This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 21 in 2025. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
Anyone looking for reliable, first-hand news about the jewelry industry is likely familiar with Rob Bates, veteran journalist and insider, currently News Director at JCK. However, on our side of the Atlantic, few know Bates in his unexpected role as a crime fiction writer, with all his novels set in the world of diamonds.
Released in August, “Making a Killing in Diamonds” is the fourth novel in his acclaimed Diamond District Mystery series. The plot revolves around the murder of the CEO of a synthetic diamond company, uncovering the underlying tensions between traditional diamond dealers and the new tech-driven players entering the scene.
The protagonist of the series, Mimi Rosen, is a journalist and amateur sleuth caught between the conservative world of the jewelers on New York’s legendary 47th Street and the fast-evolving lab-grown diamond sector, whose future is being threatened by dark and powerful interests.
Through fiction, Bates explores themes that are just as central to his journalistic work — and that will undoubtedly strike a chord with IGR readers: the collision between marketing and the instrumental use of ethics to promote lab-grown diamonds, the symbolic weight carried by diamonds, and the evolving definitions of authenticity and value in a high-tech era where everything is in flux.
Already in “Murder Is Not a Girl’s Best Friend”, his second novel, Bates the journalist clearly emerges — precise and attentive in tackling how the gem industry has strategically employed narratives around social responsibility and sustainability to support the controversial claim that synthetic diamonds are the “more ethical” choice.
Gem news published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #21 – Autumn 2025.
