Diamond Fever!
A True Crime Story in the Wild West
by Steve Sheinkin
with comics and art by Jon Chad
Roaring Brook Press, 2026. 240 pages.
Review written August 30, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
Here’s a true crime story told with all the drama of a novel. It’s suitable for middle school or upper elementary kids, though teens will like it, too. I’ll list it on the Children’s Nonfiction page, but this isn’t a picture book – it’s an adventure tale of the Wild West.
The story is of a dramatic and complicated swindle involving a diamond mine. We know it’s a crime from the title, and the author doesn’t hide that from the beginning, but we don’t know what was done or how they pulled it off until the end.
Interesting to me is that the criminals got away with it. Essentially, they duped famous and powerful people, who didn’t want it to get out that they had been swindled. It’s a long and involved swindle, and Steve Sheinkin takes us every step of the way.
He starts us off with two men in San Francisco in 1870, bringing a bag of rough diamonds to a mine investor for safe keeping. They say they found a diamond field when out prospecting. The investor checks, and these are real diamonds.
And so begins a long adventure involving multiple investors and multiple expeditions to the secret diamond field in the middle of the country. Before it’s done, they’ve pulled in the rich and powerful and have throngs in San Francisco interested in investing, planning to strike it rich. They even have to be stealthy about visiting the site, because others will want to stake a claim first.
How is it a crime? Who’s responsible? How did they pull it off? Where did the actual diamonds in that bag come from? The author skillfully spreads out the answers to keep us wanting to find out more. And there’s some nice pointers about not falling for scams at the end. It can even happen to the rich and powerful!
Some of the key scenes are shown with comics, and this tale is spun in a way that keeps you turning pages.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/diamond_fever.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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