An old book, but a new discovery. Excellent pace, exciting story. A real joy to read, couldn't put it down.
Lovesey's writing is simple, grammatically correct, and uses a good number of different and useful words. His storytelling is very clear and straightforward. For these two reasons -- use of familiar but good words in correct sentence structure, along with clear and descriptive storytelling -- the book is a great, great read.
For me, personally, the Detective Diamond series is a good successor to Andrea Cammelleri's series.