Caribbean Ice – Excerpt from 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award entry
May 13, 2010 by Caribbean Vacation and Island Tips
Filed under Books
Product Description
In a world of formula mysteries, is there room for something different? Absolutely. Readers have an insatiable appetite for escapist stories that leave everyday life behind, take them to faraway, exciting places, and kee… More >>
Caribbean Ice – Excerpt from 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award entry
I have not read the excerpt, nor would I considering that the title contains a misspelling. Unless I’m mistaken, “Caribbean” is the correct spelling, not “Carribean”… can’t imagine this made it into the finals.
Rating: 1 / 5
What a gripping opening set in South Africa’s past, as the diamond mine-worker, Bindra risks everything to steal the pink diamond that can change his life forever. I actually was holding my breath as I read this prologue releasing it slowly towards the end.
Not only can Mr. Hirsch write a fast paced thriller with a fantastic plot but his descriptions and settings are stellar. He does a great job of dropping the reader into the scene and those scenes are spectacular. When the modern day story began with the two divers swimming into the cave opening, I was once again holding my breath. Of course, the last sentence was breathtaking. This is one compelling yarn and a story I need to finish.
I’m wondering what the actual difference between a mystery and a thriller is, as I am tending to think of this as the latter.
Rating: 5 / 5
“Caribbean Ice” opens twenty years ago on the west coast of Africa and tells us the story of Malleet Bindra, in fact an employee of a local diamond mining company but, in reality, little more than an indentured slave working for a daily pittance under excruciating difficult conditions. In an exquisitely narrated, exciting action sequence that seasoned veteran mystery and thriller writers would be proud to have created, we witness Bindra make his way to a new life aboard a tramp steamer as he escapes with the ill-gotten gains of his theft of a single twelve carat pink diamond.
The second story (which I’ll comfortably give very high odds on a $100 wager will ultimately mesh with the first) tells us of Matt and Ann Thornton on their second honeymoon, scuba diving off Skeleton Island in the San Pablos Archipelago. The story is developed slowly and lovingly. I would call it a textbook example of descriptive writing, poetic in its beauty, that would take the breath away from any reader who enjoys the out of doors and can appreciate the complexity, the majesty, the wonder and even the danger of the natural world in which we live. We’re left hanging on the edge of that proverbial reading cliff when the excerpt ends with the discovery of a very dead scuba diver inside an underwater cave.
Two different stories and two entirely different writing styles show us that Bill Hirsch has definitely got the right stuff. If he can do the same thing with plot that he’s done in these few pages with description and action, then “Caribbean Ice” will be a winner that I’ll be at the front of the line to purchase.
Paul Weiss
Rating: 4 / 5
Carribean Ice
ABNA 2010
Bill Hirsch
CARRIBEAN ICE is the kind of book I like to read when I need a break from the real world, what I like to call mind candy. The plot is fast paced and action packed, even in these first few pages. The atmosphere and sense of place of the two disparate locals from the first two chapters are very strong, immersing the reader and taking us on a vacation in our own minds. Two separate stories with equal amounts of tension and suspense – how will they eventually come together? A diamond thief of the past and a murder in the present. Inquiring minds what to know!!!
While the vivid descriptions in CARRIBEAN ICE transport the reader to various locals, the characters in chapter two need some more development. At this point, they are a little flat and stilted. While I understand they are fighting, perhaps an old fight repeated, we really don’t know why, and that makes them feel a bit forced. We know that the wife doesn’t really want to dive, but surely this has come up before. I get the impression that this is really a different argument.
Overall, this is a great beginning for a great summer read. CARRIBEAN ICE has hooked me; I really hope to read the complete story someday. Nice job, Mr. Hirsch.
Rating: 4 / 5
This excerpt of Caribbean Ice truly shines. Tension abounds and the descriptions painted so vividly that I can easily picture the scenes. I have no doubt the rest of the novel will be as compelling and I look forward to the day i can read the remainder.
Rating: 5 / 5