Product Description

Once again, Tim Diamond and his younger brother Nick are flat broke. So when they're hired to investigate an anonymous death threat made to world-famous pop singer and movie actress Minerva, they jump at the chance. However, the Greek celebrity seems to have plenty of enemies - so the question is, which one actually wants her dead? Meanwhile, Tim needs to resist Minerva's amorous advances and focus in the matter in hand...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7465 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

About the Author
Anthony Horowitz is the creator of the phenomenal Alex Rider books and the bestselling Power of Five series. He won the 2006 British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year for Ark Angel (9780744583243) and the 2003 Red House Children's Book of the Year Award for Skeleton Key (9781844280940). Anthony, who wrote the script for the Alex Rider movie Stormbreaker, also writes extensively for TV, with credits including Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War. He lives in Clerkenwell, London.

Customer Reviews

Sparkling
Another great Diamond Brothers caper from the peerless Anthony Horowitz who seems to churn great reads out in his sleep. Witty, sharp and effortlessly fun, Nick Diamond rescues his brother from another spot of trouble, and like Hong-Kong Phooey's cat he lets the other one take the credit. Great stuff.

Good, but...
This is the most recent in the Diamond Brothers series, and it is a very good book and well worth buying for a male as the slim volume should encourage them that they can read it quickly and then get back to something more "interesting".
As the title suggests, it's Christmas, the "Diamond" detective brothers are flat-broke as usual, and the story title is of course a play on "THe Grinch that Stole Christmas" like the French Confection (Connection), Public Enemy No.2, etc.
The reason this has only 3 stars is that while it's better than most comparable efforts, it is the weakest story structurally of the Diamond Brothers series itself. It lacks the word-play/puns present in the other shorter Diamond Brothers books (e.g., The Blurred Man) and the plot is much weaker - there is a lot of padding. I could be wrong, but I got the impression of something cobbled together as a deus ex machina to get the pair to Australia for "Radius of the Lost Shark" or to pacify readers whilst Horowitz' real focus was on his Alex Rider series.
Certainly this book is a keeper but I recommend picking another title in the series if you want your son/brother/significant male to start reading and enjoying books.

A wonderful Christmas present for the Diamond Brothers
I agree with the other readers who say that this is not the best of the Diamond Brothers stories. There isn't much of a plot in this one, nor is there very much action; the jokes and witty remarks are not quite as funny as they are in some of the other stories.

As the story starts, the brothers are broke and Christmas is not far away. Their affairs improve when Tim is retained to protect a glamorous international celebrity called Minerva, a pop princess and film star of Greek origin, who is receiving death threats on the occasion of her visit to London to switch on the Christmas lights and open the Santa Claus grotto in Harrods. Her husband insists on hiring a private detective, both for extra security and to find the originator of the threats, and her manager is ordered to find one and bring him in for approval. We need to wait until the end of the story to learn why the obviously idiotic and incompetent Tim was selected for the job. I hadn't realised that Tim was 28 years old by the way. After making a fool of himself yet again, he actually makes some sensible remarks about his unsuitability for the private detection business. As usual, it is Nick who notices anomalies, solves all of the mysteries and identifies the would-be killer and the reasons for the threats. The story that began on such a low note ends on a much higher one when the manager gives the brothers a £10,000 cheque in gratitude for all they have done to further the career of Minerva, his most famous and lucrative client.

Minerva does seem an unlikely name for someone of Greek origin: I realise that it is supposed to make us think of Madonna, but Minerva was the Roman name for the Greek goddess Athena. This is just a minor objection, and although it is not the best Diamond Brothers adventure the story does have some good features. The scene where the brothers rush to tidy up their messy office when there is an unexpected knock on their door is very amusing. I also particularly liked the references to Regent Street: it is so true that it is full of shops selling clothes that we couldn't possibly afford and wouldn't want to buy even if we could, and that the Christmas lights are no longer worth travelling to see. Obvious, but spot on. Anthony Horowitz often comes up with observations like this, which is why I continue to read these stories.