The Diamond Brothers

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Diamond Brothers is a series of humorous children's detective books by Anthony Horowitz, which follow the adventures of the world's worst private detective, Tim Diamond, and his younger brother, Nick Diamond, who is considerably more intelligent.

The series currently comprises three full-length novels, four novellas and one short story. A fourth full-length novel, entitled Where Seagulls Dare, is scheduled for publication in January 2022,^[1] whilst a fifth full-length novel entitled The Radius of the Lost Shark is being planned. These books are aimed at a younger readership than Horowitz’s young adult novels, such as the Alex Rider series and the Power of Five series.

Some hallmarks of this series include humour through the use of puns, pop culture references and absurd situations when compared to Horowitz's more recent Alex Rider series, despite the fact that both series star a teenage boy and include guns, fights and international criminals. Another notable part of the series is that, although the first three books were written and published in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and have since continued into the new millennium, Nick and Tim remain roughly the same age (14 and 28 respectively), while London and life around them have changed with the times (the newer stories feature Oyster Cards and computers for example, whereas the older books feature parts of London that have long since changed, such as smoking in offices). This gives the series an anachronistic feel, which further bolsters its absurdist nature. A unique example of this anachronistic nature can be seen in the American publications. When the series was released in the North American market, the stories remained the same, but the currency was inexplicably changed, therefore having Nick and Tim pay for everything in dollars instead of pounds despite them living in London.

The entire series was re-issued in 2007 with new cover art designed by illustrator Martin Chatterton,^[2] and again in 2015 by illustrator Tony Ross.

Books[]

The series consists of the following books:

• The Falcon's Malteser (1986): A mystery that starts with Tim being hired to protect a box of Maltesers. A parody of The Maltese Falcon.
• Public Enemy Number Two (1987): A dangerous criminal known as The Fence needs to be caught, so Nick Diamond is once again thrust into danger, and must go undercover as a criminal to catch the crook. The title is a variation on Public Enemy No. 1.
• (1991): Nick and Tim Diamond are once again forced into a mystery, this time going to Amsterdam to discover the identity of the mysterious assassin Charon. The brothers have many hair-raising adventures, including one in which they are chased by a small plane in a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock's classic film North by Northwest. Horowitz claimed he wrote the TV series based on this novel first, which would make this entry the only novelisation of a Diamond Brothers story in the entire series.
• The French Confection (2002): The brothers win a trip to Paris, but get caught up in a drug smuggling ring. A pun on The French Connection.
• I Know What You Did Last Wednesday (2002): Seven friends along with the Diamond brothers are invited to a remote island for a school reunion. But then the host is found dead, and other people start dying in bizarre ways with no way off the island. A parody of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and a pun of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
• The Blurred Man (2002): The brothers investigate the sudden death of a charitable philanthropist with chronic allergies preventing him from meeting almost anyone. In part a parody & pun of The Third Man.
• The Greek Who Stole Christmas (2007): When Minerva, a famous Greek pop singer and movie star, is sent anonymous death threat notes, her concerned husband decides to hire Tim Diamond to protect her. A pun of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
• Where Seagulls Dare (2022): The first full-length Diamond Brothers novel since South by South East, Horowitz published the first six chapters unedited on his website throughout 2020, and intends for the full, edited novel to be published in January 2022, with all profits going to support the National Health Service.^[3] The title is pun on Where Eagles Dare.

Short stories[]

• The Double Eagle Has Landed (2011): A short story in which Tim is hired to protect a valuable gold coin. It was published in Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka.^[4] The title is a pun on The Eagle Has Landed.

Collections[]

• Three of Diamonds (2004): A compilation of The French Confection, I Know What You Did Last Wednesday and The Blurred Man. The three stories were first released in this edition, before subsequently being sold as separate books.
• Four of Diamonds (2008): Similar to Three of Diamonds, but also includes The Greek Who Stole Christmas.

Future[]

Early editions of the Alex Rider novel Scorpia (2004), and of Three of Diamonds claimed that Horowitz was planning an Australian adventure for the Diamond Brothers, entitled The Radius of the Lost Shark. This title was also mentioned again in the introduction to the re-issued 2007 edition of Three of Diamonds and at the end of Ark Angel. Finally, it was again alluded to in The Greek Who Stole Christmas, when Nick and Tim get enough money to go to Australia to visit their parents and Nick suggests he might one day write down what happened and call the book The Radius of the Lost Shark.

However, when Anthony Horowitz was asked in 2012 on Twitter by a fan when this book would come out, Horowitz replied that he had not started on the book yet, so certainly it would not be for “…another 3 years”.^[5] In 2015, Horowitz stated in a newspaper interview that there would be at least another six books written by him before continuing the Diamond Brothers series.^[6] Where Seagulls Dare, the upcoming fourth full-length Diamond Brothers novel, was initially assumed to have some relation to this story, but Horowitz confirmed that this is not so, and that The Radius of the Lost Shark has yet to be written.

Film and TV adaptations[]

A film adaptation based on the first novel The Falcon's Malteser was released in 1988 and it was entitled Just Ask for Diamond.^[7] It starred Dursley McLinden and Colin Dale as Tim and Nick Diamond respectively. In the North American market, the film was instead released under the name Diamond's Edge, and was edited slightly to tone down some of the narration and violent antics of the UK release. The film has subsequently been released on VHS and DVD.

In 1991, The Diamond Brothers, a written and directed by Horowitz himself, was broadcast on ITV.^[8] The series is based on the book South by South East, which Horowitz claimed he wrote after he had written the television series, effectively making South by South East a novelisation of the television series rather than the novel acting as the primary source of inspiration. Both McLinden and Dale reprised their respective film roles, which makes the television series act as a sequel to Just Ask for Diamond. However, unlike the film adaptation, the series has never been released on any home media, and it was also never rebroadcast.

References[]