Zelda Lockhart

Doris Payne

“Payne’s storytelling voice is easy and intimate. . . .You want to cheer for Payne. . . . She’s stolen yet another thing. Your heart.” —New York Times

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

Growing up during the Depression in the segregated coal town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Doris Payne was told her dreams were unattainable for poor black girls like her. Doris vowed to turn the tables after the owner of a jewelry store threw her out when a white customer arrived. 

Using her southern charm, quick wit, and fascination with magic, Payne began shoplifting small pieces of jewelry from local stores. Over the course of six decades, her talents grew with each heist. Becoming an expert world-class jewel thief, she daringly pulled off numerous diamond robberies.

Doris’s criminal exploits went unsolved well into the 1970s—partly because the stores did not want to admit that they were duped by a black woman. Eventually she was arrested after stealing a diamond ring in Monte Carlo that was valued at more than half a million dollars. But even prison couldn’t contain Doris, who cleverly used various ruses to break out. With her arrest in 2013 in San Diego, Doris’s fame skyrocketed.

Thrilling and rip-roaringly fun, Diamond Doris is the portrait of a captivating anti-hero who refused to be defined by the prejudices of a hypocritical society.

“Engaging reading about an elegant modern-day Robin Hood.” —Kirkus Reviews

 “Astonishing. . . . [A] sassy catch me-if-you-can told from a Black female’s perspective.” —Booklist, starred review