Displaying 1 of 1 1987 Format: Book Author: Wiltz, Chris. Title: A diamond before you die / Chris Wiltz. Publisher, Date: New York : Mysterious Press, [1987] ©1987 Description: 198 pages ; 22 cm Notes: 466776 ; *439173 LCCN: 86062776 ISBN: 0892961929 Other Number: 14414240 System Availability: 1 # System items in: 1 # Local items: 1 # Local items in: 1 Current Holds: 0 Place Request Add to My List Expand All | Collapse All Availability Fiction/Biography Profile Characters Neal Rafferty (Male), Private investigator, Single, Ex-police detectiveLee Diamond (Female), Private investigator, Beautiful Genre MysterySouthern fictionFiction Topics Murder investigationsInfidelityPolitical corruptionDrug traffickingPornographyRevenge Setting New Orleans, Louisiana - South (U.S.) Time Period 1990s -- 20th century Trade Reviews Publishers Weekly ReviewAlthough Wiltz (The Killing Circle) sets his story just before and during Mardi Gras, peoples it with a wide variety of New Orleans high- and low-life and provides a couple of grisly murders, he hasn't written a very interesting book. Private eye and ex-cop Neal Rafferty, tailing the wife of socialite lawyer Richard Cotton, meets the cool, beautiful Lee Diamond, herself a P.I. being paid by Mrs. Cotton to follow Mr. Cotton. Lee has just karate-chopped a possible intruder into the Cottons' burning fireplace. After that dramatic start the book becomes a tangle of corrupt politics, drug- and porn-peddling, shifting alliances, a hot affair between Rafferty and Diamond and, most unfortunately, the story of Rafferty's attempts to avenge the five-year-old murder of his previous lover. The plot twists and violence are gratuitous, the talk is stilted, and the ending, meant to be ironic, is unsurprising. As portrayed here, New Orleans could be Cleveland during a dull week. (April) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reservedKirkus ReviewNew Orleans private-eye Neal Rafferty (The Killing Circle) is working for local biggie Richard Cotton (as in Cotton National Bank) when a small-time lowlife mysteriously turns up burned to death in Mr. Cotton's uninhabited town-house. And that's just the first hint that something is not quite right with the Cotton household. (Rafferty is tailing Mrs. Cotton for Mr. Cotton while his new girlfriend, gumshoe Lee Diamond, vice verses.) Nonetheless, Rafferty loyally continues to go to bat for Cotton, who's preparing to enter the race for D.A., challenging sleazy incumbent ""Chance"" Callahan. Cotton is convinced that Callahan has some smear material ready for the campaign; so Rafferty goes looking for an elusive reel of film, finding corpses and frightened blackmailers wherever he goes. And along the way he uncovers more information about the bygone murder of his greatest love (prostitute Myra), sexual secrets in high places (no surprises), and the Truth about new love Lee. An overcooked, overfamiliar stew of big-city corruption, porn, and drugs--but Rafferty is fairly good hard-boiled company, best in low-key scenes with hostile cops and seedy informers. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission. Librarian's View Syndetics Unbound Displaying 1 of 1
