Hypothesis

by Richard Coico

Noah Selman grew up in the Hasidic tradition in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and was destined to join his family business in the diamond district of Manhattan. But he summons the courage to cut ties with Hasidic life to pursue his dream of becoming a biomedical scientist while managing to maintain his relationship with family members. After achieving his dream and becoming a prominent young researcher in the field of genetic medicine, his older brother Ben urgently needs Noah’s help. The family business has unknowingly been trafficking cremation diamonds disguised as natural gems for more than a year. The FBI has put Ben on notice that the Selman business is a target of a global diamond hoax investigation. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a stranger with a Russian accent has just contacted Ben and issued death threats if he cooperates with the FBI. Noah and his new wife, Samantha, an investigative journalist, begin their own investigation. They learn that the only time Ben worked with a synthetic diamond was when an eccentric woman from the Hamptons commissioned him to cut and polish a diamond made from her husband’s ashes. The woman, a sociopath who murdered her husband, was referred to Ben by the Russian-backed cremation diamonds enterprise in Brooklyn. Irony mixed with truth hiding in plain sight collide when Noah and Samantha learn who the woman, now wearing a diamond ring made from her husband’s ashes, really is. Clueless about how she fits into the FBI investigation, the pair is determined to use their sleuthful instincts to connect the crime dots. Instincts manifest answers. Ultimately, a map pointing to a major diamond cartel in South Africa is drawn. That’s where one of the most ingenious and successful methods of disguising and distributing man-made diamonds has been successfully underway for years. How did it all start? More to the point, can it ever be stopped?

404 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 23, 2022