The Color of Death by Elizabeth Lowell

The Color of Death by Elizabeth Lowell

Kate Chandler is a colored stone cutter in the gem world. Her half brother, Lee Mandel, is a courier for transporting precious gems to their destinations. Lee surprises a thief and is killed. After he's gone missing, his half sister, Kate, goes to the police, the FBI, and no one will listen to her. They say he's taken off with the package of gems containing the Seven Sins blue sapphires that Kate had cut. But she knows that Lee wouldn't leave her without contact. Soon she gets a death threat.

When one of the Seven Sins stones shows up at a gem show with the low life Purcell couple, she manages to disguise herself and switch stones. She studies it and realizes that this is one of the missing stones so she goes back to switch the stones back before she goes to the FBI. Meanwhile, Special Agent Sam Groves, is watching the show and sees her switch the stones.

Together they put their talents to work to catch the thief that is killing couriers, stealing gems, breaking stones down from hot stones to cold anonymous stones, and doing it all with brutality and cold precision. Is someone from the inside passing on information? How else do they target the specific couriers and shipments.

Sounds like a winner doesn't it? I thought so until I read it. In a normal world, they would have suspected Kate all along but they never did. The language is so constantly atrocious and vulgar that I will be throwing this book in the trashcan. Surprisingly, the views of women are sexist and degrading, yet this author is a woman. It makes me wonder what kind of men she's known in her life. The male characters see women as sexual objects and nothing more. They dismiss them, call them names and make sexual references degrading them. My father, husband, brothers-in-law, etc. don't act and talk that way. I'm sure there are men out there that do, and shame on them. But for a woman to promote it in her book (and I do mean ALL the male characters in her book did) is strange. The sex scenes were explicit and I skipped those. The violence was graphic. So I don't recommend this book to anyone. Do yourself a favor and skip it.