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

Book is damaged

Starts out fine, then freezes my iPod. Too bad -- it sounds like a good book.

Excellent Plot With Many Surprises

If you enjoy "golden age" style mysteries, this will be right up your alley. The story has twists and turns. I was completely surprised by the solution. I read many of the Peter Diamond novels when they were first published in the 1990's and enjoyed all of them.

I noticed than some reviewers mentioned problems playing this audio book. I listened to them on a four year old Kindle and experienced no difficulties.

This book is damaged

Audible says it's fine, but it isn't. Downloaded multiple times in different formats. Very frustrating, e.g., " ... just when she Chapter 2 ...

A must listen or read mystery fans

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes, so many characters and a super suprise ending. Peter Lovesey keeps you on edge because you never know which way the plot will turn.

What does Simon Prebble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Prebble does an excellent job of bringing Peter Diamond to life. Now when I read Peter Diamond mysteries I hear his voice.

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

my basic reaction to the end was OMG!!! I didn't see that coming.

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.

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 😉

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)

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

Mediocre story

It was an OK story if you have a lot of house work and want a simple story to follow along.

Can’t get enough of this series…

I love the inner politics of the police department, particularly with the British sensibilities and wit. Lovesey creates in depth characters that makes every chapter a joy to behold. Every novel in this series stands well enough on its own. You certainly don’t have to read them in order. Simon Prebble’s narration is excellent.