Diamonds and Deceit written by Amy Talbot and published by Eternal Press is a thriller at 55,000 words across 20 chapters.
Amy Talbot lives in Christchurch, New Zealand and is a multi-published writer of books and articles in both online and printed format. She spends a lot of time reading, writing and editing books as well as teaching people how to read, write and appreciate the art of literature. However her time spent away from writing books is spent as a Freelance Developmental Editor and Creative Writing Tutor.
Grace Summerville runs her families cabins at Lake Tekapo, a place of natural beauty with a rough edge.
When Andre Castile rents a cabin for a few days, Grace wonders what the likes of this man, a city man with far too much money, a sports car and a large chain of hotels is doing here in her little corner of the world.
Having discovered a family betrayal Andre is in search of his brother Marc who having stolen the families greatest asset The Queen of Hearts, a blue diamond over 400 years old, has suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth.
Grace once in love with Marc before his unexpected departure becomes suspect one in Andres hunt for that which belongs to him. But how far will he go to get back that which is his?
When strange red postcards arrive on the doorstep stating that someone knows exactly what is going on, panic sets in and in the middle of nowhere you’d be mistaken for thinking there is anywhere to hide when clearly whoever the mysterious and dangerous Nimrod is, the man behind the postcards, knows all there is to know about Grace and her cabins.
Can she discover the where abouts of The Queen of Hearts?
Who is Nimrod? And why is he trying to kill her?
And what really happened to Marc?
Diamonds of Deceit is a quick witted and fast paced thriller following the recently heartbroken Grace Summerville on a journey to discover what secrets the man she thought she knew and loved had kept secret from her. In the end secrets never truly remain secrets and while blood is thicker than water, love is by far the greatest of reasons to keep going.
A warning to the wise, be careful who you trust because in the middle of nowhere it is more likely no-one is going to save you but you.
Personally being a bit of a thriller fan I was capable of discovering where The Queen of Hearts was hidden however with all the twists, turns and trust issues throughout the story I was gladly mistaken in my suspicions of who the infamous Nimrod could possibly be.
Amy Talbot has done a marvellous job in keeping Nimrod’s identity secret from the reader for as long as possible and setting as many characters up in line for the job each being knocked down at pivotal moments.
For location Amy has chosen a beautiful wild location full of possibilities and has completely used the area of Lake Tekapo to its limit. Searching online it is easy to picture the story taking place here.
I would recommend the book Diamonds and Deceit to anyone over the age of 18 years and give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
By R.N. Hadley
