The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey and Creation in Death by Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb

The Last Detective is the first of a series featuring English detective Peter Diamond, and I'm looking forward to the next. I've been in need of a new mystery series since gulping Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs stories (there may be more to come in that series, but she's not writing 'em fast enough.) I'd give author Peter Lovesey a "B" for this tale of a barely couth detective who would rather put his faith in his substantial gut than in new technologies. It's a satisfying tale, it just doesn't have that touch of originality that would deserve an "A." But the writing is distinguished by a bit of humor -- when Diamond goes on TV to ask the public's help in identifying the lady they found floating in the lake, lots of people call to say it's Candice Somebody-or-Other -- a character from a long-running soap opera. The police sneer at the folks who can't distinguish media from reality. It turns out the stiff is the actress. And she had an unusual marriage with an English professor, and a little boy whose father is a chess champ gets involved and...well, I'll let you find out for yourself, if you're so inclined.

With regards to the Nora Roberts book, I have one thing to say: DON'T. BOTHER. IT. STINKS. Sadly, I picked it up when I had run out of reading before a plane flight. Really I should have pitched it in the trash and been bored on the flight. It features scenes of torture that were probably meant to appeal to the "Silence of the Lambs" crowd but which are just prurient violence. You can do better.