Making A Killing In Diamonds by Rob Bates; Kenmore, Washington: Camel Press; © 2025; ISBN 9781684-923229; 238 pages plus a glossary; $16.95
SAN DIEGO – Not everyone who works in New York City’s diamond district is Jewish, but enough people are that it makes sense that a fictional detective who also works for her father in the diamond district is named Mimi Rosen.
The traditional diamond industry is threatened when a company threatens to flood the market with laboratory-made diamonds that are indistinguishable from those found in mines. They will sell at a much cheaper price and because they are indistinguishable from traditional diamonds the net effect will be to devalue all diamonds.
Fortunes would be lost if the laboratory-grown diamonds are released – motive for seeking to stop their release by any means possible.
Mimi’s role in this is to find out all she can about the company growing diamonds artificially. She also is tasked with finding some way that the diamonds can be differentiated from the more valuable traditional ones.
The murder of an executive of a traditional diamond company is the initial killing to which the book’s title refers.
This is the fourth and final installment of author Bates’ “Diamond District Mystery Series.” It’s a stand-alone mystery novel that can be enjoyed without knowing the previous three. Hebrew and Yiddish phrases are seamlessly woven into the fabric of the story.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.