The protege of a famous cat burglar reluctantly agrees to join forces with a lesser criminal in the daring heist of several famous jewels from a seemingly impenetrable vault.—Kevin Steinhauer <[email protected]>

The Jack of Diamonds is the moniker the authorities have given to an unknown cat burglar working the world, the name because of his penchant for stealing diamonds and his M.O. mimicking that of another cat burglar coined the Ace of Diamonds. Although Werner Von Schenk of the International Security Agency has a photograph of Ace, who is thought to have retired five years ago, Von Schenk still does not know his true identity, Ace who was never caught. In reality, Jack is Munich-based Canadian Jeffrey Hill, who is able in large part to elude the authorities with the help of his trusty and efficient man behind the scenes, Helmut, and who was indeed the student of Ace as the heir apparent. With increasing methods for the authorities to do their work and more sophisticated security, Ace is trying to convince Jack to retire himself while he's ahead. However, upon meeting Ace's old associate Nickolai Vodkine and his stepdaughter Olga Vodkine, Jack instead agrees to do a more complex job, stealing the heavily secured Zarahoff Diamonds in Paris. What may be the biggest obstacle to getting the job done is Nickolai's insistence that Olga be Jack's second in the field, Jack who doesn't trust anyone's abilities but his own, and Olga who doesn't like Jack's seemingly cavalier abandon to the way he operates. Meanwhile, Von Schenk is hot on Jack's trail. Von Schenk is aware that he not only has to figure out who Jack is, but have some conclusive evidence as to his crimes.—Huggo