A Promise of Diamonds — John Creasey

A Scotland Yard detective investigates a South African diamond heist and the murders in its wake in this classic crime novel.

In sweltering Kangarmie, South Africa, Della Forrest's husband promised to return in two months with diamonds. That was two years ago. Della waits -- until one day, he staggers out of the Kalahari Desert and collapses at her feet. As he clings to life, he is visited in the night by a strangler . . .

A war hero and a former fruit farmer, Patrick Dawlish is now a detective with Scotland Yard. He currently resides in London and is attending the International Crime Conference. There he receives a top-secret report from a South African police officer -- a criminal operation has stolen enough uncut diamonds to threaten the global economy. Moments later, the officer is murdered in his hotel room, and the assassin moves on to Dawlish's flat . . .

Armed with a dead man's knowledge of a vast conspiracy and his own thirst for vengeance, Dawlish heads to South Africa in search of answers and justice. But death in the desert may be all that awaits . . .

“First‐rate storytelling . . . and intelligent handling of the private‐vengeance theme make this book a markedly superior thriller.” -- The New York Times