Diamonds in the Sand — Doug Dandridge

When a perfectly fit scientist falls dead in a closed room of an apparent heart attack, Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere is called in to solve the case. Doctor Matheson has been working in the field of nanotechnology, a science that promises great advances, and the potential for great disaster. There are many who would see the scientist fail. Religious fanatics who see the potential for transformation of the human genome as a violation of God's will. White supremacists angry that a black man of prominence is married to a white woman. International corporations that would like nothing better than to control the secret for themselves. Diamond smuggling crime syndicates with greed in their eyes at the prospect of making diamonds from the sand. And the graduate students who had lived in the shadow of the great man while their own accomplishments were ignored. Gary must navigate the shady undercurrents of the sunny Florida retirement city, trying to get at the truth. Obstacles are thrown in his way by powers both legal and illegal as he closes in on the secret. Until he runs into the full potential of the new technology, and the full terrors.