Peter Lovesey, author of the Victorian Sergeant Cribb series and the Peter Diamond series, has died aged 88 following a cancer diagnosis, publisher Sphere has announced.
In a writing career spanning 60 years, Lovesey published 43 novels including the standalone CWA Gold Dagger-winning The False Inspector Dew, which was selected as one of CWA’s Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time as well as the Times’ Top 100 Crime Novels of the 20th Century.
Others included eight Victorian crime novels featuring Sergeant Cribb, which were developed for television; and 22 novels in his flagship Peter Diamond procedural series, starting with his Anthony Award–winning novel The Last Detective and concluding with his final novel, Against the Grain, published in 2024, which he wrote after his diagnosis. He was also a prolific short-story writer and published seven collections during his lifetime.
Lovesey was the recipient of numerous awards, including the CWA Silver Dagger, multiple Macavity and Antony awards, the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He was one of a select number of writers to have been awarded both the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Special Edgar and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement; the shortlist of other double honorees includes Sue Grafton, John le Carré, Walter Mosley and Sara Paretsky.
Lovesey passed away peacefully at his home in Shrewsbury, England on 10th April 2025. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Jaqueline, and their two children, Kathy and Phil.
Cath Burke, deputy managing director of Little, Brown Book Group, said, “Peter was a brilliant writer, a legend in crime writing, and a deeply lovely man whom we will miss very much. We are so proud to have been Peter’s publisher and to know that his phenomenal body of work will continue to find readers throughout the world.”
His literary agent, Vanessa Holt, who has worked with him since the early days of his career, said: “He was loyal to his friends and business friends, appreciative of all efforts made for him and meticulous in his writing and business affairs.”
