Diamonds in the Shadow
Delacorte/Random House, 2007
ISBN 978-0385732611 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0385732628 (paperback)

Through their love for people, yet ignorance of the unknown, the Finch Family has joined alongside their church and opened their home to an African refugee family who are moving to Connecticut. The Amabo family of four— Andre, Celestine, Mattu, and Alake: father, mother, and teenage son and daughter— arrive in great hope as they have escaped the tyranny of Africa. What the Finch Family doesn’t know is that there are not just four refugees in this Amabo family, but five.

The Amabo family begins to adjust to life in the Finches’ suburban Connecticut home and there is a great deal of good will. But the fifth refugee does not believe in good will. This lawless rebel has managed to enter America undetected. And the Amabo family has something of his—something that they agreed to carry into the country for him. When Jared, the oldest Finch son, realizes that the good guys are not always innocent, he must make a decision that could change the fates of both the Finches and the Amabos.

Where did the idea for this book come from?