Buried Diamonds

I read April Henry's first book, Circles of Confustion, a couple of years ago and loved it. I picked up her new book last week, and Henry hasn't missed a beat. Buried Diamonds is exciting, funny and very moving at points. The author has a real knack for creating vibrant, interesting characters that the reader really cares about. In this book, Claire's elderly roommate, Charlie, has a very significant role as the mystery involves an incident from her past. Learning more about Charlie and her tragic history added depth to the story. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this latest adventure of Claire Montrose. Claire isa bright and likeable heroine and her investigation into thesuicide of Charlie's friend Elizabeth never flags. Flashbacks to the 1950's could have slowed the novel in the hands of a less skilled writer but that is not the case here. This is a darker novel than the earlier series entries but I think it is the best thus far. Buried Diamonds is a good read and one I recommend, don't miss this one.

Since inheriting a valuable painting from her Aunt Cady in the first installment of this series, Claire Montrose no longer toils at her uninspiring job vetting vanity plates for the DMV, but that doesn't mean her life is void of complications. One day while jogging in her Portland neighborhood, Claire stumbles upon a diamond engagement ring lodged between the crevices of an old rock wall. Her old friend and roommate, Charlie, believes she recognizes the ring as the one which belonged to a friend who ended her engagement and then killed herself fifty years earlier. But how, they wondered, did the ring end up embedded in that old wall when Charlie is certain her friend had returned the ring to her fiancé when she broke the engagement?Did the woman really commit suicide all those years ago? To Claire, the pieces of the story seem as fractured as the very wall in which she found the ring, so she sets out to learn more about the ring and the tragic woman to whom it once belonged. However, she better watch out because there's someone harboring a secret about those events who is poised to stop Claire dead-in-her-tracks before she learns too much. Claire is a likeable character with a girl-next-door quality, an innate curiosity and a sharp intellect. She will need the latter to carry her through this case of past and present danger. Two thumbs up and five stars to this intelligently written gem.

In Portland, forty-something Claire Montrose stops to catch her breath and to slow down her heart rate. She stretches her arms and legs using a crumbling stone wall as support when she notices a spot where the mortar fell off leaving a hole covered by a spider's web. Noticing how the sun reflects oddly off of the ole, she sticks her long fingers inside pulling out a diamond ring in an antique setting.Upon returning to her home, Claire shows her prize to her roommate octogenarian Charlotte Heidenbruch, who immediately recognizes the jewelry. Charlie insists the gem belonged to her friend Elizabeth Ellsworth, who committed suicide herself years ago. The elderly woman though Elizabeth returned the ring to her fiancé Korean War veteran Allen Lisac, when they broke off. Unable to resist and encouraged by Charlie, Claire investigates what happened fifty years ago. The players in this tragedy do not realize that the suicide might have been murder and someone today is willing to kill to hide the truth of yesterday.Fans of the series will appreciate the latest Montrose tale though newcomers will wonder about the license plates that start each chapter. The story line turns darker than previous novels as anti-Semitism raises its ugly head targeting Holocaust survivor Charlie. Still the investigation is fun even if Claire inadvertently sets off a series of events that leads to death and destruction for some of the participants then and now.Harriet Klausner