“They’re trying to kill me,” is the fearful utterance of Katya Osman, overheard by Vanessa, Detective Inspector Bill Trave’s estranged wife. And it’s an utterance soon followed by a cold-blooded murder. Nearly every bit of evidence points to escaped convict and Katya’s ex, David Swain, but DI Trave—in spite of emotional conflicts involving his ex, and in spite of being officially removed from the case by his superiors—thinks otherwise. He knows that the Osman family of wealthy Belgian diamond merchants holds the answers. But to get them, Trave must dig into the family’s sordid past, and ask difficult questions that lead to horrible truths involving World War II, Jewish diamond merchants, and the Holocaust.

Set in the early 1960s in England, this is a provocative, cautionary tale in which the worst of our human nature threatens to destroy what is good. Tolkien, himself a successful London barrister, begins his story in the Old Bailey courthouse with David Swain’s trial, but Diamonds is no sedentary courtroom drama. Thoughtful and complex, this one is sure to intrigue and satisfy discriminating fans of sophisticated mysteries.