If you liked 'Mad Men' you will love this story. Paz, a beautiful Mexican-American, dreams of being a model. She gets her chance when a hard driving ad man chooses her to be spokes-person for a dark Mexican beer blend being imported into Florida. The campaign slogan "brown power" is taken over by the main Mexican opposition party and Paz becomes the spokes-person for a US style political campaign that transforms the political landscape by encouraging Mexican nationalism, macho values and anti-Americanism. This angers Washington and London who do their best to undermine the campaign. They get their break when the heroine becomes pregnant after a tumultuous affair with a Russian diplomat and is ridiculed for her chastity message. At the same time the chief political agent is murdered and the event blamed on the campaign group, causing a fast paced dash through Mexico to escape before arrested. The police chief who is supposed to catch them ends up (for his own reasons) helping them escape with the aid of the Russian Embassy. In the end, many things you are lead to believe about events you just read turn out to be very different than expected.
Parts of the story are based on actual events and incidentally show you how international advertising and political campaigns are developed. Which is no surprise as the author spent 40 years in International Advertising helping build the world's largest advertising agency. He has lived in all the countries the plot includes: France, America, Costa Rica, Mexico and England. Voted by a reading group in Monte Carlo (where the author lives) as a 'must read novel', The Little Brown Diamond is actually the first book in a trilogy. The second volume (Mayhem in Monaco) is also presently available and sees our Heroine, Paz, embroiled in new dramas in Monaco. Volume three (to be published in 2014) moves to Russia and involves a sex education school which becomes embroiled in a KGB plot to overthrow the Russian government. Poor paz, wherever she goes drama evolves. Fun for us. Not so funny for her !!! Enjoy.
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