The summons

Lovesey does it again with another clever story featuring large, lovable copper Peter Diamond, who has been unemployed for two years as the result of a scathing verbal outburst aimed at his superiors in the Bath CID. Reduced to working in a supermarket, he yearns wistfully for life on the beat. Nonetheless, he's surprised when the Bath CID calls him out of "retirement" to help with a sensitive and difficult case. A murderer named Mountjoy, whom Diamond sent up four years earlier, has escaped from prison and taken the daughter of Bath CID's assistant chief constable as his hostage. Diamond demands--and gets--an office, swank hotel accommodations, and the help of a smart, attractive young policewoman to help track Mountjoy and get the hostage released safely. Intrepid, eccentric, prickly, and unorthodox, Diamond triumphs brilliantly and impresses the cops enough to win his old job back. Lovesey provides a riveting and ingenious plot, clever characterizations, and splendid humor, plus--best of all--the unparalleled Peter Diamond. Rates a definite thumbs-up! --Emily Melton

A resourceful convict's escape from a prison dubbed ``the British Alcatraz'' launches Peter Diamond's third case (after Diamond Solitaire). Once out of Albany Prison, John Mountjoy kidnaps the Assistant Chief Constable's daughter in order to force the Bath police to reopen his case. His demand: that the detective who put him away for murder now find the real killer. What he doesn't know is that Diamond‘fat, bald and brilliant‘has resigned from the force in a huff and lives in London, where his odd jobs include ``collecting supermarket trolleys from a car park.'' But his old bosses need him desperately and, to his own astonishment, he begins to be pursuaded that he had indeed goofed the first time. But a race is on between Diamond (with one helper, Detective Inspector Julie Hargreaves) and a team of trigger-happy cops who are itching to run Mountjoy down. The chase leads to a ``crusty'' (hippy) encampment, a horse funeral, a battered husband, ``buskers'' (street entertainers) and a siege of a huge old empty luxury hotel. Except for one irritating device used to delay the denouement, the action proceeds logically, with solid plot construction, savvy dialogue and great good humor. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

John Mountjoy has done plenty of vile things to women, but he's always insisted that killing sexy journalist Britt Strand wasn't one of them. Now that he's broken out of Albany Prison and taken Assistant Chief Constable Tott's daughter hostage, the coppers will ruddy well have to listen to him. Mountjoy demands that the ACC bring in Peter Diamond as his negotiator, not knowing that Diamond quit the force shortly after wrapping up Mountjoy's case two years ago. From the moment that Diamondwho finds himself more sympathetic to desperate Mountjoy than to his smug, rule-bound former colleaguestakes over, it's obvious that veteran Lovesey has something special in mind: alternating a present-day tale of mounting suspense (the police keep flushing Mountjoy and Samantha Tott out of one bolt-hole after another as Diamond struggles to keep good and bad guys from killing each other) with a methodical after-the-fact whodunit (Diamond and his handpicked Watson, Julie Hargreaves, work like beavers on deadline to reopen Britt Strand's murder). A splendid idea worked out with surpassing ingenuity. Full marks to Diamond (Diamond Solitaire, 1993, etc.) and his inventive creator.