The Deadly Blue Diamond

The Deadly Blue Diamond, a fast-paced thriller, pits a young surgeon against vicious mobsters, crooked cops, and Chicago politicians. Little Louie, who killed his first man at age fifteen, organized a robbery to steal the Blue Diamond, a power symbol, that belonged to Al Capone. The heist goes bad. Rooky cops shoot Louie's punch-drunk accomplice after he swallowed the diamond. A young surgeon, who lost his confidence in the Korean War, operates for the gunshot, but doesn't find the diamond. The patient dies.

The cops and a big-time politician claim the surgeon stole the diamond. The surgeon and a sexy reporter steal the body from the morgue to retrieve the diamond, but the hit man shoots a cop and kidnaps the reporter, the surgeon, and the corpse. The surgeon does an autopsy with a switchblade, finds the diamond, and stabs the mobster. The chase is on, through the streets of Chicago into Bubbly Creek and onto storm-tossed Lake Michigan. The reporter uses her charms to lay hands on the diamond.

About The Author:

John Raffensperger, MD, was a surgeon at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago during the 1950's. His descriptions of the hospital, surgery, the morgue, and Chicago are accurate, realistic, and a little bloody. As in the story, he really did apply bare electric wires to the chest of a patient in cardiac arrest. He writes about mobsters and their victims with a pen as sharp as a surgical scalpel.

He was a professor of surgery and has written textbooks, medical history, stories for children, and historical fiction. Dr. R. now lives in Florida with his wife, a dog named Rosie, and two elderly cats.