Showstopper

Peter Diamond's boss is making noises about his retirement, which throws him into an uncharacteristic panic. When a missing persons case presents itself, he's ready to seize on it to show he's still a sharp investigator. As usually happens, the plot thickens as the team learns another member of the same television production crew also vanished a few years earlier. Are they related? And could they have anything to do with the death of an elderly and popular cast member, who surprised a burglar at her home and was shocked into a fatal heart attack. returnreturnDiamond digs in, and suspicions grow, especially when the leather belt a vagrant picked up at the airfield where the missing man was last seen turns out to be stained with blood. Could the vagrant, a strangely erudite and assertive man, be the killer? Or could it be down to rivalries among the fractious company, many of them well-equipped to lie with conviction? returnreturnI didn't find this as strong as other entries in this long-running and usually top-notch series. Diamond, in particular, seemed far too quick to spin up elaborate theories as soon as he fastened on a suspect, which seemed unrealistic for a seasoned detective, even if he was rattled at the thought of retirement. The television setting was, as usual, richly drawn, and some of the red herrings were nicely diversionary, but the passages devoted to hashing out the possibilities and, too often, seeming convinced of a perpetrator on slim evidence slowed the pace down. Maybe when Diamond returns, he'll be back on his game and less distracted by shiny objects and fear of retirement.