DEADLY DIAMOND by D. J. Martin The Special Investigator team of Matt Diamond and Natasha Cutter had returned to their new office in Beverly Hills, California, and were going over a large list of potential clients when one caught their eye. They had received a call from Ms. Gloria Goldstein regarding the murder of her parents and the theft of a large twenty-carat light pink diamond from their jewelry store. The police had been of little help, and she was most anxious for them to investigate the tragedy. Although events began in Beverly Hills, the location quickly changed to Johannesburg, South Africa, which meant that the globe-traveling team would again return to the country where they had worked in their previous case. The hunt for the thieves and murderers had to begin at the original source, the antiques studio of Martin Clause in Johannesburg. He was the first to purchase what he named the Empress Diamond for $500,000, then sold it to the Goldsteins for a solid $1,000,000 a few days later. The Empress, from Tanzania, was the largest light pink diamond ever found. The Empress Diamond would be worth millions more if it could reach the United States. The Goldsteins provided the way to get the precious stone to the American market. Three former American Special Forces veterans also entered into pursuit of the Empress, as well as a sinister figure with the code name The Red Fox, who would pay any price to obtain the Empress for billionaire Sir Fredrick Marsh. Marsh wanted to give it to his wife as a birthday gift. It was up to Matt Diamond and Natasha Cutter to follow the trail of the Deadly Diamond, a trail that would result in more deaths and a stone that many believed was cursed. Intrigue and suspense – who has the Empress now? – make this an exciting read, and the ending will surprise the reader with its strange twist of fate.

She’s sworn to solve an unthinkable theft, but her promise could get her killed. Can a master of design unpick a nuptial nightmare?

Wedding planner Adrielle Pyper believes wholeheartedly in happily ever after. Desperate for a fresh start since the horror of her best friend’s murder, she makes the move to a posh resort town and revels in attracting famous patrons. But she fears the honeymoon is over when someone steals a priceless imported dress…

With her new celebrity clients’ marital bliss at risk, the sharp-minded beauty takes her own vow to unravel the thread of the gown’s glittering secret. But with irresistible hunks in every pew and terrifying threats delivered to her door, her keen eye for clues could lead her to a deadly altar.

Can Adrielle crack the case before she ties a fatal knot?

Diamond Rings Are Deadly Things is the delightful first book in the Wedding Planner cozy mystery series. If you like heart-racing romance, thrilling twists, and heroines strong in snark, then you’ll love Rachelle J. Christensen’s charming tale.

Buy Diamond Rings are Deadly Things to undo a crooked engagement today!

What do Boston, Dublin, and Sierra Leone have in common? The movement of blood diamonds at enormous profit but grave human expense: mafia killings in Boston and Ireland and child enslavement and murder in Sierra Leone. And who is ensnared in the middle of all of this - Michael Knight and Lex Devlin. Can they stop the enormously profitable trade of these tainted jewels? They must come between the Italian mafia in North Boston and the Irish mafia in South Boston including some remnants of the IRA in Ireland. They must also pit themselves against the enslaved and deadly child-army in Sierra Leone, who smuggle these diamonds into the mainstream for cash to buy weapons and drugs. At great personal risk, Knight and Devlin struggle to find a solution that satisfies this disparate combination of characters and, hopefully, dampens the diamond flow.

First discovered in 1930, the diamonds of Sierra Leone have funded one of the most savage rebel campaigns in modern history. These "blood diamonds" are smuggled out of West Africa and sold to legitimate diamond merchants in London, Antwerp, and New York, often with the complicity of the international diamond industry. Eventually, these very diamonds find their way into the rings and necklaces of brides and spouses the world over. Blood Diamonds is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry - institutionalized in the 1880s by the De Beers cartel - have allowed it to happen. Award-winning journalist Greg Campbell traces the deadly trail of these diamonds, many of which are brought to the world market by fanatical enemies. These repercussions of diamond smuggling are felt far beyond the borders of the poor and war-ridden country of Sierra Leone, and the consequences of overlooking this African tragedy are both shockingly deadly and unquestionably global. Updated with a new epilogue.

Traveling by night, Zak Nine and Erro are following a shadowy figure until the mysterious stranger disappears into a cave. The boys decide to follow. Inside they find a maze filled with priceless gems, along with a rough band of escaped criminals. Things go from bad to worse when a squad of Alcatraz guards arrives on the scene. When the guards start shooting their laser blasters, suddenly nobody is safe! Will Zak and Erro escape the deadly storm of laser fire, or will they be trapped in the endless dark forever?

Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi, and Feluda: Negotiating the Center and the Periphery presents a postcolonial reading of Conan Doyle’s canonical detective texts—Sherlock Holmes adventures, and some lesser known detective texts written by two Bengali (Indian) writers—Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (1899-1970), and Satyajit Ray (1921-1992). The book proposes that in a postcolonial reading situation, the representation of Holmes problematizes the act of reading and also the act and discourse of inquiry. The fact that the Holmes adventures contribute to the hegemonic culture of “Anglo/Eurocentrism” is seen as a reinforcement of racial superiority among the “colonized.” This book studies how literary texts function as a signifier of a particular national identity, and can indicate the cultural construct of a state. It contends that only those texts which cater to the standards of global hierarchy are considered canonical, and indigenous texts, however significant, remain as "Other" literature. The book highlights colonial and postcolonial discourse in the Bengali detective texts and examines, how far Holmes has been able to reinforce racial dominance over the Indian detectives Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda.

It is a mistake to think that wars only concern armies involved in active engagement. Nothing is farther from the truth. The real forces of evil wage a financial war. The dark princes of debt finance have gained leverage over every important social, economic, and political institution-including the health care delivery system. In AIDS, Opium, Diamonds, and Empire, author Nancy Turner Banks draws the connections between free market strategies, the destruction of national sovereignty by the process of globalization, and AIDS as one of the health consequences of a neo-Darwinian philosophy. Through meticulous research, Banks found a medicalpharmaceutical- industrial complex that was taken over one hundred years ago by the titans of financial capitalism. Their aim was to create profit, not to conquer disease. This book of social history points to a cauldron of historical events that contributed to the HIV/AIDS crisis. AIDS, Opium, Diamonds, and Empire tells the dramatic story of a financial ideology that is damaging to everything that it means to be human. It is the story of profits over people. In the end, it is the story of hope and how we can regain our sanity and our health in a world gone mad.