Beau Death cover art

Beau Death

Detective Peter Diamond Book 17

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Beau Death

By: Peter Lovesey
Narrated by: Peter Wickham
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About this listen

A wrecking ball crashes through the roof of a terraced cottage in Bath and exposes a skeleton in 18th-century clothes. Can these possibly be the remains of Beau Nash, the so-called King of Bath, whose body is said to have ended up in a pauper's grave?

Peter Diamond, the city's most experienced detective, is ordered to investigate, but grappling with historical events causes ructions in his team until everyone is diverted by a modern killing during a fireworks display on the Royal Crescent lawn. But Beau Nash refuses to be ignored - and when astonishing new facts emerge about the case, Bath's history is rewritten, and mysteries ancient and modern are fused in a devastating climax.

©2017 Peter Lovesey (P)2017 Little Brown Book Group Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Royalty Crime

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Another excellent story, which mingles historical facts with a great storyline. I love all the characters and have got to know them so well. I often think that Bath is such a smallish area that perhaps characters from previous novels (for instance Bloodhounds) would turn up in newer novels. Halfway through this book I was recommending it to several of my friends.

Beau Death

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I’ve read all the books in the Peter Diamond series and, while this isn’t a real standout, its a decent read in spite of some flaws.

There are two mysteries to be solved in this book. First is to identify the old corpse found in the attic of a building being demolished. That mystery takes up about half the book, while the other half is the whodunnit plot.

I was irritated a few times with the identification plot. Diamond’s team of detectives behave badly to each other, with John Leeman being so rude to his colleagues that I’d have removed him from the team. There was never anything that advanced the plot or the characters’ development in this squabbling. It just felt like annoying padding. Unfortunately, Lovesey has never done much to develop Diamond’s team as characters. I’m willing to live with that for the sake of a good police procedural, but if he is going to have action with the secondary characters, please don’t have it be pointless conflict among them.

The other irritation about the identification plot was how slow the detectives were on some key clues, in particular on how some evidence could be used to date the time of the murder. Yes, they got around to figuring that out, but one in particular of these things was something that anybody who has so much as watched the occasional TV crime drama would know instantly.

Once you get to the whodunnit plot, the book is much more enjoyable. The clues are dropped judiciously and the stories the investigation reveals are interesting. The descriptions of Diamond’s involvement in the Beau Nash Society as part of the investigation are particularly vivid and lively.

All in all, a decent police procedural once you get to the whodunnit. If you decide to read it, I can’t recommend the audiobook. The male reader uses a screechy falsetto for nearly all the female voices.

2nd half better; female voices screechy

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Another fast paced and enjoyable Peter Diamond mystery. Full of interesting details on eighteenth century dress and the usual crime, ably solved by the clever detection of Peter Diamond, along with his usual cohorts. This seems to be the last book of the series and I am very sad indeed to sayj goodbye as I have so enjoyed these books from the first to last

Another good Diamond listen

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Great book, I’ve been reading and listening to some kindle unlimited novels, and I don’t suppose this would ever appear there. You can really feel the difference between some of the novels. However they all have their place in my library!!
Plotting and storyline both great - picked up some info on Beau Nash (who I managed to conflate with Beau Brummell- my error) and the City of Bath. All in all a great, great read. Looking forward already to the next one !!

A real storyteller

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I love Peter Lovesey’s writing. I will,admit to enjoying Michael Tudor Barnes narration , and was ,a little disconcerted with Peter Wickham’s reading at the start because it was so different. As the story progressed and I got used to the different voice, I really enjoyed the narration, with the exception of Peter Wickham’s attempt at female voices. Great story, and knowing Bath quite well made it more enjoyable.

Excellent and unusual

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The narrator’s attempts at doing women’s voices are really awful, cringing. Good story though, well written

Awful voicing

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a very enjoyable book. A book full of good humour and heart. Great story ,well told .Will look out for next book.

Very entertaining

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I’ve read all of the Diamond books. They started brilliant. Such a shame they just ended as a totally unbelievable love story. Started as crime books ended as romance. Shame

Shame after a great start

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thin story awfully voiced , dead bodies in period costume , could be the Gothic noir but it's just drivel.

balderdash in Bath . time I want back please! thin

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Would you try another book written by Peter Lovesey or narrated by Peter Wickham?

Read a lot in this series and this is by far the poorest

What was most disappointing about Peter Lovesey’s story?

Coincidences were unbelievable.

Was Beau Death worth the listening time?

No couldn't wait to finish it. running out of ideas an obviously a vehicle for telling us all about Beau Gest

totally formulaic!

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