All the Diamonds in the World by Mark Guscin

Title: All the Diamonds in the World
Author: Mark Guscin
Available from: Amazon

I received a request for review from the author of this book, and was provided a free copy to read.

I gave up on this book 30% into it, and it was a struggle to get that far.

I found this book to be a snoozer, nothing thrilling about it, nothing close to The Da Vinci Code. I decided to give up when I was reading the detailed historical background of a character I assume will become far more interesting later in the book (otherwise, why spend so much time on her history?) – and found I really didn’t care about the character enough to keep slogging through the details of her life, and I didn’t care enough about the story to slog through the details of her life to find out why they were important to the story.

The author spends a lot of words on details that fail to move the story forward. Frankly, I found it boring. A third into a book billed as a thriller and page-turner, the “middle-aged historian” is a barely developed character. I know more about a woman he meets and an ancient Byzantium general and emperor than I know about this historian. I know even less about the object he seeks, the mystery surrounding it and the search to find it.

The premise show promise; unfortunately, in my opinion the storytelling doesn’t deliver on the promise. If you’re looking for a thriller and page turner, save yourself the $9.99 – this isn’t it.