Stone 588 Author:Gerald A. Browne From Gerald a. Browne, author of the best-selling "19 Purchase Street" and "11 Harrowhouse", comes his long-awaited and most ambitious novel to date, a major work of romance, spine-tingling suspense, and international intrigue, centering around a gemstone with mysterious and extraordinary powers. Stone 588 is an octahedral crystal that came into... more » the hands of diamond merchant Philip Springer's fater many years earlier. It lay ignored because it was so obviously flawed: a rough, whitish-opaque lump with a chipped corner, clearly of no commercial value. But Springer slowly becomes aware of its special qualities. It is Audrey, the woman he loves, who begins to shake his skepticism. Audrey is wealthy, beautiful, sensuous, smart, practical--and, unlike Springer, psychically adventurous. She believes that the stone has healing powers. She uses her elderly aunt Libby -- a woman of vast riches and vast (but subtly-wielded power) -- to prove it. Libby, sharp and greedy, recognizes the true value of the stone. So do others. But by the time a hundred-million-dollar bribe and a successful theft reveal that value to Springer, it is too late. His young son Jake is critically ill -- and Springer must embark on a desperate chase that turns ruthless and bloody, leading to an ingenious burglary in the vaults of Fifth Avenue's most opulent jeweler, a harrowing murder in the Trump Tower, and a climactic break-neck chase across the spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral. "Stone 588" is Gerald A. Browne's most spectacular achievement.« less