9Summer of 1955. The McMullens, a family of six, reside on their apple orchard in the deep south of Houston County, Alabama. There is an eighteen-year-old boy working on the orchard all day, every day. He has a kind heart and charming simplicity, winning the hearts of (almost) everyone around him, especially the owner's eldest daughter, Betty. Life on the orchard could be idyllic, but when the family adopts another child, a thirteen-year-old, petite, quiet girl with only one arm, the family falls in disarray. Seeing how the other children treat their new sibling, the farmhand boy takes her under his wing, and soon they become good friends, finding like-mindedness in their differences. Summer of 1965. Montgomery Detective, Isla Banks, reviews the files of a murder case from ten years before, which involves one Tom Higgins, a twenty-eight-year-old man serving thirty years in a penitentiary in Dothan, Alabama. Upon the unexpected discovery of new evidence, the case is reopened upon Banks' request, who insists there is more to the story. Was this case closed too soon? And what of the adopted daughter, who disappeared the same night of the murders? Where is Diamond McMullen, and why did she run? Last Diamond Rose tells the story of the trials of young romance, rivalry, betrayal, murder, and one undying friendship.