Down Among the Dead Men by Peter Lovesey, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond is not at all thrilled when his superior Assistant Chief Constable Georgina Dallymore orders him to accompany her to do an internal investigation of a police officer in the Criminal Investigation Division in Sussex, in Down Among the Dead Men, the fifteenth mystery in this series by Peter Lovesey.

For starters, he's not all that fond of Dallymore and he certainly doesn't like investigating fellow officers, especially when said officer is Henrietta Mallin, a woman he's worked with before and one whom he admires and respects. Mallin has been suspended from her duties because three years ago she failed to follow up on DNA evidence that could link her niece to a seven-year-old murder. Why, now, has this become so important? The original crime involved a young man, Danny Stapleton, who had stolen a BMW, being picked up by the police, and the police opening the trunk, finding a body of a dead man. Danny finally admitted to stealing the car, but swore he knew nothing about the body in the trunk. He was, however, accused and convicted of being an accessory after the fact of the murder of a gardener in Sussex. Danny has now been in jail for seven years for a crime he did not commit. Now, Mallin's niece has been reported as missing. In the police investigation they find people up and down the coast who are disappearing and no one knows what has happened to them. Their names are in the missing persons files. Some have been missing for a few years and have become cold cases. Although they are seemingly not-related this information just didn't sit well with Diamond. Now, an art teacher at a posh girl's school, had left the school a few months ago and has since disappeared. A young pupil, an art student at the school, told her parents a few nights ago that she was going to visit a friend. She, too, has disappeared. Besides their original task of acquiring information of betrayal and trust among the police officers, Diamond and Dallymore uncover evidence of murders and drugs. Their assignment takes on a new meaning. It's going to take a bit of doing to put all the pieces of this puzzle together.

Down Among the Dead Men is another terrific book in this series. The characters are well drawn, and the relationship between Diamond and his boss Dallymore is a treat. Where Diamond is clever and perceptive, Dallymore is often dense and obtuse. The story is a complex one, well-structured, paced and delivered. Sometimes a series this long tends to get repetitive or stale, but that is most certainly not the case with this one. Highly recommended.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Down Among the Dead Men.

Acknowledgment: Soho Press provided an ARC of Down Among the Dead Men for this review.

The Stone Wife
Soho Crime (Hardcover), September 2014
ISBN-13: 9781616953935; ISBN-10: 1616953934

Another One Goes Tonight
Soho Crime (Hardcover), July 2016
ISBN-13: 9781616957582; ISBN-10: 1616957581

Down Among the Dead Men

A Peter Diamond Mystery by Peter Lovesey