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I remember, when I was in middle school, reading a series of mystery books. The titles were of the format 'X and Y', where X was a type of gemstone, and X and Y began with the same letter.

As far as more specific details, I'm afraid I don't remember much.

  • The only language I've ever been fluent in is English. I highly suspect the books were originally written in English, but I know for sure they are at least available in English.
  • The reading level of the series is likely aimed somewhere between 5th and 9th grade reading levels (roughly 11 to 15 years old).
  • I know that there were at least 4 books in the series (likely more).
  • The entire series takes place on earth (no sci-fi or fantasy components)
  • There are multiple protagonists, including at least one male and at least one female.
  • One of the novels included a plot point of ceramic guns, such that they made it through airport security
  • Another plot point (possibly in the same book, possibly in another) involved a statue (Jade, IIRC), with a tracking device that was one of the eyes of the statue itself.
  • I was in middle school in Utah (United States) in the late 1990's / early 2000's.
  • I'm 90% sure (though not 100%) that the author (or at least the pseudonym) was female.
Xynariz
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    I'm afraid you're going to have to add more detail in order for this to be a good question. Those can't be the only details you remember: what about plot, the cover, the language? Where did you go to middle school, and when? Maybe take a look at this post over at SFF and see if you can come up with anything else? – Gallifreyan Apr 04 '17 at 08:22
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    I'll add the little detail I remember, @Gallifreyan. – Xynariz Apr 04 '17 at 08:53
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    "The titles were of the format 'X and Y', where X was a type of gemstone, and X and Y began with the same letter." - do you mean the title of the entire series was a single 'X and Y' like this, or that the individual books had different titles like, I dunno, 'Rubies and Revenge' and 'Diamonds and Detectives' and so on? – Rand al'Thor Apr 04 '17 at 09:25
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    There's no such thing as a ceramic handgun :-) – Rand al'Thor Apr 04 '17 at 09:29
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    @Randal'Thor OP clearly intended X and Y to be wildcards :D – Gallifreyan Apr 04 '17 at 19:14
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    Those are some great details you added! Now you can see that "not much" may also be very good by itself :) – Gallifreyan Apr 04 '17 at 19:15
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    @Randal'Thor Yes, Each book had its own name, and the examples you gave could have been valid titles.

    Gallifreyan I'm glad it added something, I would just love to be able to read these books again, to see if they were as good as I remember.

    Randal'Thor Yes, I know there's no such thing as a ceramic handgun. :P But it was a crucial plot point, and the firing of said gun saved the female protagonist's life, IIRC.

     – Xynariz Apr 05 '17 at 09:19

2 Answers2

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By intense googling, I ended up on the Gems and Espionage series, by Lynn Gardner, which looks very promising.

All the books :

  • have a title following the "Gemstone and Some Word starting with the same letter" scheme, e.g. "Emeralds and Espionage" or "Pearls and Peril".
  • are written by a female author.
  • were published between 1995 and 2004.
  • seem to be "mystery" themed
Soltius
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  • I landed on the same series by guessing that the one with jade in it might be called 'Jade and Jeopardy', but you beat me to it! – Spagirl Apr 25 '17 at 13:04
  • Haha, I didn't guess that far, juste googled "diamonds and " (with the quotes) then "saphire and", etc untill I found this page with "emeralds and". Still stuck on my maybe-imaginary Diamonds and Dinosaurs book though ! – Soltius Apr 25 '17 at 13:31
  • For anyone interested in my Diamonds and Dinosaurs thing (only me, I suppose), I made a mix up between [a kids books series whose titles include rubies gems I have yet to identify] and The Magic Tree House series (with titles having alliterations such as "Dinosaurs before Dark") – Soltius Apr 26 '17 at 11:43
  • Very, very late response, but thank you @Soltius, that is exactly the series I was referring to! – Xynariz Feb 12 '19 at 18:56
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Assuming you were in middle school in the 1980s, this is most likely the novelisation of the TV series Sapphire & Steel and the sequels.

Sapphire & Steel was a science fiction series that ran on ITV in the UK in the early 1980s. Two enigmatic characters appear on Earth to try to repair a fault in space-time.

There was a book of the series by the scriptwriter P.J.Hammond. This book was followed up by a number of others, written by different people.

Chenmunka
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  • The story I'm thinking of is definitely not inter-dimensional travel. It was far more earth-bound. However, I'm now wondering if it's worth looking into this one... – Xynariz Apr 04 '17 at 08:55