The Diamond Conspiracy

By: Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Having narrowly escaped the electrifying machinations of Thomas Edison, Books and Braun are looking forward to a relaxing and possibly romantic voyage home. But when Braun's emergency signal goes off, all thoughts of recreation vanish. Braun's streetwise team of child informants, the Ministry Seven, is in grave peril, and Books and Braun must return to England immediately.

But when the intrepid agents finally arrive in London, the situation is even more dire than they imagined. The Ministry has been disavowed, and the Department of Imperial Inconveniences has been called in to decommission its agents in a most deadly fashion. The plan reeks of the Maestro's dastardly scheming. Only this time he has a dangerous new ally - a duplicitous doctor whose pernicious poisons have infected the highest levels of society, reaching even the queen herself.

©2015 Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (P)2015 Tantor

The Steampunk Fun Continues!

Right from the beginning, this series has been a steampunk story flavored with one part James Bond and one part X-Files. This time around it's a bit more 007 (with shades of Skyfall), and we get a little Doctor Who type vibe thrown into the mix. I won't say how, because that would ruin some of the surprises.

Picking up in the immediate aftermath of Dawn's Early Light, our intrepid agents have kindled a romance, but their time to savor it has been cut short by a distress signal that calls them back to London. One of their Ministry Seven, their street urchin informants, is missing. Worse still, the Crown has disavowed the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, and its agents are now systematically being picked off by agents of the Department of Imperial Inconveniences. Our heroes must survive the culling, expose the villains, and rescue one of their own. Secrets are revealed! Backstories are explained! And if you pay close attention, there are a few jabs at modern pop culture to be had.

As with the previous entries in this series, it's a light, fun read with all of the humor, pseudo-science, and historical cameos you've come to expect. And as with the previous entries, the further this story goes, the more outlandish it gets. For all of these reasons, this continues to be my favorite steampunk series.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Sadly the last in the series I will purchase

I loved this book. The narration was excellent. Because James Langton is an excellent voice actor. But I just returned the Ghost Rebellion, the next in the series, because I purchased it not realising that the authors had decided that they could do a better job narrating themselves.

What makes authors decide that this far into a series they can suddenly start doing their own narration.

So enjoy this book because if you purchase the next one I doubt you will get past the first 10 minutes. Tee Morris may be able to write but he is not a voice actors proverbial. Sad really, I was really looking forward to the continuing the adventure. I may need to purchase the next one as a good old fashioned ebook to avoid the truly awful narration. Bring back James Langton or at least someone competent.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Major twist!

This installment of the Peculiar Occurance series took an expected twist. Not my cuppa 😢

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

love the reader, disappointed in story

The narrator for The Diamond Conspiracy was excellent. I loved the first two books in this series. I found the third to be stretching things a bit far, but the fourth just tore it all together to pieces. Let's just say, I not only had to suspend belief, I had to completely generate a belief system that disallowed mercy and sympathy and approved wholesale slaughter of innocents without repercussion.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Another great listen.

I enjoyed the steampunk world that the authors have created and the growing character and plot development throughout the series. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Much too much

I enjoyed the first three books in the series. This one went too far. Without spoilers let me simply say that the addition of a new plot device and the travel to an unexpected location ruined the book for me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good romp, some groans...

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Was really waiting for this one, liked most developments... However groaned about main reveal/twist... It was just, I was expecting to be wowed by Tee and Pip.. Still love the series and eagerly await follow ups, maybe it's burn out on my part... Just, I felt I was auditing a Dr Who episode. Just seems to me that three and a half books should have given me something spectacular reveal!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Series went sexy.

“Now please for the love of god, let me ravish you”. WTH happened to this series? Some romantic tension between the two mains was fine, but the plot of this book is centered on locking them in various vehicles so they can get it on.

Weakest of the series so far but still decent

This is the fourth book in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series and it was a good addition to this series.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook for this series have been very well done. Langton does an amazing job at narrating these and his narration is part of what makes this series so fun.

I still enjoy our main characters of Books and Braun quite a bit. I was a bit frustrated that we didn't spend as much time with them in this book as we did in previous books. This book jumps around between different points of view quite a bit more than previous books and the side characters aren't nearly as well done or interesting as Books and Braun.

I also had some issues with knowing when the story was switching viewpoints, this may have been an audiobook issue. I would be listening to the story and then realize new characters were talking and we must have switched viewpoints. It always took me a bit to realize that I was listening about a different part of the story.

Overall this was a good addition to this series, but not my favorite book in the series. I enjoy the world and some of the characters (Books and Braun). I would have liked less page space with the other side characters….or maybe it would have been okay if the side characters had been developed a bit better. The story is well done. I would recommend this to steampunk fans.

Awesome

I enjoyed the narration. The story was. Very easy to listen to during my long drive. I love how the author incorporates known characters from other books into the story. Well done.