Jon Land's 24th exciting thriller, available today !
"The cooperative ventures you and Barnea worked on were symbols of peace when it still seemed possible," a friend tells Palestinian-American detective Ben Kamal early in Jon Land's BLOOD DIAMONDS.
The friend is referring, of course, to Kamal's unlikely pairing with his female Israeli counterpart Chief Inspector Danielle Barnea through four previous books, including last year's Keepers of the Gate. But BLOOD DIAMONDS goes all of them one better. A taut, timely and terrific tale that solidifies Land's status as the greatest thriller writer alive today.
The book opens in the war torn West African nation of Sierra Leone with the mining of the title stones: blood, or conflict, diamonds, used by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to finance their civil war. Danielle finds herself following the trail of those diamonds into Israel, while in the West Bank Ben investigates the Russian arms dealers who will ultimately take possession of them in return for arms.
What Ben and Danielle don't know, can't know, is that their investigations are linked by a warlord with far more dire plans in mind. RUF leader General Latisse Matabu, also known as the Dragon, holds the United States responsible for the brutal murders of her parents and plans to extract her revenge on America even as she stakes her claim to power in her own country.
Matabu, you see, has purchased something much worse than guns or bullets from the Russian underworld based in Israel: a scientific superweapon left over from the Cold War years that's every bit as deadly today. And she has every intention of unleashing it on an unsuspecting U.S. unless Ben and Danielle can stop her.
Such scenarios, of which Land is famous for, used to be the stuff of far-fetched imaginations and far-flung plotting. Not anymore. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 have lent a new credence and credibility to the potential of small groups, or even individuals, to wreak incredible havoc and catastrophe. In this respect, BLOOD DIAMONDS seems almost eerily prescient The book mentions Osama Bin Laden, but only in passing, as if to remind us he's only one of many.
Because the real focus is on Ben and Danielle and their relationship that is forever struggling to overcome the divisiveness that dominates their respective cultures. Palestinian Ben's rescue of Danielle from an Israeli jail plays out in insane counterpoint to a region tearing itself apart. If they can get along, find common ground, Land seems to be saying, why can't everyone else?
Ultimately, though, fleeing the Mideast for war-torn Sierra Leone on the Dragon's trail places them in the middle of a conflict just as hopeless as the one they left.
This was Ben's father's world from the first war with Israel in 1948 and then again in 1956. This was the world his father had fled when a third war became inevitable and why his father returned to Palestine in its bloody wake. Ben understood that world truly for the first time; why his father loathed it so much and refused to accept the hero's mantle of leadership his people tried to thrust upon him. Because war accomplished nothing.
Land's action scenes, like this one and a dazzling climactic riverboat chase down the Mississippi River, are as visually striking as ever. But the heartfelt development of Ben and Danielle adds a visceral element this time. He's always been great going for the gut. In BLOOD DIAMONDS he goes for the heart as well.