In a small town on the Italian coast a mysterious woman washes ashore. She is crippled mute & clutches a bundle to her chest
- a baby the townspeople insist is a real-life mermaid. It can only bring bad luck; they pay a troupe of acrobats to carry mother & child away. In the bustling trade center of Venice merchant Paul Pindar is the subject of his colleagues concern. Since his return from Constantinople they have found him changed; raging over the loss of his beloved Celia he has gambled away his fortune at the gaming tables. But when a priceless blue diamond surfaces in the city Pindar recognizes the opportunity to regain everything he has lost
- including perhaps the woman he loves. A celebrated writer of history & travel books Katie Hickman has always been a master of evoking time & place. With The Pindar Diamond her follow-up to The Aviary Gate she brings early-seventeenth-century Italy vividly to life & also demonstrates her maturity as a novelist. A tale of love & avarice with a touch of the mystical The Pindar Diamond is rich with historical detail & unfolds with urgency & grace. It is accomplished wholly satisfying historical fiction.