The River of Diamonds [Paperback]

Geoffrey Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2008

The wind struck another hammer-blow. The whaler wheeled away stern-on, and then came up with a sickening thump forrard.

'One anchor cable gone!' Minnaar shouted about the roar of the wind. 'The other...'

he never finished. the whaler sprang free as the second cable parted. She had been secured facing south-west and now she plunged back into the maelstrom. The water poured ankle deep on the bridge...

'Killer deserts, grizzled prospectors, mass suicides, savage nomads... and a vanishing U-boat patrol. I enjoyed it more than any other novel for ages." -Daily Telegraph

'Top-class, fascinating, scientifically plausible... a brilliant example of how to mix the mundane and the fantastic.' -Observer

Editorial Reviews

Review

This adventure carries the reader on a rising tide of suspense as a seabed diamond-mining operation runs up against malevolent natural forces bordering on the super-natural and encounters a mysterious "collector of deserts" - Shelborne - whose mystical communication with nature and obvious mental energy seems buried on Mercury Island, a guano-covered hell-hole. John Tregard, the young narrator, stumbles but never falls in his determination to solve the enigma of the island; its strange occupant and odd pheno-mena - the "Glory Hole" and its secret, the death-dealing rattles ironically named "The Bells of St. Mary's" and the furtive smell of diamonds. Mr. Jenkins combines an imaginative flair for story-telling with scientific sense. And if the impact of the ending seeps away a bit with overly contrived coincidence, it is good Hollywood. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Geoffrey Jenkins was born in 1920 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and educated in the old Transvaal, where he wrote his first book-a legal history-at the age of seventeen. After leaving school he worked as a sub-editor in Zimbabwe, later becoming a newspaperman in both Britain and South Africa. He combined a most successful career in journalism with a life-long interest in the sea, and his knowledge of ships and sailing has provided the background to many of his novels. His first novel, A Twist of Sand, was published in 1959 and immediately became a bestseller; it was later filmed. Eight more most successful novels followed having sold over five million copies in twenty-three different languages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (October 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440135223
• ISBN-13: 978-1440135224
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,656,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The River of Diamonds: The Namib, Skeleton Coast and Diamond, December 31, 2001

By 

Robert K. Crane (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The River of Diamonds (Hardcover)

This is a South African type thriller, set along the southwest coast of Africa in the 60's or so, in the desert called the Namib. It is a story partly about early diamond explorers, and a underground river that supposedly brought millions of diamonds from inland to the Nabian coastal beaches and off shore areas. The thriller aspect is about a fictional underground lake that contains most of the diamonds but is protected by some sort of natural and fatal protection. All people who have attempted to find out extract diamonds from the sea, by offshore ship vacumming, submarines and other methods are killed in horrible and fatally unexplained accidents. One old prospector and a young surveyor and his girl friend are caught in the mystery and its solution. This novel is based upon the unproven sea diamond theory and it is not unitl the late 1990's that vacuuming diammonds from the ocean bottom near the Namib coast proved to be true and profitable. Geoffry Jenkins has written a hard bitten novel, a mixture of great sea adventure and extreme desert survivor tale mixed with the history of diamonds and Africa. It is a good story. I understand a movie was made in 1990 but was a third rate B movie. It would be worth releasing this book and the story is a tale of high adventure. This is one of several adventure tales by Jenkins and I think that it was his best.

2.0 out of 5 stars I almost liked it., December 31, 2010

By 

reviewer number 1 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: THE RIVER OF DIAMONDS (Paperback)

I almost liked this book, because I generally enjoy the charm of these older thrillers. There are a few 'exciting' scenes, and--despite the fact that some key points are telegraphed to a ridiculous degree--I could still enjoy some sense of suspense in several regards. There's some info about geography, diamond mining, and--as with other Jenkins novels--an OVERabundance of sailing info and vocabulary. If you are a sailor, these books might be a richer experience than for other people, but I'd have to repeatedly check the dictionary to understand the descriptions and specific actions in a lot of places.

Anyhow, the book begins OK, but the middle 50% (or more...) was rough-going. Very wordy, a little repetitive, and too much time telegraphing some future revelations. There is a great deal of effort here to set up a couple of very complicated situations involving geographical science and social relations (not to mention superstions), but rather than click together entertainingly, it is more constructed in a workman-like way with a bit of over-heated language and shock-value episodes of people suddenly freaking-out, or violence. A lot of the time, it is hard to find a realistic motive behind actions--that's OK in this sort of book I think, but in this case it is in the service of scenes involving action and travel that aren't too compelling on their own, most of the time.

The last few chapters are actually not bad at all, and reminded me of how rewarding A Twist Of Sand was to read. Some interesting payoffs (finally), good descriptions of difficulties vs. nature, and an utterly predictable ending topped off with a grace note that was surprisingly nice--I guess maybe slogging through the painfully boring middle section made me feel I had earned a sort of camaraderie with these characters, and left me smiling at an emotional farewell I was glad to finally get to.