Yvonne
A series of fortuitous coincidences have come together, which have caused my path to cross with that of author Josie Goodbody, a new to me writer who, it transpires, lives practically on my own doorstep.
When Josie asked whether I would be interested in taking a look at The Monte Carlo Connection, the third installment in her diamond detective Jemima Fox-Pearl’s series of adventures, I decided that, given my terrible track record with series reading, I would purchase all three books and read them consecutively – so wish me luck!
Josie has also promised to put together a guest post for me, so keep watching for what is sure to be an interesting ‘Meet The Authors’ session 🙂
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THE DIAMOND CONNECTION – (Jemima Fox Mysteries Book #1)
The most expensive diamond necklace in the world is stolen during a high-profile charity gala in London.
Jemima Fox-Pearl, Head of PR at fine jewellery house Vogel, travels between London, South Africa and New York in a bid to solve the crime, while unravelling a century-old mystery of the Cullinan Diamond’s fabled missing part.
With love, intrigue, danger and disaster.
The Diamond Connection is an enthralling read while Jemima is an exciting new heroine who readers will immediately love.
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THE CHRISTMAS CONNECTION – (Jemima Fox Mysteries Book #2)
Jemima Fox, travels to Fairfax Park in the depths of Dorset, for Christmas.
Whilst there she discovers the story of the Duchess of Windsor’s stolen jewels and Queen Alexandra’s elusive emeralds.
In a thrilling showdown, she solves the mystery of their whereabouts and what happened one fateful night in 1946.
With tiaras, white tie dinners, a kidnapping and horse chases through the snow – The Christmas Connection is the ultimate Christmas mystery.
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THE MONTE CARLO CONNECTION – (Jemima Fox Mysteries Book #3)
Jemima Fox arrives in Monaco and is immediately in the midst of a jewellery heist.
She discovers some of the stolen jewels on a superboat, and knows who the thieves are, but has to find how to prove it.
In doing so she also finds the priceless jewels stolen from the Hotel de Paris at Grace Kelly’s 1956 wedding.
Taking in the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix – with several diamond clad parties on the way, and the odd murder – The Monte Carlo Connection is going to super charge the summer.
Hold on to your (Ferrari) horses…
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JOSIE GOODBODY
When Josie was quite young her mother took her to London’s V&A Museum. She fell in love with the jewellery department there and much later found out that several of the pieces that she had so admired had in fact belonged to an ancestor, the great aunt of her paternal grandmother, Theresa, the Marchioness of Londonderry. The Londonderry Tiara which is on display was worn by the Marchioness at the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 at Westminster Abbey.
After university and a year working in the press offices of both Chanel and Dior in Paris, Josie was a PR assistant for Bulgari and Ritz Fine Jewellery, before getting the job of a lifetime with Graff Diamonds, as Head of PR. While there, she was lucky enough to be taught everything there is to know about diamonds and precious gemstones, by the king of diamonds, Laurence Graff. Of course this only enhanced her love affair with fine jewellery.
Having spent almost fifteen years working in PR, Josie moved to Monaco and in 2011 after the death of her mother she started The Monte Carlo Connection to help heal her pain. It is loosely based on her 10 months living on the Riviera and her years in jewellery PR, first portrayed in The Diamond Connection and The Christmas Connection – available on Amazon. Josie had always wanted to write novels – having spent years reading innumerable books and decided to start with what she knew best and loved most – jewels, and their mysterious stories.
Her novels purposefully describe and depict jewellery as beautifully and truthfully as possible. She wanted to include elements of the industry or specific gemstones, where her readers would pick up pieces of information that they might not otherwise know.
“I am always amazed at how little people know about gemstones – so few have any idea how, for example, the De Beers Group and Gem Diamonds, go about discovering and recovering gems; or really appreciate the skill of the brands who buy and then make these gemstones into the most exquisite pieces of jewellery.” Josie Goodbody explains.
This series of books, is based on real life mysteries of the jewellery world – particularly when jewels have gone missing or being stolen.
“People I talk to seem to be as fascinated as me by the mysteries and indeed histories of jewels.” Josie says, “So I wanted to create a series of books which bring both to life, as well as the sumptuous surroundings of the books’ settings.”
After putting the first few parts of the novel started in Monaco in a file on her computer, she started, what became, her first novel – The Diamond Connection. It is based around the 1905 discovery of the Cullinan diamond – the largest ever found – and the mysterious myth about its fabled ‘other half’. There is a chapter set at the Cullinan mine (from where this diamond was found), near Pretoria in South Africa. She writes the section of the book from her own experience of visiting the mine in 2010 and seeing how diamonds were mined.
Her second, The Christmas Connection is in fact a novella and is set where she grew up – in Dorset in South West of the UK. Her protagonist spends a snowy Christmas in a huge stately home and discover the mystery of a pretty unknown event, when the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels were stolen in 1946. She came back to the Monte Carlo Connection whilst pregnant, and wrote the whole book in a matter of months, helped by memories of living on the Cote d’Azur and reminiscing about the beauty and splendour of Monaco and the Riviera. And the characters she met along the way.
Josie now lives on a large farm in Wiltshire with her husband, their son Arthur, dog Milo and are expecting a little baby girl in August. She has most recently worked on the development of an educational programme for the De Beers Group and writes about jewellery for various publications and brands. She is currently penning her fourth novel in the series – The Paris Connection.
Catch up with all Josie’s latest news at her website
Follow Josie on Twitter
Connect with Josie on Facebook
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Mailbox Monday is a dedicated gathering place for readers to share links to the books that came into their house during the last week. This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well, after all you never know where that next “must read” book will come from.
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Looks to be a good series, Yvonne. Entertaining plus you’ll learn about gems – I hope you enjoy the books and have a good week.
Hi Mary,
I am looking forward to ‘meeting’ Jemima Fox, she sounds like quite a character and a little lighter reading will probably do me no harm at all.
I do enjoy looking at jewellery and can apprciate the vast amounts of time and expertise that can go into making some of the beautiful pieces. I don’t really wear much jewellery though, as I am always frightened of losing any of the pieces I do own.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have some great reads lined up for this week 🙂
Wow, the author has quite a fascinating history herself. The books look good to me. I hope you love them.
Hi Kathy,
Josie has definitely made the most of any opportunities which have come her way, that’s for sure and her credentials would seem to more than qualify her to write in her area of expertise.
She has promised to stop by with a guest post in the not too distant future, however as she is due to give birth to her second child, anytime now, I am not going to hold her to that!
Thanks for taking the time to visit, I always appreciate your comments 🙂
What an interesting concept for a series of novels! I’m patting you on the back for choosing to start with the first book, Yvonne. 😉 I look forward to more posts in the future.
Hi Kelly,
I went down the route of buying all three books in this series because, as Josie is such a local to me author, I really want to support her and I was genuinely intrigued by the premise for the Jemima Fox-Pearl storyline, which as you point out, is interesting and rather unique.
Josie has set me straight on the first book in the series, which she admits herself, would have benefitted from more professional editing, an issue she hopes she has made vast improvements on in, ‘The Monte Carlo Connection’.
Personally, I will be looking out for a good balance between information and descriptive writing about Josie’s passion, the jewellery; and a firm, solid character in Jemima Fox and her case solving expertise. If one overpowers the other rather too much, it might be an issue for me.
Watch this space for plenty more posts about the books 🙂
This looks like a fun series. I like the historical elements in the mysteries. Nice covers too.
Happy Reading!
Hi Martha,
Yes, it does sound as though there is a nice balance between historical jewellery ‘disappearances’ and the modern day jewellery heist.
With a jewellery expert sleuth like Jemima Fox on the case, solving one crime, whilst investigating another, is sure to be fraught with danger and difficulties!
Something a little different for my portfolio!
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week 🙂
This sounds like a fun series and good luck reading all 3, you can do it! And I lenjoyed reading the author’s bio, how glamorous working in Chanel and Dior in Paris. Very cool.
Hi Naida,
Yes! I don’t think I have ever featured an author with quite such an interesting past. I think that working with Graff Diamonds must have been the most interesting of times; well, I know it would have been for me anyway!
Until I get to see Josie’s promised Guest Post, I am assuming that she might have based the character of Jemima Fox on herself a little and that whilst the stories themselves might be a little on the ‘cozy’ side, any facts about the gemstones or jewellery, are going to be factually accurate and interesting.
I hope that you have some great reading lined up for this week 🙂