Death is Forever
(originally published as The Diamond Tiger)

Elizabeth Lowell

Seven years earlier Erin Windsor had a life shattering experience that sent her into a type of seclusion. She is a photographer and has spent many of those years in the Arctic. A book of her photos was published. She ignores her family and the world. Now she is getting dragged back to the world.

A great-uncle she didn't know she had died in Australia and left her his property. It is out west in some of the worst country, climate wise, in the world. It also may house a spectacular diamond mine that doesn't have an equal. That mine means her life is in grave danger.

Cole Blackburn had known's Erin's great-uncle, Crazy Abe. He is a mineralogist and works around the world. Since the defection of his fiancee and abortion of their child, he stayed on his own, trusting no one. When he is offered half ownership of a ten-million dollar company with a promise of more if he could get Erin to sign over hre mineral rights, he accepts it. Then he takes the sample diamonds Crazy Abe had carried and meets Erin in Los Angeles.

They fly out to Australia in the worst heat the country has to offer each year and start searching for the diamond mine. Erin has to learn who to trust - Cole and his support staff that includes his ex-fiancee, the man the U.S. government sends to protect her from Cole, or nobody. The clues Crazy Abe left are available for anyone to read. But who can understand them? What family secrets are also hidden?

Death is Forever was originally published in 1992 or so as a Silhouette title under the title The Diamond Tiger. It was written by Lowell under her pseudonyn Ann Maxwell. When she re-released it she fleshed it out from its original format, probably increasing the suspense and danger. But she states the diamond trade has changed drastically from that time, so didn't try to update the novel to current day. She left it set in the late 1980's.

Death is Forever is fairly typical, and predictable. It never quite grips the reader with a chill as some of her current novels do. I liked Erin and how she handles her past. I also was glad to see how they had handled the character who had misused her seven years earlier - we like to see justice in this type of novel.

Considering the publishing roots of the novel and its subsequent reworking, it's good. It's not on par with many of her current suspense novels, but not as graphically chilling as some of her current work as well, as fact I appreciated.

This is enjoyable romantic suspense escapism. We know it will end happily. In the meantime, not only enjoy the book but the chance to learn more about different types of diamond mining and the diamond trade itself.

Notice: Graphic violence; Strong sexual content