Diamond Solitaire

Simon Prebble has all the voices in this amusing English mystery about very large ex-Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond. Diamond is trying to establish the identity of an autistic Japanese girl abandoned in Harrod's department store. His efforts attract the attention of Japan's top sumo wrestler, whose girth makes Diamond look underfed. What chance can Mafia thugs have against these two? You'll find out. Just as you'll find out how beautifully Prebble can voice a large, international group of characters. He creates an ensemble cast all on his own and directs them with perfect pacing. This is a very entertaining 10 hours of listening. R.E.K. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

October 4, 1993
Lovesey brings back Peter Diamond, the likable, pudgy London copper introduced in 1991's sparkling and precisely plotted The Last Detective . Stripped of his rank, Diamond is working as a Harrods' rent-a-cop--until a young Japanese girl is found hiding in the store during his watch and he receives another pink slip. With time free, he investigates the identity of the youngster, now named Naomi, who remains silent and unclaimed. When she is abducted, Diamond traces her to New York and Japan where a Sumo wrestler agrees to bankroll the ex-copper's highly unofficial investigation. Lovesey's grip on the plot never loosens as Diamond, with gentle humor, bluffs his way past authorities by feigning a clout he no longer possesses. At the beginning of the book, a drug company is rocked by both the death of its president and an explosion at an Italian chemical plant. The ensuing corporate power struggle suggests to ever-observant organized crime factions that a buck might be made, and a murder is arranged. How this fits into the moving tale of the mute girl who draws diamonds on paper to symbolize her new friend is clarified only near the conclusion. It's a powerful moment in a book that, without gimmickry or cross-genre splicing, delivers superb, unashamedly traditional crime writing. Lovesey's mysteries have won awards in England and France; he has previously been nominated for an Edgar, as he could be again for this fine tale. Author tour.