[Caitlin]

The Love of Stones by Tobias Hill
2001 Faber & Faber Limited, London

This delightful book was sitting on my in-law’s bookcase- a perfect vacation read!

A “historical thriller”, this novel examines the history and travels of a piece of jewelry known as the “3 Brethren” for the 3 large, rectangular, perfectly matched, balas rubies that dominate the piece. This piece of jewelry also includes 3 large round pearls and one teardrop shaped pearl, and at the center a huge diamond shaped like a pyramid.

It was (fiction!) commissioned by the Duke John the Fearless the 3rd Valois Duke of Burgundy around 1400 and worn by him into battle. When he was defeated by the enfant Dauphin, the jewel passed to ownership by its first Royal.

The gem is broken up and reunited more than once. One subplot features 2 Iraqi brothers who took some of the stones from it to London and rebuilt it for Queen Elizabeth, who was one of the most important amongst this gem’s owners. It sometimes languished in the hands of a dealer because no one could afford to buy it!

The book begins and ends with a young British woman who is on the trail of the gem. Her story weaves through the flashbacks of the gem’s progress through the world. As she put it, "My life is part of the story of the Three Brethren, not the other way around.... The Brethren has been the turning point of many lives, and mine is only one."

It is packed with tidbits about pearls and other gems, as well as smidges of exotic gem markets across time and space.

You can buy this book for $1 + postage- can’t beat that!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=all

[Caitlin]

The Pearl
by John Steinbeck
1945 many editions and versions available

the tragic tale of how a priceless pearl brings greed, treachery and loss to a poor Mexican pearl diver, his wife and their infant son.

(audiofile)

[Caitlin]

The Black Pearl
by Scott Odell
1967 many versions available

The morality/coming of age tale of a youth from La Paz, Baja CA, Mexico who finds an enormous black pearl in the waters of the Bay of Cortez......

[jshepherd]

The Secret of the Red Pearl

http://www.bargainjudaica.com/the_se...arl_6037_1.htm

I am going to need to read this before I head off to Tahiti again

[Caitlin]

Here's some info from the website:
A Rebbe Mendel book
"Do "red pearls" really exist? What happens when a red pearl mysteriously turns up--created by a jealous prankster? "

[Caitlin]

Pearl Cove
Elizabeth Lowell
1999

Businessmen, criminals, and government agencies are willing to do whatever it takes to find a fabulous pearl necklace, named the Black Trinity. Australia
http://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Cove-Don.../dp/0380789884 copies starting at $.01

[Satine De La Courcel]

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

The Pearl
by John Steinbeck
1945 many editions and versions available

(audiofile)

Hey I had to read this one in one of my english classes!

Cheers

[Ragnorak]

If your after a page turner then DI Morrissey's Tears of the Moon might be something to have a look at.

[Aycee]

I must admit I enjoyed: 18mm Blues by Gerarl A Browne

Available pretty cheap from just about everywhere.

http://tinyurl.com/youzf4 Amazon has them starting at $0.01

Ill-gotten, naturally blue pearls and restless spirits draw a San Francisco gem-dealer and his impetuous artist girlfriend to Burma, Thailand, and the warm but awfully dangerous waters of the Andaman Sea--as Browne continues to rummage through the jewelry box. Lying in the blue sands of an uncharted lagoon somewhere off the coast of southern Asia, a bunch of oysters has been building up a fortune in true-blue pearls. The accidental discovery of those oysters is fatal for a couple of Japanese pearl-diving women on hire to a vicious French thug who, preferring not to share the prize, murders the women.

Alain

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by Aycee

I must admit I enjoyed: 18mm Blues by Gerarl A Browne

Wonder if they knew of these...