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1st edition Fontana 1975 paperback, g In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 19, 2021
Action thriller set against the fantastic backdrop of the mystical Mapungubwe on the Northern border of South Africa with Botswana and Zimbabwe. Unfortunately the narrative is disjointed, with an awkward romance between the protagonist Guy and his girlfriend Nadine (for some reason they keep wanting to kiss in the middle of a crisis while the world is going to hell around them) and some arbitrary villains in an apparently hastily concocted story about diamonds. Not Jenkins' best work, with an unconvincing Indiana Jones-like ending.
April 21, 2020
Mid-period Jenkins and not one of his best. The first third is overloaded with back-story, the middle stretch sacrifices tension to a succession of overly talky scenes and it’s only in the last sixty pages or so that Jenkins remembers he’s writing a thriller and cuts loose with some action set-pieces.
November 29, 2018
An unmemorable attempt to write a thriller set in a remote area on the northern border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The protagonist is an unlikeable, unremarkable but resentful character, recently released from prison after serving a sentence resulting from his ignorance and foolishness, in illegal diamond trading.
There are inevitably a few mandatory "really bad guys" - simple, two-dimensional characters with no redeeming literary features and absolutely nothing to make them interesting. The protagonist's love interest is, unsurprisingly, the daughter of a multi-millionaire who despises the man of her (undeclared) affections. Her apparent purpose is to reveal mundane historic or topical details in dialogue with her almost unresponsive heart-throb - because, apparently, dialogue is easier to read than narration.
The story has an elementary plot but is heavy on detail, which usually makes a book a delight for me. Sadly, it is also heavy on repetition but spare on relevance and interest, which is what spoiled it here. Jenkins reveals that he relies on hearsay for his knowledge of hyenas - one of which has a supporting role - and poorly implemented at that. He also is under the impression that a potential victim can see an approaching lightning bolt and jump away in time to escape being struck. Dubious statements abound but they are less relevant to the narrative.
I've read this book once before, many years ago and could remember only fragments. I attribute my lack of recollection to the tepid style of this novel - which makes me pretty sure that I won't ever read it again, it's just too unremarkable. Not a book that Jenkins' could have enjoyed writing, I imagine, simply grinding away to meet a publishing commitment, more than anything else. I'm currently reading another of this author's books, The Unripe Gold, and half-way into it, it's a little better - but not much.
Epilogue: I have just recalled that after completing the book, I have no idea of how the title relates to the story. A favoured style of Jenkins' title compositions (or his publisher?) is "A (noun) Of (noun)", which he seems to treat as a marketing hook, regardless of the content.
There are inevitably a few mandatory "really bad guys" - simple, two-dimensional characters with no redeeming literary features and absolutely nothing to make them interesting. The protagonist's love interest is, unsurprisingly, the daughter of a multi-millionaire who despises the man of her (undeclared) affections. Her apparent purpose is to reveal mundane historic or topical details in dialogue with her almost unresponsive heart-throb - because, apparently, dialogue is easier to read than narration.
The story has an elementary plot but is heavy on detail, which usually makes a book a delight for me. Sadly, it is also heavy on repetition but spare on relevance and interest, which is what spoiled it here. Jenkins reveals that he relies on hearsay for his knowledge of hyenas - one of which has a supporting role - and poorly implemented at that. He also is under the impression that a potential victim can see an approaching lightning bolt and jump away in time to escape being struck. Dubious statements abound but they are less relevant to the narrative.
I've read this book once before, many years ago and could remember only fragments. I attribute my lack of recollection to the tepid style of this novel - which makes me pretty sure that I won't ever read it again, it's just too unremarkable. Not a book that Jenkins' could have enjoyed writing, I imagine, simply grinding away to meet a publishing commitment, more than anything else. I'm currently reading another of this author's books, The Unripe Gold, and half-way into it, it's a little better - but not much.
Epilogue: I have just recalled that after completing the book, I have no idea of how the title relates to the story. A favoured style of Jenkins' title compositions (or his publisher?) is "A (noun) Of (noun)", which he seems to treat as a marketing hook, regardless of the content.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews