Cop to Corpse

An Inspector Peter Diamond Investigation, Book 12

By: Peter Lovesey

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

In the small hours of a Sunday morning in the city of Bath, a policeman on beat duty is shot dead by an unseen gunman - the third killing of an officer in Somerset in a matter of weeks. The emergency services are summoned. Ambitious to arrest the Somerset Sniper, the duty inspector, Ken Lockton, seals the crime scene, which is confined by the river on one side and a massive retaining wall on the other. He discovers the murder weapon in a garden - and is himself attacked and left for dead.

Enter Peter Diamond, Bath's burly CID chief. Middle-aged and not built for action, he pits himself and his team against the killer in a hunt that will test his physical powers to the limit....

©2012 Peter Lovesey. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGO

Top of the Procedural genre

This is the third Peter Diamond book I’ve heard and they all seem to be the purest of police procedural dramas, written by an expert and well rendered in a sophisticated drone. Can’t figure how they hold my interest so well as they include hours of fairly mundane detail and lack the ambush thrills compared to other police dramas.
I read reviews to decide whether to start a book. The 12 reviews extant when I found this were so astute that I figured the book was good and was not misled. I’m going to hold on to this principle for future determinations.
My only complaint is about the woodsy scenes. I don’t think authors go in the woods much or have used night vision with IR technology. Sounds carry very well and mammals show up very well at night in the goggles . It really isn’t possible to sneak around the way they describe. (Try walking quietly over twigs and leaves, see for yourself.). It’s a minor complaint but it’s also an annoyingly ubiquitous finding in modern literature.

Another good one

I like the character of Peter Diamond and love the stories. The narrator is really good. All of the series is well written and interesting.

good solid 4 star read

This is the fourth or fifth in the series that I've read, and quite enjoy the series and the narrator. I want to suggest that if you like this series you would also like Peter Grainger's "D C Smith" and "Kings Lake" series, and also Charles Todd's Inspector Rutledge series, especially the later ones with Simon Prebble narrating.

So much copaganda

Engaging story but the level of copaganda is cringe-worthy. The thin blue line, police code of silence stuff are presented as cute and innocuous. Oh, also the line about "the KGB used to hand out kalashnikovs to foment terrorism"?? It would be a lot more historically accurate to say US-UK et al gave out free weapons to death squads and Muslim fanatics. Anyways why feel the need to insert cold war propaganda into a completely unrelated story? So much cringe.
Another annoying thing: Why did the narrator decide to read Ingeborg with an accent? She is English. Her last name is Smith. Even without the ridiculous accent, she is a sufficiently unrelatable character.

Gritty, with a grip

The inspector diamond series sneaked up on me, making it impossible to leave any volume unread.
Main character is so real, so believable, I feel like he’s a regular guy doing extraordinary things at work, just like the rest of us blokes.
I’m Binge listening to the entire series, buying the editions not included in my membership. I
You’re right, I need to get a life of my own and leave Diamond to his.
But that’s just not going to happen…I Blame the author’s writing skill and the exceptional performance of the voice actor.
Can’t. Stop.

Keeps you guessing.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this to people who like stories about police trying to solve a crime. Has the right amount of action for males, and enough story for those who believe a book should have a plot.

What about Simon Prebble’s performance did you like?

I really enjoy Simon Prebble's performance of this book. In fact, I often look up the books of which he is the narrator, just to listen to his performance.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Neither laugh nor cry, but I enjoyed it.

Lovsey at his best

Great characters, devious humor and ingenious plot twists. The narrator was superb as Peter Diamond.

a really good story as usual

Lots of twists and turns in this particular novel that hold your imagination and the author takes many parallel tracks as usual coming together at the end. the performance is difficult as usual because of all the Many characters in the different tracks.... Having said that it's well worth a listen

Great book

I totally enjoyed this book - loved the characters and the story is so well developed. Not a lot of hype - believable. I kept guessing and was amazed at how everything fit together. Great narration by Prebble as well!

Good ending!

Didn't understand chapters 14, 15 and 23. Seemed like a different story. Otherwise, I liked the book very much.