#BookReview ‘Diamond’ by Jessie Keane

About the book…

BEHIND EVERY STRONG WOMAN IS AN EPIC STORY…

In the early years of the last century, a desperate young girl changes her name and flees the confines of her brutal, dominating gangland family in London. Now calling herself ‘Diamond Dupree’, she goes to Paris to become an artist’s model but the world there is different to what she had supposed it would be and she soon falls on hard times. When she manages to escape at the end of the First World War, she leaves behind her a mystery – and a dead man.

Back home in London, she reluctantly re-joins the Soho family ‘firm’ she’d once been glad to leave behind. Having grown tougher during her time in Paris, she soon becomes a force to be reckoned with, a feared and respected gangland queen. But then she meets Jacob Dunne, the youngest son of a wealthy aristocratic family, and sparks fly.
But can she escape the long arm of the law and the hangman’s noose, when the crimes of her past finally catch up with her?

For fans of Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers, as well as viewers of Peaky Blinders, this is historical crime fiction at its most compelling.

My thanks to the lovely Courtney at ED PR for inviting me to take part in the blog tour for Jessie Keane’s newest novel, ‘‘Diamond’ by Jessie Keane, which is out from Hodder Books on February 3rd 2022.

Caught between the end of the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth century, Diamond is a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it-hard graft, taking no nonsense and certainly not backing down for the advantage of any men.

She has had enough of it in her lifetime-her father, the head of the Butcher gang, driven to France by his arch enemies, the Wolfe family, returning to London only to be murdered, leaving his wife and 3 children at the mercy of their enemies. But even worse, left at the mercy of their relatives…

Wife Frenchie is literally handed to her brother in law, Victor, whilst their children are beat, turned into service, and abused. Her life essence literally draining away in front of Diamond’s eyes, her beloved mother quickly follows her father to her grave and Diamond is left, solely responsible for her younger, volatile brother Aiden, and the even younger Owen, brain damaged from oxygen depravation at birth.
Circumstances conspire to make Diamond culpable of a crime which carries the death penalty and, whilst the world is at war, and then, during peace time, Diamond fights a war of her own, for survival.

Moving to her mother’s homeland gives her the chance to mingle with the stars of the age, and plan her revenge. But there are so many dangers lurking in the shadows, from men who want her as arm candy, those who have had a taste of her and cannot get her out of their minds, and those who would use her to further their own ‘careers’ in crime, What none of them realise is that Diamond may look beautiful but inside she is rock hard and impenetrable. She is the only one who can decide who she will let into her heart, and when.

The short chapters increase the sense of urgency for the Butcher family as they begin the novel on the run, and that running and searching for a base, a sense of home, continues throughout this rather hefty novel. It is sweeping in a sense of taking in so much of the twentieth century, and the changes in both society and political arenas. Dramatic, unforgettable and wonderfully realised, Diamond is not a woman to be be easily forgotten.

About the author…

Now what about me? I’ve done a lot of writing, but way back before I even dreamed I could be a professional writer I was just the youngest in a big family.

My Dad was a surveyor with an edge of brilliance. My Mum was from gipsy roots and used to drive around in a goat-cart (yes, really!) when she was little. Once we were rich (although I didn’t know it then, and it was all thanks to my Dad’s ingenuity) and then suddenly – pretty shockingly, really – we were poor (thanks to greedy people who exploited his kindness).

I have to tell you, rich is better. But the great thing about life is, even painful events pass, and if you make bad choices, hopefully you learn from them.

Links-http://jessiekeane.com/

Twitter @realjessiekeane @ed_pr @HodderBooks