For the fourth (and probably final) novel in his Diamond District murder mystery series, veteran jewelry journalist Rob Bates says he had to take on one of the biggest issues in the industry at the moment: lab-grown diamonds.
In Making a Killing in Diamonds, Bates brings back amateur sleuth Mimi Rosen to help solve the disappearance of a brilliant scientist and the murder of a company CEO. The book, to be published Aug. 12, is available for preorder on Amazon and other bookseller websites.
“I figured if I was going to write novels about the diamond business, I’d have to write about lab-grown diamonds eventually,” says Bates, who as news director for JCK has reported extensively on the revolution brought about by lab-created stones, as well as other industry issues including sanctions and “blood diamonds.”
An unemployed journalist, Mimi Rosen balances two worlds that Bates is well acquainted with, thanks to his three decades of writing about the global gem and jewelry trade. Bates says his new novel, which is set in Manhattan’s Diamond District on 47th Street, spotlights the high stakes, ethical complexities, and generational tensions that have arisen with the growing popularity of lab-grown diamonds.
JCK’s Rob Bates has written four books in his Diamond District mystery series.
In Making a Killing in Diamonds, Mimi is now working for her father’s diamond business and finds herself drawn into a mystery that straddles two sectors of the industry: the old-school diamond dealers—bound by family, tradition, and silent codes of loyalty—and the gleaming new frontier of lab-grown gems, where startups backed by venture capitalists promise disruption, transparency, and sustainability.
As Mimi investigates the murder, she confronts uncomfortable truths about the industry’s resistance to change, how it’s become more difficult to define what is “real,” and the blurred ethical lines that define what people value in luxury.
Bates says he wasn’t sure he wanted to write another book in the Mimi Rosen series—until the advent of ChatGPT.
“That got me thinking about how the diamond industry’s recent travails mirror what’s happening in other sectors,” he explains. “Just like a diamond grown in a lab is just as real as one from the ground, a song written by ChatGPT is just as real as one written by a person. But does that matter? Should it? I thought those were all interesting questions, which I explore in the book.”
While his new mystery is mostly about diamonds, Bates says he also wanted to reflect on bigger questions about disruption, technology, and how we define reality in this modern age.
“There’s a little bit of sci-fi in it, too. Not everything in it is possible today. There’s a company in it that I made up, with the goal of coming up with the stupidest company possible. And the funny thing is, people asked me if it was real,” the author says.
Previous titles in his Diamond District mystery series are A Murder Is Forever, Murder Is Not a Girl’s Best Friend, and Slay It With a Diamond. Bates named the heroine after his late mother, Mimi.
“I like the characters. They’re good people, and I would definitely enjoy hanging out with them if they were real,” Bates says. “I particularly enjoy writing Max, Mimi’s father. He’s funny and a decent guy. If I go too many chapters without Max, I make sure and get him in there.”
And why set his fiction within the jewelry industry? “You have to write what you know,” says Bates, “and I don’t know much about anything else. If I ever learn about another topic, perhaps I’ll write about that.
“I guess being a published author gives you a cool thing to brag about at parties, but it’s not like I go to that many parties lately, and when I do, people don’t seem that impressed that I’ve written four books. They keep asking me why the series is not on Netflix. Because they haven’t called!”
As to whether this book truly is the finale in the Mimi Rosen saga, Bates says, “At the moment I don’t expect to continue the series, but you never know. I may get inspired.
“Please, everyone,” he adds, “buy lots of copies and inspire me.”
Top: Rob Bates’ fourth murder mystery novel, Making a Killing in Diamonds, will be published in mid-August. (Photos courtesy of Rob Bates)