Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan examines the bodies of three babies while Detective Ryan investigates their mother in a case with ties to the high-stakes world of diamond mining.

South Africa, 1880. Frances Irvine, destitute in the wake of her father's sudden death, is forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Cape. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men, leading her into the dark heart of the diamond mines. Torn between passion and integrity, she makes a choice that has devastating consequences.

"Recent university graduate David 'Kubu' Bengu joins the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department directly rather than via the normal route of a constable on the beat. This does not sit well with existing detectives. Shortly after he joins the CID, the richest diamond mine in the world is robbed of 100,000 carats of diamonds in transit. The robbery is well-executed and brutal. Police immediately suspect an inside job, but there is no evidence of...