Stagestruck

By: Peter Lovesey

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Pop diva Clarion Calhoun has packed the house with a celebrity appearance in Bath's Theatre Royal production of I Am a Camera. But within moments of her much-anticipated onstage appearance, she's pulled out of character as she screams and claws at her face. When tainted stage makeup is found to have caused the disfiguring burn, fingers point to her makeup artist. Detective Peter Diamond investigates when the makeup artist is found dead, pushed from a catwalk far above the stage. As Diamond digs deeper, he uncovers rivalries among the cast and crew and is forced to confront his own mysterious and deep-seated phobia to find the killer.

©2011 Peter Lovesey (P)2011 AudioGO

just barely 4 stars

This is a very good series, with an excellent narrator, but there have been better books in the series.

This is where Simon Prebble shines

I absolutely hate Simon Prebble’s narrations of Lindsey Davis’ Falco books but here, his narration skills are spot on! It was a real pleasure to listen to this book. The Story is OK and I enjoyed the local color. Unusually for me, I had figured out some of the plot twists and who the murderer must be relatively early on. This made the latter part of the book a bit tedious but that won’t stop me listening to more from this series

Simon Prebble is excellent as usual, but the book is not so hot

I love Peter Lovesey books – I love the entire Peter diamond series – but this book was a dud for me.

Without giving away any spoilers, the reveal of why Diamond was so traumatized by the stage just made me laugh !

And the murderer seemed highly unlikely.

But, despite all that, it was still enjoyable until the last couple of chapters.

The narrator did a fantastic job, except I didn’t like that he gave Ingeborg a Scandinavian accent when it is clear in the books that she’s English (but just had eccentric parents who liked that name)

Love Peter Diamond mysteries

This was a winner and Simon Prebble as narrator can’t be beat! I had a feeling who the murderer was about half way through but none the less the story was great!

Love / Disgust relationship

I am thoroughly enjoying this story series. I'm listening to the audiobook.

Even though I am now familiar with the formula - the stories always offer twists, interweaving plots and consistently foils my guess re: "whodunit" ( currently averaging less than 1%).

I am not easily thrown off and it is the metric I use to rate mysteries and thrillers.

The story beginnings are so disjointed that my eyebrows are bunched until that aha! moment when I start to see the light in the middle of the tunnel.

If I could I would give three (3) more stars to the story rating, it would be rated eight (8) stars. All of the interesting out-of-box ways the author lays out the plot, introduces characters, and sets the environment are refreshing EVEN knowing the outcome at the end (trying not to spoil the suspense).

I agree with one reviewer re: the variability of some books. Not every book is as engaging; some are categorically better than others.

So far THIS book - Stagestruck - is one of my favorites; my guess re: whodunit was sooo wrong that I was caught off guard, stopped what I was doing, and even could not close my mouth :0 for a few moments.

A word re: Peter Diamond
I think his name is awesome. I really like what he does for a living. And I really despise him as a human being. This makes me enjoy the stories more. :-)

There are some books and movies where I am praying the main character dies/is killed off a few minutes after the author has built a basic picture of the protagonist's thought processes, reactive behavior, and quality of the interaction with others within their inner circle.

Peter Diamond is an absolute jerk and someone I could NEVER work for no matter how much I'm paid. Nope!

I have NO idea how he is able to ensnare and keep a brilliant team of constables under his supervision - with the exception of the one that got away (one of the happiest moments).

I have no idea how he is able to project that he's a decent human being enough that he is able to have romantic encounters.

And it is beyond my understanding why the author has not killed him already. 🫤

This is one of my favorite British cop series. It is engaging, entertaining, and suspenseful. And I'm looking forward to attending Mr. Diamonds funeral :-)

Read/listen for yourself. I'm pretty sure you'll feel the same 😉

Murder in the Theatre

An accidental or intentional disfigurement of the leading lady on the opening night sets in motion a series of murders. So many suspects, and, the murderer is someone not on anyone's radar. Diamond discovers the truth at the very last moment. This is a great mystery with interesting characters and a look into theatre life.

Nail Biting Ending!!

This story was slow in starting and the “supernatural/superstitious” angle nearly stopped me from listening any further but it moved on from there. I has absolutely no clue what was happening right up to the end but did figure out who the killer was before the reveal. Another great who done with heart pounding drama at the end. And.. once again... can’t say enough about Simon Prebble!

starts off slow but picks up..

I liked the story after I got started...the ending was worth it....the narration is superb

Aha!

I thought so... I had a feeling who the dastardly bloke was. and my hunch was right!! still a fun ride.

Eh

Mediocre effort and much too long. It is hard to sustain interest in uninteresting characters.