The Russian Pink: A Novel

by Matthew Hart

Overview

An explosive debut featuring renowned diamond expert caught in a web of deception and malice while trying to uncover the secrets behind the most expensive diamond in the world.

When "The Russian Pink"—a stunningly large rose-hued diamond—makes a surprise appearance around the neck of Honey Li, the wife of surging presidential candidate Harry Nash, Alex Turner, an investigator for the Treasury Department’s diamond division and former C.I.A. agent, finds himself spiraling down a seemingly endless rabbit hole. A diamond like that always carries secrets, but the web of mystery behind "The Pink" is more complex than Alex could ever image.

Starting with the trail of damage from botched sting operation, Alex wavers between legal and illegal tactics, friends, family, and foes to find out why a mysterious Russian double agent betrayed him and the diamond ended up on a potential path to the White House. For wherever the Russian Pink goes, secrecy, deception, and death surely follow.

With echos of both John Le Carre and Jason Matthews, The Russian Pink is a stylish and fresh page-turner that catapults the reader into the world of blood diamond trading, a world that Matthew Hart, the author of the critically acclaimed Diamond, navigates with authoritative authenticity and wit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643135502
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,163,451
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Matthew Hart has written about diamonds for Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, and the Times of London. His award-winning Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair was translated into six languages and made into a four-hour dramatic miniseries. He was a contributing editor of the leading New York diamond-trade publication, Rapaport Diamond Report. Matthew has traveled from the Arctic to Angola in pursuit of diamond stories. His first two thrillers, The Russian Pink and Ice Angel, are also available from Pegasus Crime. He lives in New York City.

Hometown:

London, England

Place of Birth:

Ottawa, Canada

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2020

Journalist Hart (Diamond) makes his fiction debut with an intriguing if convoluted spy thriller that explores the deadly side of the international diamond trade. Alex Turner, a former CIA officer turned Department of Treasury agent, doesn’t know whom to trust when an investigation lands him in the middle of a conspiracy involving a billionaire U.S. presidential candidate, a consortium of Russian oligarchs, and a mysterious 464-carat diamond known as the Russian Pink, which turns up around the neck of the presidential candidate’s wife. Alex joins forces with an opportunistic Russian double agent to hunt down the gem’s source, which takes them from Europe’s semilegitimate diamond markets to Africa’s blood diamond mines. Hart’s view of the diamond trade rings true, but his picture of the inner workings of national-level intelligence and law enforcement lacks the same depth. The plethora of characters slows the action, and he tends to tell rather than show, with many of the major plot beats explained after the fact. The original premise and assured prose suggest he’s capable of doing better next time. Agent: Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A rare gem, punning aside. The Russian Pink will enthrall fans for Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne, and leave them hoping for more Alex Turner."

STARRED REVIEW Booklist

"The Russian Pink is a deft, fast-paced thriller that shines its light on a fascinating and dangerous world few of us know about: diamonds and how they get from dinosaur days to glistening around beautiful necks and promised fingers. MatthewHart creates a saga that hurtles through mind-snapping twists at breakneck speed, with killers, con men, cops, and billionaires, all seeking to control a giant, ultra-rare pink diamond. If you want to know the real story that such treasures tell, this is the novel for you."

James Grady

Already an authority on the ways blood diamonds are formed, bought, and sold, Matthew Hart’s expertise shines in his first thriller, featuring a rose-colored heavyweight that lies around the neck of the presumptive First Lady. An exhilarating read, The Russian Pink has more facets than even the world’s biggest diamond.”—

Mitch Silver

"Hart writes passionately about diamonds and the people who chase them, but he also has a strong handle on the personal dynamics and obsessions that drive this mysterious world."

CrimeReads - Dwyer Murphy

★ 2020-09-02
A diamond is no one’s best friend in this fast-paced debut novel filled with greed, violence, and politics.

“All diamonds are blood diamonds,” begins the tale. “It’s just a question of whose blood.” The 1,512-carat pink rock is barely off a Congo riverbed when the killing begins. Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the “savage, unconquerable” stone eventually ends up adorning the neck of Honey Li, the wife of billionaire and U.S. presidential contender Harry Nash. Alas, “the man who tries to master this…will never know peace.” Meanwhile, protagonist Alex Turner is a Treasury agent working for Special Audits on illegal gem trading by Russian organized crime. He gets help from Slav Lily, an independent diamond trader/thief simultaneously “working for the bad guys, the good guys, and herself.” She believes in God the Father Almighty, Jesus Christ, and her fully-loaded slimline subcompact Glock. In fact, all the characters are well drawn: “Honey oozed from the car as if she had been squeezed from a tube, lithe and smooth as paste.” A police commissioner who sounds suspiciously like Bill Bratton has “street smarts so sharp you could shave with them.” “Chuck was seduced by his own imagination, a fertile garden that he’d never learned to weed.” And the narrative is chock-full of memorable lines: “It’s true that she wore a Kevlar vest, but, fatally, not a Kevlar hat.” Ouch!Bad guys home in on Turner’s daughter and ex-wife as a way of stopping him, which naturally pisses him off—but will he be able to protect his family? Early on in the story, the Russian mob’s brutality becomes crystal clear, with the torture and murder of a woman in Brighton Beach. The author writes with skill, wit, and evident knowledge about the diamond industry—who knew there were such things as diamond pipes?

Top-quality storytelling for thriller fans.

Kirkus Reviews