The Tooth Tattoo

Starred review from February 18, 2013
In the prologue, set in 2005, to Lovesey’s excellent 13th Peter Diamond whodunit (after 2012’s Cop to Corpse), a young Asian woman who appears to be a music student stops violist Mel Farran in the street after a concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Her autograph request proves to be only a diversion for an accomplice to steal Farran’s viola. Seven years later, an acclaimed string quartet, whose previous violist disappeared in Budapest in 2008, recruits Farran. Meanwhile, Bath CID’s Diamond, who’s having some trouble with his significant other, looks into the suspicious death of a woman found in a canal. The only clue to her identity is the tattoo of a musical note on one of her teeth. Lovesey neatly weaves Farran’s experiences with his eccentric new colleagues with Diamond’s investigation. A particularly crafty resolution of the enigmatic mystery shows that this long-running series still has plenty of life. Agent: Jane Gelfman, Gelfman Schneider.