Carat Capers

Carat Capers is a jewel of a story, pun intended. It’s a tale about three very intelligent and extremely greedy men, Felix Feldman, Amos Kadden and Jacob Kessner, whose desire for wealth and the power and social status that usually comes with it has them embarking on a well-planned crime spree that targets victims in many cities in the U. S. and even extends to urban areas in Europe and South Africa.

All of their victims are unusual in one respect. They possess very rare and very valuable jewels and this trio will do anything to get their hands on them, including murder. They are extremely knowledgeable in the area of precious gems, having been raised in the business, and own and run their own boutique jewelry store, The Paragon, in Manhattan.

They have acquired and are very adept in the use of extremely sophisticated equipment designed to come up with the combination to all kinds of locks on doors and safes and disarm top of the line security systems. They also have an expertise in the use of explosives and in the creation and use of disguises. When needed they have access to forged documents of the highest quality using a variety of aliases which gives them the mobility to move around undetected, leaving no trail for the authorities to follow which might lead to their capture. They have also gotten their hands on Israeli machine pistols which they don’t hesitate to use if anyone gets in their way. Using a unique sleeping gas that doesn’t stimulate any of the sensory organs, but instantly attacks the sleep center of the brain, they can easily neutralize any security force guarding and/or patrolling a target area because the gas acts almost instantaneously.

Added to these attributes is a plethora of self-confidence and good luck which the NYPD finds an intimidating combination to contend with. In short, they have quite an arsenal at their disposal.

Three disparate individuals, Lieutenant Mickey Morretti, the NYPD detective assigned to lead the investigation into the precious gems robberies, Chuck Ferguson, a private investigator and former Green Beret hired by one of the victims to help find her stolen diamond shipment and Vicki Valance, the victim who hired Chuck Ferguson and a diamond merchant, broker and collector, join forces and combine their resources to bring the people behind these robberies and killings to justice and recover the stolen gems.

Traps are set and foiled, surveillance is established and eluded and the pressure from the media, the politicians and the powers that be at NYPD for an arrest and conviction continues to build at a career ending rate. Every investigative road Lieutenant Morretti chooses to go down ends up being a dead end.

Intrigue, suspense, frustration, humor, a little romance plus a dash of puns and clichés tossed in for good measure are the ingredients of the recipe used to create this tale for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!