18Mm Blues [Paperback]

Gerald A. Browne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994

Finding their fates entwined with the lives and deaths of two Japanese pearl divers, Grady Bowman and Julia Elkins travel to the Far East where they unravel an extraordinary mystery and discover the world's most precious pearls. Reprint. K. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Browne's engrossing thriller about the international jewel trade displays a cute romantic storyline and a remarkable knowledge of esoteric gem lore.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Ill-gotten, naturally blue pearls and restless spirits draw a San Francisco gem-dealer and his impetuous artist girlfriend to Burma, Thailand, and the warm but awfully dangerous waters of the Andaman Sea--as Browne (Hot Siberian, 1989; Stone 588, 1986, etc.) continues to rummage through the jewelry box. Lying in the blue sands of an uncharted lagoon somewhere off the coast of southern Asia, a bunch of oysters has been building up a fortune in true-blue pearls. The accidental discovery of those oysters is fatal for a couple of Japanese pearl-diving women on hire to a vicious French thug who, preferring not to share the prize, murders the women. Decades later, the understandably vengeful soul of one of the divers enters the inexplicably suicidal body of sexy, clever California artist Julia Elkins after her cute- meet with newly separated, pearl-fancying Grady Bowman. (Bowman, having been dumped by his wife and fired by his ex-father-in-law, is setting up his own gem business.) After a massive dose of barbiturates fails to do its stuff, the revitalized Julia begins an affair with Bowman, surprising him and herself with a sudden taste for and knowledge of Japanese cuisine and a deep desire to accompany him on his next shopping trip to the Far East. A series of disastrous deals in Rangoon and Julia's spur-of-the-moment desire for blue pearls lead the couple to Bangkok and a gem-cutting shop owned by the son of one of the murdered pearl divers--and then to the isolated Siamese estate and oyster farm of Japan's greatest pearl-dealer where spirits, murderers, shoppers, and dealers sort it all out. Few people do sexy, grown-up romance as well as Browne--which is why he can get away with outrageous stuff like roving spirits. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books Inc (Mm) (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446365777
• ISBN-13: 978-0446365772
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,897,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as anything by Browne; infer... imply?, November 5, 1999

By 

Mark ([e-mail]) (Orem, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 18Mm Blues (Paperback)

I have read everything this author has ever written, and "Blues" holds up to the same standards. I don't know of another author (at least not as prolific) who has such a grasp of the gem world and can weave it with stylish action so perfectly. The only predictable thing about Browne novels is that the protagonist always seems to end up with a fortune at the end of the story. It's fun to identify with, by sadly not how life usually works. My only gripe about "Blues" is that Browne needs to look up "infer" in the dictionary and see that it's not interchangeable with "imply". I was suprised to find about 9 occurances of misuse of such a common word. This is high school grammar stuff!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great story!, August 13, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: 18Mm Blues (Paperback)

I've read other books by this author and stumbled across this one at the local bookshop. It is a real page-turner and I stayed up half the night to read it all! I am a jewelry designer and the pearls and jewelry angle in the story added to my enjoyment level. Brown expertly builds the intrigue and mystery to the climax where pieces of the story fall into place. This is the story of rare beauty and worlds that overlap generationally as well as internationally through business affairs as well as affairs of the heart. There is greed, murder, romance and wonderful details of places, people and rare blue pearls.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pearl of a book, August 20, 2010

By 

GrannyBooks (Frankfort, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 18Mm Blues (Paperback)

Gerald Browne knows the gem business and pearls are one aspect of that business, even if we laypeople don't think of them as "gems". Pearls are actually fairly common around the world, being found anywhere there are mollusks, in fresh or salt water. Yes, even those mussels in midwestern rivers and streams are capable of making pearls. But the prized pearls are those that are naturally deeply colored, perfectly shaped, or extremely large. 18mm Blues is the tale of Grady Bowman who is trying to re-establish himself in the gem business and finds himself caught in the middle of a mystery fueled by one man's obsession and the desire of another to avenge an old murder. And everyone wants to find the source of the 18mm blues. As with every book of Browne's that I have read, you learn a little about an aspect of the gem market you may not have been familiar with before, and this is a good read.