Stagestruck

Starred review from April 18, 2011
At the start of Lovesey's superb 11th mystery featuring Det. Supt. Peter Diamond (after 2009's Skeleton Hill), pop singerâturnedâactress Clarion Calhoun collapses on stage at Bath's Theatre Royal, the victim of some chemical preparation that disfigures her face. After Calhoun refuses to be interviewed by the police, Diamond's CID boss, Asst. Chief Constable Georgina Dallymore, brings him into the case because Dallymore fears that the tragedy could imperil the Royal's future. Suspicion quickly falls on the dresser who applied Calhoun's makeup before the show, though the motive for the crime remains obscure. The appearance of a dead butterfly leads the company to fear that a death will follow. After the clever reveal of the main criminal, many readers will go back to the beginning to see how artfully a major clue was planted. Once again, Lovesey proves he has few peers as a crafter of contemporary fair-play whodunits.

April 15, 2011

Backstage hugger-mugger at Bath's Theatre Royal.

The curtain has barely gone up when the pop star hoping to resurrect her glory days by switching from singing to drama begins to scream and tear at her face. Clarion Calhoun is rushed to hospital, her understudy goes on and the production is put in serious jeopardy. Disfigured from the caustic drain cleaner someone added to her face powder, Clarion decides to sue the theatre, a catastrophe only slightly diminished when Denise, who applied Clarion's makeup, commits suicide in remorse. Battling a lifelong fear of theatres, Detective Peter Diamond (Skeleton Hill, 2009, etc.) steps in to sort out matters. His task is complicated by the actors' ability to act innocent; the theatre management's romantic proclivities and financial woes; the appearance of the grey lady (the resident theatre ghost); and the dreaded sighting of two dead tortoiseshell butterflies, which according to theatre lore presage tragedy. Furthermore, Diamond is saddled with Sergeant Dawkins, a vulgarly dressed, loudmouthed pendant who keeps volunteering for more work. Clarion, for unspecified reasons, drops her lawsuit, but on an unannounced visit to a performance is suffocated anyway with a plastic bag. Determined to get to the bottom of the bathos at Bath and pinpoint the origin of his theatre terror, Diamond slogs on, finally standing center stage to confront at least one of his nemeses.

Far from Lovesey at his best, without the wit, trickery and demonic plotting that has earned him silver, gold and diamond daggers from the British Crime Writers' Association.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011

Maybe there's a good reason for Peter Diamond's (Skeleton Hill) theater phobia.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
In the eleventh Inspector Peter Diamond mystery, the backstage world of the Theatre Royal in Bath (an actual theater) comes to vivid life, along with backstage practices, theatrical lore, and a stunning mystery. A pop diva taking a turn as Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera makes a spectacular entrance and even more spectacular exit when she screams and topples to the ground. Doctors discover that the stage makeup applied just before the stars entrance contains a compound that has burned and disfigured the stars face. The makeup-artist-as-assailant seems to be a no-brainer, until said artist is found jackknifed on some supports hanging over the catwalk. In top-notch, Simon Brett manner (see the Charles Paris series), Lovesey serves up theatrical superstitions, rituals, and die-hard rivalries as Diamond overcomes his own phobia about being backstage in a theater to find the killer. Vivid and fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)