Upon A Dark Night

A young woman is found unconscious and injured in a hospital parking lot, an apparent amnesia victim with no identity and no one looking for her. Detective Peter Diamond of the Bath homicide squad has more pressing cases: a woman has fallen to her death from a local landmark, and an elderly farmer has apparently shot himself. Lovesey builds the suspense by keeping Diamond resistant to the amnesiac's case until the threads connecting all three become impossible to ignore. The puzzle construction is particularly elegant, with the amnesia as both a plot device and a genuine human situation.

Michael Healy voices the Peter Diamond series with the gruff, slightly reluctant authority the character demands. His Diamond is a detective who solves cases by elimination and stubbornness as much as insight, and Healy captures the character's specific mix of impatience and persistence. At just over twelve hours, this fifth Diamond entry is a well-plotted Bath mystery that rewards careful attention to its parallel investigations.