Gerald Browne has dazzled readers

worldwide with his bestseUing novels,

including Stone 588 and 19 Purchase

Street. In 18mm BLUES the master of

elegant suspense again displays his un-

matched storytelling finesse~ Set against

the backdrop of the secretive, highly lu-

crative international gem market, 18ram

BLUES is a mystery of murder and re-

venge that reaches from San Francisco s

Potrero Hill to the jasmine-scented coast

of Burma.

Pearls. Cleopatra gave them to Marc

Antony in the most expensive meal in

history. Hindus place them in the mouths

of the dead. And every year, from the

Far East to New York s diamond dis-

trict, they bring billions of dollars on the

open and not-so-open market.

Grady Bowman is a creature of that

market. But Grady Bowman is not the

man he used to be. lle s out of a job and

out of a marriage, and he s madly in love

with a beautiful, eccentric San Francisco

artist who has just tried to kill herself~

Julia Elkins is a changed person, too.

Saved from years of loneliness and her

own despair, she accompanies Grady to

Rangoon and the annual Gem Empo-

rium to help him set up his own gem

business~ Neither Grady nor Julia can

guess that their long journey has become

intertwined with a bloody incident car-

ried out decades before.

Off the coast of Burma a remarkable

discovery was made. Two Japanese

amas--women pearl divers--retrieved a

handful of unheard-of blue pearls, 18 mil-

limeters in diameter. As a reward, they