.

Struggling with office politics and a bizarre cast of suspects, Diamond strikes out on his own, even when Forensics think they have the culprit. Eventually, despite disastrous personal consequences, and amongst Bath's rambling buildings and formidable history, the last detective exposes the uncomfortable truth....

©1991 Peter Lovesey (P)2015 Hachette Audio UK Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Detective

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Critic reviews

"A brilliant performance." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"A terrific job." ( The Times)
"Mr Lovesey maintains a wonderful tone throughout.... A comedy of bad manners, full of oddball characters and wacky events develops into a perfectly realised murder mystery whose skilful misdirection never oversteps the bounds of fair play." ( The Wall St Journal)
"A bravura performance from a veteran showman: slyly paced, marbled with surprise and, in the end, strangely affecting." ( New York Times Book Review)
All stars
Most relevant  
Intriguing storyline, competent narration. Some of the outcomes could be predicted before reaching that point in the plot, but overall an enjoyable listen.

A good yarn with twists and turns in the plot

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Read good things about the book so maybe it’s ‘just me’ .
Found it very blokey, drawn out , and boring .
Don’t like Diamond , he comes across as a stubborn , bully type .
Don’t think I’ll try another in the series .

Tedious

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it said the review was optional.So I am opting not to write a review,except I loved it

I loved it

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It is such a shame as the narrators voice and characterisations were great but the wet mouth noises and smacking of lips spoilt this. It is a testament to the story that I listened to the ending......cannot listen to any more.

Great story spoilt by awful mouth noises

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Good writing, intens storyline and magnificent narration.
In short, noting to dislike and a great listen.

The combination of writer and narrator just works.

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I found that although Michael Tudor Barnes is a good narrator he managed to make the detective sound like Frost, which is no bad thing I suppose, but he sounded far to old. I am not ageist but it didn't really suit the part.
My next issue was that I was enjoying the story up to the part, and I don't want to spoil anything, so I will be vague... It was just coming together nicely when Peter Lovesay must have thought.... right I was only contracted to write this many pages so lets wrap it up quickly, plus I can't think of a way to point the finger at the perpetrator so...um...umm...
The ending was... for me.... completely ridiculous. I guessed "who done it" but it was so quickly wrapped up and so unrealistically came the confession I just felt rather cheated... and felt had this been on stage or television it would have been completely ridiculed.
Come on Peter Lovesay we deserve better than that think out a way of drawing everything together realistically...

really??

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An excellent detective story and narration. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. I will listen to more of this authors work.

A superb detective novel

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Audible says at the end that it hopes we enjoyed this programme, it’s absolutely brilliant

Absolutely brilliant

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Beautifully plotted and another brilliant performance from Lovesey as he debuted his at that time new detective character Peter Diamond. Everything about this book works and it is up there with his finest work: for example: Waxwork, and The Real Inspector Dew. As ever the plotting is labyrinthine and superb and there are unexpected twists and turns in the plot until its completion. The dialogue pitch perfect and the courtroom scenes in particular are a virtuoso performance. Lovesey's novels offer so much more than enjoyable crime fiction. He is clearly interested in using the genre to analyse complex, contemporary themes, in addition to, providing the reader with wise insights about the vicissitudes of the contemporary human condition. He is a literary master, and I hope one day he will get the recognition he deserves as a true literary artist who chooses to write in a popular genre for a mass audience. Like all of his readers I am already looking forward to his latest book due in 2024 which will no doubt prove to be yet another 'showstopper'! Michael Turdor Barnes does a great job with the audio book, although I thought Diamond was supposed to be a South Londoner and the accent employed by this highly accomplished actor is different to that? This novel is a must for Lovesey fans. Highly recommended.

Fiendishly clever as always from Peter Lovesey.

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This does much to enhance Bath as a special place. The story is about crimes committed for love but Diamond with his doggedness gets to the bottom of the tangled tale in the end, but not without much agro from his superiors.

The story is a little slow to start. The backstory is sketched in so that in the end the reader understands the motives and actions of the protagonists leading to the sorry, unfortunate conclusion of the story outside the West front of the Abbey.

As the narrator is Michael Tudor-Barnes the telling of the tale cannot be faulted.

Bath Time

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