The Tavernier Stones »

Stephen Parrish (Germany) is a cartographer and gemologist. The Tavernier Stones is his first book. Visit him online at stephenparrish.com.

When the body of seventeenth-century mapmaker Johannes Cellarius floats to the surface of a bog in northern Germany with a 57-carat ruby clutched in his fist, the grisly discovery ignites a deadly twenty-first-century international treasure hunt to unearth the fabled Tavernier stones. The hoard reputedly contains some of the world's most notorious missing jewels, including the 280-carat Great Mogul diamond and the 242-carat Great Table diamond.

Scrupulously honest Amish-born cartographer John Graf teams up with outlaw prospector and gemologist David Freeman in a ferocious race to find the treasure and break a secret code that will unravel the centuries-old Tavernier stones mystery. But other fortune hunters, opportunists and criminals alike, are in hot pursuit of the mismatched partners--and they'll stop at nothing to possess the legendary jewels.

"Relentlessly fascinating, Stephen Parrish's Tavernier Stones is reminiscent of Dan Brown's Lost Symbol . . . It's one hell of a good time."--Mark Terry, author of The Fallen

Publishers Weekly

Parrish's debut, a Da Vinci Code satire, fails to make the most of its intriguing premise. When a bog man preserved in peat turns up near Hamburg, Germany, the police discover an enormous ruby clenched in his fist. Authorities identify him as Johannes Cellarius, a 17th-century cartographer, who was possibly done in with a pickaxe by a jealous husband. The really cold corpse inspires a global treasure hunt for the legendary Tavernier Stones, of which the ruby was part, lost by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) during his fabled seventh journey to the Orient. The last map Cellarius drew contains a clue composed of medieval runes. John Graf¸ an Amish cartographer, teams with David Freeman, a brilliant thief and gemologist, but more ruthless folks are also after the jewels. A gemologist and cartographer himself, Parrish slyly mixes fact and fancy as the progressively more silly action builds to an over-the-top climax. (May)