The Diamond Conspiracy

By Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris

For years, the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences has enjoyed the favor of Her Majesty the Queen. But as agents Brooks and Braun soon learn in the fourth novel in the steampunk adventure series, even the oldest loyalties can turn in a moment…

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 street-wise 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...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Mar 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781101621462

Philippa Ballantine

New Zealand born fantasy writer and podcaster Philippa (Pip) Ballantine is the author of the Books of the Order and the Shifted World series. She is also the co-author with her husband Tee Morris of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels. Her awards include an Airship, a Parsec, the Steampunk Chronicle Reader’s Choice, and a Sir Julius Vogel. She currently resides in Manassas, Virginia with her husband, daughter, and a furry clowder of cats.

Reviews for The Diamond Conspiracy

[ggmasheila · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What fun. Will continue on with this series.

[krau0098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.