by Charles Kittle

King Solomon's Mines' in contemporary America. Gary Chambers recruits his ex-army friend, Zack Gamble, and a Williams College geology teacher, Elaine Whittier, to hunt for diamonds on a summer cross-country trek. Unaware of a host of other forces at work they are immediately caught up in a small-time bank robbery that sets a torrid pattern of misadventures. Unexplained assaults, the mysterious appearance of Alyssa Hawthorne, a young beautiful DeBeers geologist, and a siege of perilous encounters from Colorado to the Great Lakes region, all remain unexplained. Duplicity within their ranks seems to be the only logical explanation, but how? By whom? Next the prospectors move on to a promising new site, one that's in the proximity of the ongoing Missouri River flood control project at Pierre, SD. And that has its own issues; the relocation of the Sioux Indian Nation's reservation, which adds more to the list of adversities. At the same time South Dakota lobbyist and constituents ratchet up pressure to shut the control gates and begin creating the new lake. But now Hawthorne's American DeBeers contact sees complications from Gary's treasure hunting and hires a hit man to remove Gary, his team and Alyssa Hawthorne. The hit man arrives. The Oahe Dam gates are closed. The lake begins to form. Then a surprising discovery, a promising but inaccessible diamond-studded cave; all converge when one of nature's unique tricks adds another dangerous dimension to a wild climax. REVIEW Are you ready to go prospecting for diamonds? You can't afford to go to South Africa, you say? Who said anything about South Africa? I'm talking right here in the good old U.S. of A. Charles Kittle has served up a whopping good tale of romance, betrayal, attempted murder and all-around mayhem, all wrapped up in the excitement of a search for diamonds. A trio of geologists sets out for a summer of camping under the stars with the added perk of researching a few century-old rumors of the discovery of diamonds in the area of the Wisconsin side of the Great Lakes, and some in Nebraska and South Dakota. At every turn they are stymied by angry groups of people, some armed with rifles and shotguns, claiming they are trespassing. It's almost as if the angry mobs knew they were coming; how could that be? At the same time, another geologist working for DeBeers in South Africa is assigned the task of going to America to check the same area of the United States and make sure all is well. with her company's holdings. Simultaneously, the work on a dam in South Dakota is suddenly put into overdrive to be finished, at least to the point of filling the reservoir. Mr. Kittle deftly ties all these strings together for an exciting conclusion that will have you on your feet cheering for the cavalry to come to the rescue, just the way you did at the Saturday morning movies when you were a kid. Trisha Moore, Reviewer Midwest Book Review