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The Last Detective
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April Group Read 2013 - The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey
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Susie
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rated it 5 stars
Apr 01, 2013 09:29AM
I started reading Last Detective this weekend. I'm about 1/2 way through. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I love the tie in to Jane Austen and Bath.
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I was asked to give some thoughts on Peter Lovesey so here goes.
If you look at his site, you’ll see that one of his biggest fans is Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski series. In fact, she says at the end of the piece that she’s jealous of people discovering Peter Lovesey for the first time since there are a lot of books to catch up on. All she can do is wait for the next book.
Peter Lovesey is also a fan of someone of the pulp era that I enjoy reading as well - John Dickinson Carr. Carr is one of the masters of writing the locked room mysteries. I get the feeling that Lovesey tries to do the same thing in all his novels.
If you look at his awards, you would see that Peter Lovesey has won a lot of awards for his novels and short stories including the Last Detective, which won an Anthony award.
I discovered Peter Lovesey when I read The Summons about a year ago. I enjoyed his sense of humor and the characters that were memorable from the book. After I finished, I wanted to go back and read the series from the beginning and reread The Summons again.
In reading the first five chapters of The Last Detective, I see that once again the writing is great. He’ll describe someone’s voice as having a childishly indrawn cry or her gratingly genteel accent. The sense of humor is there in the second chapter when a minor character, Miss Trenchard-Smith, reports seeing a body in a river to a local policeman. When she arrives at the scene with the policeman, she points out clues to her possible murder, sounding like Miss Marple from an Agatha Christie novel.
I glanced at the Goodreads reviews and most of them seemed good - 3-4 stars. I cannot see the actual reviews anymore when I click on the review. Hope that’s fixed one day.
It seems to me that Peter Lovesey doesn’t have the following that an Ian Rankin or Peter Robinson have so I hope that everyone will enjoy this book and will want to read the others in the series. From what I heard, the books just get better each time.
If you look at his site, you’ll see that one of his biggest fans is Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski series. In fact, she says at the end of the piece that she’s jealous of people discovering Peter Lovesey for the first time since there are a lot of books to catch up on. All she can do is wait for the next book.
Peter Lovesey is also a fan of someone of the pulp era that I enjoy reading as well - John Dickinson Carr. Carr is one of the masters of writing the locked room mysteries. I get the feeling that Lovesey tries to do the same thing in all his novels.
If you look at his awards, you would see that Peter Lovesey has won a lot of awards for his novels and short stories including the Last Detective, which won an Anthony award.
I discovered Peter Lovesey when I read The Summons about a year ago. I enjoyed his sense of humor and the characters that were memorable from the book. After I finished, I wanted to go back and read the series from the beginning and reread The Summons again.
In reading the first five chapters of The Last Detective, I see that once again the writing is great. He’ll describe someone’s voice as having a childishly indrawn cry or her gratingly genteel accent. The sense of humor is there in the second chapter when a minor character, Miss Trenchard-Smith, reports seeing a body in a river to a local policeman. When she arrives at the scene with the policeman, she points out clues to her possible murder, sounding like Miss Marple from an Agatha Christie novel.
I glanced at the Goodreads reviews and most of them seemed good - 3-4 stars. I cannot see the actual reviews anymore when I click on the review. Hope that’s fixed one day.
It seems to me that Peter Lovesey doesn’t have the following that an Ian Rankin or Peter Robinson have so I hope that everyone will enjoy this book and will want to read the others in the series. From what I heard, the books just get better each time.
I will definitely try this one.
I have just finished The Last Detective and I really enjoyed Lovesey's style. Not another word util more have finished. I hope you all enjoy the book as well.
Have started it. Greatly enjoying. More later.
Kathy wrote: "I have just finished The Last Detective and I really enjoyed Lovesey's style. Not another word util more have finished. I hope you all enjoy the book as well."Me too Kathy. I really enjoyed it as well. I look forward to a lively discussion about this book!
I'm glad everyone is enjoying the book so far. I should be done soon.
I admit to having bogged down. For some reason, it just isn't pulling my attention away from the other books I'm reading. I bring it up on my Kindle, look at it, and decide to switch to something else.I'm in the middle of the lengthy interrogation of the husband. Not a whole lot happening in this section, and isn't making me pant to read further.
With no discussion of it here yet, that also doesn't make it as compelling to finish it as other books that are being more actively discussed on GR. Maybe if a good discussion gets underway it will draw more people to finish the book?
I finished the book and I really enjoyed it. I'll have my review up tomorrow.
I also agree with Everyman on a discussion. So here goes. I liked the way Lovesey switched the points of view with Jackman and Didrikson. Did anyone else like that?
Like Ronhummer, I enjoyed hearing the story from different points of view. Lovesey's writing is smooth and flowing. The writing doesnt jar the reader. I found each person believable,and the mystery challenging to figure out. I have gone on to read more Peter Diamond mysteries. I really like how he refers to the different cases in other books. I have become hooked on these books.
I really enjoyed The Summons. I will be reading more of Lovesey's books as well.
Kathy wrote: "Like Ronhummer, I enjoyed hearing the story from different points of view. Lovesey's writing is smooth and flowing. The writing doesnt jar the reader. I found each person believable,and the myster..."
I meant to say that I'm glad you enjoyed the book.
I meant to say that I'm glad you enjoyed the book.
It's interesting to check out other reviews now that I finished this book. On Amazon for example, some people thought that the courtroom scene wasn't necessary. I thought it added suspense to the story. Seemed believable to me as well although some did not agree. Any thoughts on this?
