Sweetie's Diamonds

FROM THE ESSENTIAL RAYMOND BENSON COLLECTION

WINNER OF THE 2006 "BEST THRILLER" AWARD (THE LOVEY) AT THE LOVE IS MURDER CONFERENCE FOR AUTHORS AND READERS!

From the internationally-acclaimed former author of continuation James Bond novels and other works of suspense comes a new and exciting thriller.

Diane Boston lives with her Marfan syndrome-afflicted 13-year-old son in a suburb of Chicago and teaches social studies at the high school, with the students even voting her Teacher of the Year. But she has some dark secrets. Her ex-husband Greg always suspected that Diane kept things from him, but he has no idea just how right he is. When Diane's son, David, finds a box of unmarked videotapes and watches one of them out of curiosity, he discovers that it's a hardcore adult movie from the late 1970s. The star, Lucy Luv, was an actress that mysteriously disappeared in 1980. Some suspected she'd been murdered. David recognizes the actress as his mother. Then, somehow, the news of Diane's involvement in the adult film business hits the streets and causes chaos at her school and at home. It also attracts the attention of the West Coast porn czar who has ties with organized crime. Apparently when Lucy Luv disappeared, she took a cache of stolen diamonds with her. This is the catalyst for a non-stop roller-coaster ride of suspense and mystery that involves the dark side of the adult film industry, the mob, kidnapping, and murder.

PRAISE FOR SWEETIE'S DIAMONDS:

"A pulse-pounding edge-of-your-seat thriller with more twists and turns than a roller coaster." - Parnell Hall, author of Stalking the Puzzle Lady

WINNER OF THE 2006 "BEST THRILLER" AWARD (THE LOVEY) AT THE LOVE IS MURDER CONFERENCE FOR AUTHORS AND READERS!

"Plays out like a Hitchcock film. These Diamonds are priceless!"--J. A. Konrath, author of BLOODY MARY

"Benson… proves here that he is equally adept at more realistic thrillers. This ever-more-intricate story (which involves a two-decade-old murder and several buried secrets) may remind some readers of the novels of James Grippando… The relationship between David and his mother, Diane (aka Lucy Luv), is key to the drama, and Benson layers enough twists and turns to keep mother and son, not to mention the reader, searching desperately for the truth." – Booklist

"Sweetie's Diamonds is a gem!"--Chicago Sun-Times

"A gem of a thriller one would have expected to come from the pen of someone like James Patterson."--The Strand Magazine

BIO: Raymond Benson is the highly acclaimed author of twenty-five books, including six original James Bond 007 novels, three film novelizations, three short stories, and two anthologies on Bond. He is a sought-after lecturer on film genres and history. Writing as David Michaels, Benson is a New York Times best-selling author, an Edgar Alan Poe Award nominee, and a Readers' Choice Award winner.