David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "kimberlite"
The Cutting Edge
THE CUTTING EDGE starts as a rather traditional serial killer mystery with a little Jeffery Deaver thematic interest. A diamond cutter is murdered, along with two of his young customers. So, we learn a little about how the diamond trade works.
When Amelia walks the scene she learns that two possible witnesses are missing. One had a meeting just prior to the murders. The other, with the first initials “VL” was shot during the murders.
Since he has his own point of view, we learn this is the diamond cutter's assistant, Vimal. A subplot is Vimal's relationship with his father, also a diamond cutter, who wants Vimal to follow in his footsteps. Vimal has other ideas. He wants to be a sculpter, like Michaelangelo, who saw a piece of granite or marble as an image that needed to be released, like the statue of “David”.
Soon, the term kimberlite becomes important. There is some digging going on in Brooklyn where a geo-thermal project is going on (Kimberlite, the stone diamonds come from was found there.) But, apparently, a gas line is cut and two people are killed, forcing the city to shut down the project. We thought we were dealing with a psychopath who had something against young couples who were defiling the earth by misusing diamonds.
A little past midpoint Deaver throws another wrench into the works. A lawyer asks Lincoln to research the case against his client, a notorious Mexican drug smuggler, El Halcon. For some reason Lincoln takes the case, earning the enmity of law enforcement operations who want El Halcon put in a maximum security prison.
Okay, the last doesn't seem to have anything to do with either the diamond murders or the geo-thermal digging. When I first read it, I thought it was an unnecessary sidetrack. But it's just another one of Deaver's wild twists and it leads to the resolution of the whole case.
As I said, this isn't an ordinary mystery, because we learn something about diamonds, but just when we think we know who did what, Deaver adds another character at the end who planned the whole thing. I had no trouble keeping track of these people; I just thought there were too many masterminds involved. And the last one may have been an attempt to get you to read the next book. It's a kind of threat.
When Amelia walks the scene she learns that two possible witnesses are missing. One had a meeting just prior to the murders. The other, with the first initials “VL” was shot during the murders.
Since he has his own point of view, we learn this is the diamond cutter's assistant, Vimal. A subplot is Vimal's relationship with his father, also a diamond cutter, who wants Vimal to follow in his footsteps. Vimal has other ideas. He wants to be a sculpter, like Michaelangelo, who saw a piece of granite or marble as an image that needed to be released, like the statue of “David”.
Soon, the term kimberlite becomes important. There is some digging going on in Brooklyn where a geo-thermal project is going on (Kimberlite, the stone diamonds come from was found there.) But, apparently, a gas line is cut and two people are killed, forcing the city to shut down the project. We thought we were dealing with a psychopath who had something against young couples who were defiling the earth by misusing diamonds.
A little past midpoint Deaver throws another wrench into the works. A lawyer asks Lincoln to research the case against his client, a notorious Mexican drug smuggler, El Halcon. For some reason Lincoln takes the case, earning the enmity of law enforcement operations who want El Halcon put in a maximum security prison.
Okay, the last doesn't seem to have anything to do with either the diamond murders or the geo-thermal digging. When I first read it, I thought it was an unnecessary sidetrack. But it's just another one of Deaver's wild twists and it leads to the resolution of the whole case.
As I said, this isn't an ordinary mystery, because we learn something about diamonds, but just when we think we know who did what, Deaver adds another character at the end who planned the whole thing. I had no trouble keeping track of these people; I just thought there were too many masterminds involved. And the last one may have been an attempt to get you to read the next book. It's a kind of threat.
