My first novel drops on September 16th, 2025. It’s called Kaplan’s Plot. Here’s what some people I respect had to say about it:
“A dazzling fictional debut, Jason Diamond’s Kaplan’s Plot calls to mind both John Irving’s darkly funny tales of family dysfunction and E. L. Doctorow’s evocative dives into the early 20th century American underworld. At the same, Diamond sneaks in deeper truths about family history, generational trauma and a quintessentially Midwestern sense of Jewish identity.” —Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling writer of The Turnout
“In this wild multigenerational ride from Odesa to Chicago to Hollywood, Jason Diamond whisks us through shootouts, numbers games, and the countless visible and invisible turning points that shape a life. A meditation on guilt and inheritance wrapped in a page-turning crime story, Kaplan’s Plot will shock, move, and entertain you all at once.” —Anna North, New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed
“In Jason Diamond’s excellent Kaplan’s Plot, we meet Elijah Mendes, a man who’d pursued the modern American Dream (getting rich off dubious tech) only to see it fizzle out as his business goes under. Returning to Chicago, he’s met with a family mystery he feels compelled to unravel, along the way getting to know his family history, his mother, his city, and ultimately, himself. This delicious novel is a love letter to Chicago, and a testament to the possibility of generational healing.” —Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive
You can buy it from your local indie bookstore, but if it’s hard to get to one, my publisher’s site has all the online options for you.
The funny thing about being a writer is I’m supposedly good with word, but when I try and describe Kaplan’s Plot I just start mumbling a bunch of nonsense. What’s it about? Family. The things we inherit from the moment we’re born into this world. Crime. America. Chicago. Identity. I’ve found that saying “It’s like The Godfather 2…but Jewish and set in Chicago” is an easy way to put it, but I like to think it’s more than that. The funny thing is that I wrote a memoir and this novel feels way more personal. I wasn’t expecting that, but I also won’t shy away from the old trope that there’s always some memoir in an author’s fiction.
Here’s a poster I had the world-famous Cevallos Brothers draw.
