An Armenian Affair - Christian James

Flawless diamonds, ancient gold coins, antique jewelry.

Treasures scattered in the rubble of the old Soviet Union

In 1995, international economist Tom Yeager leaves his Texas Hill Country retreat to undertake a mission in an Armenia ravaged by earthquake, war and its neighbors' economic blockade to salvage a desperately-needed World Bank loan. Along the way, his distant past as a diamond courier rises up from London and Amsterdam to haunt him. While he grapples with Armenia's economic problems, forces gather around him to put his life and the lives of two women at risk--the exotic Armenian Ana Stepanian and the brainy, beautiful American Mariah Carroll. He must decide whether to honor his father's last wish and accept a packet of stolen Russian diamonds and take them out of Armenia along with the rarest of ancient gold coins and antique jewelry that will assure one Armenian family's future. Pursued by a Russian killer and an Armenian drug dealer, Tom, Ana and Mariah flee across the Turkish outback and the Syrian plain, racing for sanctuary in Jordan.

˃˃˃ Accepting a packet of stolen diamonds isn't Tom's only difficult choice.

His first wife, Seline, walked away, leaving him hurt and confused. Should he trust a relationship with another woman? Perhaps not, but if so, Ana and Mariah offer stunningly different options.

˃˃˃ Armenia itself is a character in the story.

Once a sprawling empire spanning much of the modern Middle East, Armenia was conquered by the Romans, absorbed by the Byzantines and the Ottomans, victimized by a 20th century genocide and submerged behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union. Now, an independent Armenia must struggle to find its footing in the family of nations.

˃˃˃ Precious gems, the rarest of gold coins and antique jewelry are the tangible evidence of a forgotten empire.

An Armenian Affair owes a distant kinship to Gerald A. Browne's Hot Siberian and Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park and Red Square. Its history flows from Franz Werfel's classic Forty Days at Musa Dagh and a host of scholarly studies tracing the roots of Armenia back to Noah and the Great Flood, yet An Armenian Affair stands alone as a novel of Armenia in the throes of rebirth as an independent nation.