Diamond Eye (Max Diamond) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "God has his thumbprint on us all, no matter if we breathe through spiracles or gills or lungs, no matter if we have two legs..." (more)
Key Phrases: postal inspection service, postal inspector, Palm Beach, Jeff Grayson, South Florida (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his anticipated follow-up to the well- received A Cure for Gravity, Rosenfeld profiles what many see as the lowest form of federal agent, a U.S. postal inspector. Cocky narrator Max Diamond investigates Boca Raton's crooked postmen, mail fraud, letter bombs, mail scams and threats against postal employees, getting no respect from citizens or the police. The grandson of Jewish immigrants, an Ivy League grad and a tai chi chuan master, Diamond leads a balanced, Taoist lifestyle that's disturbed when he uncovers a Peru-to-South Florida distribution network for gruesome child porn and snuff films. The illegal video pipeline seems to connect with Cuco O'Burke, an internationally powerful yet low-profile Latino crime lord operating out of the well-to-do neighborhood of Little Havana. Complicating his obsession with solving what appears to be an impossible case, two of Diamond's old Yale buddies and fellow members of the secret Lyre & Stone society have just died in mysterious and particularly macabre circumstances, throwing their South Beach law business with Yalie Cliff Hughes into chaos. Diamond's mentally and physically draining investigation of the porn ring and his undercover probe of what he believes are the murders of his friends is softened only by the presences of old college flame Phayle Tollard, in town on business, and seductress Guiomary O'Burke, daughter of the kingpin Diamond is gunning to bust. Yet it is the increasingly suspect Phayle and an ugly truth hidden by the Lyre & Stone brotherhood that threaten to ruin Diamond. Exploring cop-struggling-against-criminal-desire themes hauntingly reminiscent of Hammett's Red Harvest, Rosenfeld crafts a high-action suspense thriller with plenty of wry humor and cultural commentary. Local author appearances.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* This is, to put it bluntly, one of the freshest, most enjoyable mysteries to come along in the last couple of years. Max Diamond is a U.S. Postal Inspector, which makes him a federal agent, licensed to carry a gun and everything. When a friend and coworker is murdered, Max inherits a case he would really rather not have anything to do with: a child-pornography ring that just might be making snuff films. You'd think a story about this sort of thing would be moody and depressing (remember the film 8mm?), but, surprise, this is a hugely entertaining novel, lively and funny and fast paced. Any novel that features people with names like Seagrave Chunny, Phayle Tollard, and Twy Boatwright is a novel that practically demands to be read. If an author puts that much imagination into his characters' names, we wonder, what are his story lines going to be like? Well, the plot here may not be quite as flamboyant as the players' monikers, but it's delightfully twisty turny and, at times, surprisingly thought provoking. The story is set in Florida, home of drugs and violence, but the novel is not particularly gritty; nor is it an Elmore Leonard knock-off. Rosenfeld seems to feel no need to imitate other writers; like his resourceful, sharp-as-a-tack protagonist, he is a true original. Diamond Eye is Rosenfeld's second novel but first mystery. We can only hope it's the first in a series. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (July 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312878710
• ISBN-13: 978-0312878719
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,346,251 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Loooong wait..., July 19, 2002

By	Geonn W. Cannon "geonn" (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After looking in every bookstore in town and learning they were all out-of-stock, I finally decided to order from here. It was a long wait (and more than I wanted to pay for an author I'd never read), so I was sure this would be a disappointment. I even considered giving it away as a gift after I had read it.

That said, this book has a permanent place on my bookshelf. I read it in the space of one day, unable to stay away from the tale of Maximillian Diamond for more than a few moments. Well worth the price, the wait and everything else it took to get this book in my hands. Can't wait for "A Cure To Gravity" to get here!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Max Diamond novel..., August 6, 2004

By	Huntress Reviews (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Eye (Max Diamond) (Paperback)

Max Diamond, a US Postal Inspector, has just found himself in the middle of a nightmare. Max thought it was just illegal porn tapes, instead he landed in the world of snuff films and child pornography.

As two of his old Yale buddies mysteriously commit "suicide", Max finds himself back with Phayle, the girl who stole his heart in college. But as his snuff case opens up, so do the mysteries surrounding his friends' deaths. As Max tries to catch the demons behind these films, he also must fight the ones in his own life.

*** Well written and seems thoroughly researched. If you do not mind the mystery surrounding such toxic situations such as porn, you will enjoy this one. Otherwise, steer clear. ***

(...)

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotionally moving but too much coincidence, August 3, 2001

By	booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Postal Inspector Max Diamond discovers child porn/snuff film copy mixed into standard videos and sets out on a one-man crusade to eliminate this terrible and emotionally disturbing evil. Along the way he deals with the local Cuban Mafia of Miami, Peruvian terrorists, malingering postal workers, and two apparently accidental deaths of lawyers who went to college with Diamond.

Arthur Rosenfeld does a good job creating a powerful motivation for Diamond to disregard his orders and continue his investigation against all odds. Diamond himself is a fully drawn character and his interest in t'ai chi and philosophy give him added depth. The book is hard to put down.

Although I found DIAMOND EYE compelling, several serious flaws prevented it from being the great novel it could have been. First, Diamond badly mistreats his ex-girlfriend. After a sexual encounter, he ignores her calls, refuses to meet with her, and generally treats her like a subhuman. Second, the string of coincidences that author Arthur Rosenfeld uses to pull together just about everything that happens to Diamond goes beyond novelistic license to the implausible.

DIAMOND EYE is a powerful and well written book. The scene where Diamond and his boss rescue a postal worker from a nasty customer is a small gem. Enjoy it and try not to think too much about how unlikely all the coincidences really are.