The arid wilderness of colonial South

Africa is the setting for this saga of love

and ambition; the duel between two

formidable men for control of the leg-

endary Kimberley diamond fields at

the turn of the century.

Young Barney Barnato had nothing

to lose when he abandoned his squalid

existence in London s East End and

set out for the Dark Continent to make

his fortune. He built an empire and

became a threat to the ruthless Cecil

Rhodes, who scorned the pauper-

turned-tycoon and tried at every turn

to destroy him.

But the ghetto Jew proved to be

more than a match for the snobbish

Rhodes, who had bought himselfa title

and craved total control of the diamond trade, where millions were made and

lost overnight.

Barnato s struggle, which took him

from unbearable poverty to unimagined

riches, from loveless slums to the lov-

ing arms of a beautiful woman, always

stalked by the malevolent Rhodes,

makes for a riveting novel blending his-

tory with fiction in the frontier days of

nineteenth-century empire building.

Robert L. Fish was born in Cleveland,

Ohio, and lived in Trumbull, Connect-

icut. He is best known as a writer of

mystery novels. The recipient of three

Edgar Awards, the highest award of the

Mystery Writers of America, Mr. Fish

served as that society s president later

in his distinguished career. His novel

Mute Witness was made into the film

Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen. He is

the author of 35 novels, including his

most recent, Pursuit, as well as the bi-

ography of the celebrated soccer star,

Pele: My Life & the Beautiful Game.