In Peter Lovesey's 22nd and final Peter Diamond mystery, Against the Grain, the curmudgeonly detective investigates a closed case in a bucolic English farming village. Diamond and his partner, Paloma, visit Julie, his former deputy, in Baskerville. She's retired--a status Diamond resists--but her police instincts are alert: Julie quietly disagrees with her neighbors that the owner of the town's largest farm is guilty of manslaughter. She suspects a killer's at large, and Diamond is keen to prove her right.
The hardworking villagers have little sympathy for Claudia Priest. Her father was a beloved landowner and generous employer, but Claudia left Baskerville as a teen, returned years later after her father's apparent suicide, and hosted her city friends at rowdy parties. When a partygoer's corpse was discovered in a grain silo--he'd been suffocated by the unstable wheat--villagers blamed Claudia's irresponsible behavior.
Posing as a curious tourist, Diamond embraces rural life and befriends the colorful locals in his quest for clues. Will he be coaxed to dance at the Harvest Festival? Will his fine Italian suit survive an emergency stint in the calving shed? And when a body is discovered beneath the farmhouse's ornate stairs, what does it reveal, and will Diamond survive to solve the mystery? The gentlemanly detective lends a cozy feel to the whodunit as he fraternizes with Baskerville citizens. A murderer is afoot, but readers will be amused by the folksy scenes and the delightful camaraderie between Diamond and the savvy Julie and Paloma. As their country vacation ends, Paloma's hint at Diamond's retirement plans inspires hope for more from one of the mystery genre's favorite sleuths. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.