"Chester K. Steele" was a pseudonym of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, founded by Edwin Stratemayer. He wrote eleven "Horatio Alger" titles, and went on to produce series including "The Rover Boys," "The Bobsey Twins," and "Tom Swift," hiring ghost writers to produce the books under specific pen names.

"The Diamond Cross Mystery" is a one of a series intended for an older audience than the children's books Stratemeyer normally produced. It features the reluctant detective Colonel Ashley and his Negro servant Shag. Only the first, "The Mansion of Mystery," was written by Stratemeyer.

In "The Diamond Cross Mystery," Colonel Ashley must solve the murder of the proprietor of a jewelry store. The Colonel would prefer to be fishing, but crimes have a way of interrupting his reading of "Walton's Complete Angler,"