Deadly Diamonds

This is not-so-subtle blackmail, Badger thought. Hes asking me to violate the academic standards of the law school – me, a former dean, for Gods sake. I wont knuckle under to it. If they're going to play hardball, so can I.

Deadly Diamonds starts with the arrival of a letter – a harbinger of doom – for Massoud Ansari, formerly dean and now professor at a midwestern law school that attracts trouble like a magnet attracts iron filings. The letter is from a rich foreign benefactor who withdraws his promise to the school of several million dollars. Shortly after, the registrar suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances, and Ansari, attempting to rectify the problem, is drawn into major skullduggery at a remote diamond mine in a semi-arid region of West Africa. One heinous crime tops another.

Finally, with the aid of revelations from Ansari, the enormously obese wife of the benefactor helps – in her own uniquely bumbling way – to reveal the culprit and the secretive theft of diamonds. Ansari returns to America, discovers who or what killed the registrar, and a sense of peace – albeit temporary – returns to the law school…

"I like adventure stories, always have. This one has mystery, travel to faraway places, romance and violence, enough to keep the pot churning," says one of the authors, John.