Black Diamond

MURDER MAKES AN UNEXPECTED VISIT TO THE U OF M'S COZY CAMPUS

In exchange for some missed class notes, University of Michigan student and sports reporter Zoe Kaplan agrees to drive drab dorm-mate Clare Swann to her eccentric late aunt's estate for the sorting of her possessions. When the will is read, Clare is handed the mysterious "Black Diamond," a porcupine quill-covered black box filled with seemingly meaningless mementos.

But when Zoe and Clare return to Clare's dorm room after a trip to the library, they find the place ripped apart, the Black Diamond missing, and a man with a gashed throat lying dead on Clare's floor--a man whom Clare recognizes as her father, assumed dead years ago. Enlisting her friend, clear-minded computer expert Anneke Haagen, for help, Zoe digs a century back, beneath the layers of a logging family's dark past--and into a present rife with murderous ambition.