The novel is a gem. Like most gems, the novel isn't free from inclusions or blemishes. The novel illustrates the colorful blue sapphire trading life in Bangkok, Thailand surface-diffused and confused-with black humor and radioactive dialogues, along with a group of blemished gem dealers, lust-driven wives, gangsters and gospel gemologists. All are heavily included.

Gemmological Instruments deals with the developments in diamond grading equipment and gem testing instruments since the publication of the first edition in 1978. These developments include improvements in the versatility and styling of existing instruments such as the reflectivity meter, the composite spectroscope, and the refractometer. It also addresses the criticisms in the first edition and provides a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of different gem testing equipment. This book is organized into 16 chapters that describe groundbreaking instruments like the thermal conductivity diamond testers and home-constructed items that while innovative have not yet been commercialized. There are also chapters dealing with microphotography and identification of synthetics and stimulants. This book also provides a listing of gemstone constants and characteristic inclusions in natural and synthetic gemstones. This book will be of interest to people interested in equipment for gem testing and diamond grading.

Gemstones is the first attempt in English to bring together the geological, mineralogical and gemmological developments that have taken place during the last thirty years. Though there have been many gemstone books published in that time, most have been concerned, understandably and rightly, with the science of gem testing and have covered that area very well. Details of the geological occurrence of many of the classic gemstones, and of nearly all those which have only recently been discovered, have been less adequately dealt with. Coverage has been restricted to a number of papers in a wide variety of geological and mineralogical journals. Gemstones hopes to get the balance right. In the preparation of the book all the journals and monographs in the field have been consulted so that the book should stand for some years as the authority to which gemmologists and others turn in the first instance. Ease of reference and depth of coverage make Gemstones both a reference book and a bench book. Acknow ledgements I am grateful to Brian Jackson of the Department of Geology, Royal Museums of Scotland who read the manuscript and painstakingly indicated places where amendment or alteration was needed. I am also grateful to the publishers of the books on which the line illustrations are based. The colour plates present in the book derive from a number of sources, which I would like to acknowledge as follows. Plates 1, 4-15 and 17 Crown copyright reserved.

When Rick Stokes, a friend of ex-Navy JAG Steve Stilwell, is arrested in Vietnam for selling heroin, Steve travels to Saigon to clear his name. He and his assistant Casey soon find their lives in danger.