Drillstone is an adventure thriller set in contemporary China and Hong Kong. When a large deposit of gem-quality diamonds is found in Wuhan, PRC official policy requires secrecy until the find is developed. But the ambitious si ster of a mine engineer persuades her brother to smuggle one of the raw "drillstones" to Hong Kong where it can be sold by an uncle who works in the jewelry trade. A clerk in the jewelry shop overhears the transaction and sells news of the find to a local representative of the Diamond Syndicate. The Syndicate reacts to the threat of losing its monopoly by calling in a team of Taiwanese-American industrial espionage agents to assess the impact of the find and to sabotage mining operations. Intern ational diamond commerce, the Hong Kong Triad underground, nuclear power plant technology, Chinese family life and government bureaucracy serve as background for the novel.

Characters:

Zhang Kaiyuan: a mine engineer, a gentle, cautious man who finds his life disrupted when he discovers the initial diamond deposit.
Zhang Min: the engineer's sister, a doctor in the Mine Institute clinic, ambitious and protective of her family.
Li Jin: husband of Zhang Min, the officious head of the Mine Institute Foreign Affairs Office.
Han Ling: the engineer's wife, a graduate student of mathematics who dreams of studying in the US.
Pan Weiguang: the engineer's uncle, a Hong Kong Jeweler with interesting connections among the Triads.
Maurice Brachman: an exuberant American math professor teaching at the Mine Institute who becomes infatuated with Han Ling.
Fay and Waine Lin: freelance industrial espionage agents, sister and brother, born in Taiwan, educated in the US, quirky but competent.
Jan Vernig: former officer in the South African Bureau of State Security, now employed as a fixer by the Diamond Syndicate.

About the Authors:

George Robinson and Janice Moulton, who lived in China, hold PhDs from the University of Chicago. They taught at the University of Chicago, Duke University, Central China University and are now members of the Research Faculty at Smith College. They wrote Organization of Language (Cambridge University Press) Problems in Higher Education (Prentice-Hall/Simon-Schuster), Scaling the Dragon (Cross Cultural Publications), and have just completed a novel about the US Army in contemporary Europe.