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Title details for Against the Grain by Peter Lovesey - Available

Against the Grain

#22 in series

by Peter Lovesey
James Langton
Audiobook
74 of 75 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
74 of 75 copies available
Detective Peter Diamond, chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is taking a short holiday in the country. His former colleague Julie Hargreaves has invited Diamond and his partner, Paloma, to visit the idyllic village of Baskerville (no relation to the Sherlock Holmes story, so he's told). It turns out Julie's invitation was not without ulterior motives. The woman who owns the village's largest dairy farm has been convicted of manslaughter following a terrible accident in her grain silo. Julie's ex-investigator instinct tells her there has been a miscarriage of justice and a murderer is on the loose—but Julie's been keeping secrets of her own, and can't take her inquiry any further.
Diamond takes the bait; the case is a fascinating one, and he's quite enjoying his incognito information-gathering, getting to know the villagers as they prepare for their annual Harvest Festival. The deeper into the cow dung Diamond mucks, the more convinced he becomes there was foul play. But maintaining his innocent tourist façade becomes harder as he closes in on his suspects. To protect his alias, he might have to learn how to operate a tractor or drive a herd of wayward cows. He might even be forced to attend a hoedown—not that he'd dance, not even to catch a killer. Or would he? The curmudgeonly detective has plenty to learn about himself as he tries on some new hats: undercover private investigator; village detective; country gentleman.
Over 30 years and 21 other novels, Peter Lovesey has bewitched his enormous fandom with the wry, stubborn, and fiendishly clever Peter Diamond. Now he brings his Anthony, Macavity, and CWA Dagger–winning series to a close with this delightful and bittersweet final installment.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Peter Diamond Mystery

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 3, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9798892744102
      • File size: 281707 KB
      • Duration: 09:46:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 2, 2024
      Lovesey (Showstopper) concludes his long-running series featuring Bath detective Peter Diamond with a bang, delivering an ingenious fair-play whodunit set in the small English village of Baskerville as the annual harvest festival approaches. While Diamond contemplates retirement, his former colleague, Julie Hargreaves, summons him to Baskerville to investigate a potential miscarriage of justice. Claudia Priest, heir to a local dairy farm, threw a party in which her male guests were tasked with finding a hidden garter. Claudia’s ex-boyfriend, art dealer Roger Miller, tracked the item down inside a grain silo, but when he reached for it, the surface of the grain collapsed, and he was sucked under and suffocated. Though Claudia insisted the garter was placed there by somebody else, she was convicted of manslaughter—but Julie’s instincts tell her the killer is still at large. Intrigued, Diamond begins interviewing Julie and Claudia’s neighbors, leading him to try out a variety of identities before tracking the culprit to the annual festival. Lovesey derives genuine emotion from Diamond’s potential retirement, and his golden age–style plotting is as tight as ever. This sends the series out on a high note. Agent: Jane Gelfman, Gelfman Schneider Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      From the heart-stopping prologue to the well-drawn characters and mind-boggling plot twists, James Langton's performance is spot-on. In the 22nd Peter Diamond novel, Diamond and his partner, Paloma, spend a reluctant week in the Somerset countryside with Diamond's former deputy, Julie, who is now blind from macular degeneration. Langton deftly reveals Julie's ulterior motives. She's concerned about a neighbor who may have been railroaded into prison for a murder she didn't commit. Julie wants Diamond to investigate. Langton emphasizes Diamond's dislike for country living as he confronts cantankerous cows and reeking cowpats, drives a tractor, and inhabits several of his favorite detectives' personas, Columbo and Poirot. Langton ratchets up the tension, and listeners will be as surprised as Diamond when the true killer is unmasked. First-rate listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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