To learn more about life in the Congo, listen to Dave Donelson’s discussion with a class at St. John’s University.
Covering the endless civil war in the Congo seems like the perfect way for television journalist Valerie Grey to escape the tangles of her personal life. But complications arise—most of them
red-hot dangerous—when she stumbles onto a diamond smuggling scheme that begins in the Congo and leads to the White House.
In a plot-driving twist, the diamonds come from a mine
owned by American televangelist Gary Peterson, who smuggles them inside nkisi, traditional figures like voodoo dolls, in a scheme to cheat his partner in the
mine, Congolese President Moshe Messime. Valerie Gray learns that an aide to U.S. President Billy Baker is involved, news that casts an ugly, profit-driven light on
an impending U.S. military action in the war-ravaged country. As Valerie closes in on the truth, each of these powerful men—the preacher, the politician, and the dictator—unleash their personal dogs of war to keep
her from revealing their bloody secrets.
Valerie relies on her own wits, courage, and grit to survive their savage pursuit through the horrific war-torn
landscape of the Congo. Caught between her pursuers and brutal warring factions fighting for control of the diamond-rich region, Valerie canoes down crocodile-
infested rivers, dodges assassins in attack helicopters, and races over bone-rattling roads to bring her shocking story to the outside world.
A love triangle both enriches the adventure and lays the groundwork for tragedy, as Valerie struggles to understand her conflicting feelings for companion David Powell, the über journalist
who helped shape her fabulous career, and Dr. Jaime Talon, who selflessly runs a struggling clinic near the mine. The chaos of civil war forms the perfect backdrop for Valerie’s despair in the soul-shattering climax.
