The River of Diamonds - Softcover

Jenkins, Geoffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440135223 ISBN 13: 9781440135224

Publisher: iUniverse, 2008

Synopsis

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

About this title

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)

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1440135223
• ISBN 13: 9781440135224
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288