Peter Diamond is an old-school detective who is suspicious of technology and apparently making deductions from clues. He seems to think that the only way of solving a case is to interrogate people.

The dead body of a woman is found floating in a lake and Peter Diamond is called on to investigate. Sections of the story are retold from the POV of two of the suspects in the middle - I felt that made it a bit repetitive.

I'm not too sure I liked the ending... since it doesn't really explain what facts led Diamond to arrive at that conclusion, though it does make sense... but overall it was ok. ( )

narrative style reminded me of Wilkie Collin's moonstone. Seeing incidents several times from different points of view. I didn't feel the author provided distinctive voices for the different narrators, which lessened the effectiveness. I also didn't particularly like the detective until towards the end. Will probably give others a try , though, overall a satisfactory read ( )

Troubling narrative. We're meant to believe, because we're told outright, that Diamond is the last of an old breed who use their intelligence, hard work, and superior deductive reasoning instead of those lazy newfangled computers. And then we hear immediately of the only other relevant case in his history, wherein he helped convict the wrong man, an obvious fall guy. He's accused of helping to send an innocent black man to prison, and it's shrugged off as 'of course not.' Now, some of this resolves, it's not the main story, and there are some enjoyable bits, but this underlying sense of believing the 'good cop' regardless of how he treats people and what he does wrong, just really festers. ( )

Very Interesting plot with Jane Austens' letters nice connections ( )

Update: 10/9/2021
Today I saw a giveaway for this book and it reminded me how much I was not pleased with its resolution.

Note: I received a paperback copy of this book at ALA Midwinter 2020. ( )