Overview

""Diamonds and Death"" is a fictional story set in mid-1980s Boston that follows three friends who hatch a scheme to rob the ruthless mob-connected attorney, Herman Gold, of his wife's valuable jewelry collection. They are an unlikely trio-a transplanted Brit, a two-bit criminal from Georgia, and a strange man suffering from shell shock after his experience fighting in Europe during WWII. Save for Ace Henderson-the black man from Georgia-they are amateurs in the game of grand larceny. The common bond tying the group together is their shared hatred and distaste for the attorney, and the desire to exact revenge for the things he has done to them. Jone Brines-an Englishman-initiates his plan and invites Ace Henderson to help him pull off the heist. During the planning process, they realize that they cannot do it by themselves, so they ask Richard Goldberg-know to them by his nickname ""Ritchie Flat Ear"" to assist. What Jon and Ace don't know is that their new partner in crime is not the man he appears to be. His real name is Alan Gorman, brother-in-law to Herman Gold, and he has a secret agenda. Alongside his sister, who is living in an unhappy marriage and suffering mental abuse from her husband, Alan is secretly plotting the murder of Herman so they both can be free of Herman and walk away with his considerable fortune. Together, they also plan to steal a valuable 16th-century oil painting and return it to its rightful owner, the Godfather of the Bermani mafia family in Sicily. For Jon, however, things become complicated because he is having a love affair with the attorney's wife. During the robbery, things appear to be going to plan, but everything suddenly goes sideways when Ritchie executes his plan. Chaos ensues as blood spills all over the study, where both the jewels and painting were stored. The three make their escape, thinking they covered their tracks and planning to lay low for a while. However, that could not be farther from the truth as FBI agent Tony Marconi begins his thorough investigation to uncover the facts.

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Barry Briss, a debut novelist, is a Boston native now residing in Brookline, where his fictional story takes place. Born and raised in the city, he attended Boston Latin School-the oldest public high school in the United States-where he had what is sometimes called a classical education. He went on to earn his B.A. at the University of Massachusetts and his D.M.D at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. After two years of service in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps, he returned to Tufts as a post-doctoral resident in the orthodontic program. For the first twenty-eight years of his career, he balanced private practice with teaching post-graduate orthodontics at Tufts. He then gave up private practice to assume the positions of chairman and director of the program. Today, though retired, he continues to volunteer as a teacher in the post-doctoral program at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. With a long-time interest in black and white photography and later developing an interest in painting with the medium of watercolor, Barry unexpectedly turned his focus to writing fiction. During the COVID pandemic, when he began documenting his family's history, the concept of a fictional crime story began to evolve. The result was a novel entitled ""Diamonds and Death,"" a story rooted in the center of his youth in Boston encompassing many of his experiences in the city's gritty neighborhoods and complex characters he grew to love. Drawing from the people and stories surrounding his grandfather's world of politics, gambling, and backroom deals, his creation explores the intersection of loyalty, temptation, and moral compromise. ""Diamonds and Death"" is his first novel, combining psychological insight with local color resulting in a well-paced, suspenseful plot with a unexpected twist at the end.

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