cover image Dance for a Diamond

Dance for a Diamond

Christopher Murphy. Walker & Company, $16.95 (268pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-0925-7

Deception abounds in this half-serious romp that features a lot of action with some telling swipes at professional spies. In order to recoup money owed him by a feckless friend, Stuart Kody agrees to help smuggle diamonds out of South Africa. He tells his wife, Lucy, the first lie of their year-old marriage, and the lies multiply. Kody is caught by a brutish South African secret policeman but bribes his way free. Back in England, his house is buggedby whose espionage bureau he does not know. To save himself and Lucy (nee Ludmilla), Stuart becomes enmeshed in the Antwerp diamond market and with Lucy's father, a charming Russian spy who was expelled from England years before. Coping with a series of dangerous entanglements, Stuart invents a ""fictitious'' English spy department that really exists and a fake ``top secret'' that turns out to be true. Kody foils four security services and saves himself, Lucy and his money while we get an interesting look at the diamond business. Lucy may be too cuddly and fey for some, but her rascally father is a delight. (September 15)