Review 1: The Medici Diamonds

This is a review by Vivien Crystal:

Are you looking for a well-written, adventurous mystery with some historical connections to add to the intrigue? Here it is in Nickie Fleming's tale about the Medici diamonds, reputed to be cursed to whoever is the current owner but sought by thieves. In fact, they are willing to murder anyone who possesses these priceless jewels.

The tale begins with a young woman waking up in a Burgundy convent. Unable to remember anything about her past, she is dependent on her brother for her future. She experiences three marriages, fraught with convenience, brutality, and finally passionate love.

Before that dream of true love happens, however, Marguerite (or Margot as she is called by her peers) undergoes horrific nightmares about her unknown past, physical debilitation when the emerging memories strive to surface, a beating that leaves her mentally scarred but determined to protect her well-being at all costs, several murder attempts which wind up accidentally killing several people around her but which fail to remove the intended target, and finally an escape to a safe place where all of her tortured memories begin to emerge.

The returned memory portion of the novel is no less exciting than the previous sections and it is here that the reader discovers how the Medici diamonds have passed from victim to victim as well as the history of the diamonds.

The world of 18th Century France is portrayed accurately with its Prince Regent, Philippe d' Orleans and his court, as well as those constantly vying for his favor. Masqued dances, fashionable dress, the acquisition of riches to gain inclusion in the royal court, the loose marital agreements that allow and even expect affairs of the heart to supercede fidelity in monogamy, the secretive but powerful underworld of the Quartier Saint-Denis, a lost child and more fill these pages with enough action to totally mesmerize every reader. While the plot is certainly a familiar one to most readers, Nickie Fleming is adept at crafting the novel into sections that keep the reader guessing and thoroughly enjoying the progress of Marguerite's insecure journey and that of her friends and enemies.


This is a grand read - buy it and lose yourself in Nickie Fleming's imaginative presentation of France in the 1700s.