Lovesey's detective Peter Diamond quickly suspects that a series of seemingly natural deaths are really due to a serial killer of some type. He knows he's up against a criminal with great cunning and stealth. Because Diamond is only working on a hunch or intuition, he and his two subordinates have to keep their detecting under the radar, and can only sometimes call on the resources of the official police. As a result, he has to be particularly clever: and he is!
Food plays its usual role in the book, as Peter Diamond, an overweight and late-middle-aged man eats what he shouldn't, such as hamburgers, unappealing sandwiches, hearty special breakfasts, and large muffins. A doctor who has given him some important evidence calls him back into her office at one point:
"His hopes soared. He’d always envied the TV detective who got as far as the door on the point of leaving an interview and then thought of one more thing that brought the breakthrough revelation. In this case it wasn’t the detective who had thought of one more thing.
Dr. Mukherjee said, 'Have you had a blood-pressure check lately?'
"'Why?'
"'I don’t wish to be personal but your skin colour isn’t too healthy and you’re carrying rather more weight than you should.'
"He thought of his chips and beer lunch. 'You’re perfectly right, doctor. I’ve been told before. Not enough rabbit food.'" (pp. 153-154).The most ingenious use of food in this novel, however, is impossible for me to tell you without destroying your enjoyment of the clever and suspenseful disclosures of the final pages. So I'll leave it at this: it's the opposite of a cozy mystery where food has all the warm fuzzy feelings of home and security. You don't have to read the first 15 books to enjoy Another One..., and I recommend that you do so!
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