The Mystery of the Black Diamond

First century private detective Jake Jezreel is drawn into a mysterious case involving a rare black jewel. The case begins rather simply with a request by James, the head of the Jerusalem church, to locate a missing fellow minister in the church. This puzzling disappearance has the entire Christian church in Jerusalem concerned and praying for their missing pastor. Soon, the investigation for the missing person diverts Jake into a more elaborate course, that of trailing after a jewel known as The Black Diamond. Detective Jake Jezreel had never heard of The Black Diamond. And yet this mys-terious object will plunge him and his wife, Hannah, into an adventurous investigation like he had never experienced before. What kind of power did this lustrous, gorgeous diamond have over men? How could it make men hate and attack each other to own it? Will Jake be drawn into the powerful, magnetic influence this black beauty possesses? Only a nerve-racking climax at the Hip-podrome in Caesarea can bring the answers Jake is searching for.

Donald Craig Miller has been writing Christian papers for local churches and newsletters for 50 years. His Christian writing was a result of attending a Billy Graham writing school in Minneap-olis in 1971. This experience encouraged him to develop his already growing desire to write and redirect his desire toward glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ in his writings. Through the coopera-tion of pastors, he has been able to write for church newsletters and bulletin inserts for churches in the Dayton, Ohio area and more recently in the Macon and Warner Robins, Georgia area.
Donald Craig Miller also has been a Bible teacher for over 50 years, teaching in Sunday School and church settings, in home Bible studies, and as a lay preacher. He found Christ through The Navigators while stationed at Kadena AFB in Okinawa. Not long after accepting Christ, Mr. Miller realized that God had gifted him with the gift of teaching. From then on his great desire has been to dig scriptural truth from the Bible and pass it on to other Christians, much like Ezra of the Old Testament. Based on these years of teaching, the life of Christ has especially come alive for Mr. Miller. His desire is to translate his passion for the life of Christ into the lives of his readers. In his first book, Trailing the Bloody Footprints, Mr. Miller's desire was to awaken a new, fresh love for Jesus Christ using the novel approach of seeing Jesus through the eyes of a first century detective, Jake Jezreel. In his sequel, Terror Outside The Door (The Persecution of Jesus Christ), Mr. Miller continues the story through the eyes of the same first century detective. The reader is launched into the early church's desperate fight for survival, as the religious leaders attack, attempting to destroy Christianity.
In The Mystery of the Black Diamond, Mr. Miller portrays his first century detective as a man, growing in his faith, who is trying every day to live for the Lord Jesus. Mr. Miller's desire is for the reader to find a place of affinity with the detective as he struggles with everyday choices and in his learning to grow in his love for Jesus.