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pizzamcpin3ppl3's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
joshster142's review
4.0
Mal Ourney was sentenced to prison for a crime his girlfriend at the time committed. The story starts with him being released from prison and meeting the woman he took the rap for. This throws Mal into a deadly treasure hunt which involves gangster, dirty police, murder and betrayal.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s the first time I’ve read a novel which isn’t well known at all (with only 45 ratings on goodreads) and I didn’t know what I was going to get, but I am very glad I did pick this one and can’t believe it isn’t more widely recognised.
The action is extremely fast paced, with a murder happening in the first few pages setting the tone. Almost every scene involves either a murder, a standoff, a betrayal or a discussion of the action which allows you to catch your breath. I see a lot of similarities between this noel and Hammett’s work especially The Glass Key. Whereas Chandler is the master of the descriptive prose and each setting and character which Marlowe encounters is brought to life in great detail, I found Hammett got straight to the point, sacrificing detailed description with gritty non stop action. This is certainly what you get with Whitfield’s Green Ice, no messing about with how the building looks and what type of ceiling the foyer has, there’s a body in one room and a gangster in the other so your hurried along to encounter them! It is a refreshing change and one that I did enjoy, although the novelty may wear off if all books were like that!
The only negative I have and the reason why this is 4 stars and not 5 is there are a lot of recaps of what happened previously. This is achieved through either Mal discussing the story with himself or with other characters. It just happens too much for my liking, especially as a lot of the times the theories discussed are obviously wrong which leads to confusion which isn’t ideal in a book which I found wasn’t the easiest to follow anyway due to there being multiple key characters and events to remember. That being said, I do wonder if the multiple recaps are because many of the crime novels at that time were published in separate installments in magazines such as Black Mask so the discussion segments would be used to reintroduce readers to the story similar to how’recap clips are used at the start of television programmes. I believe Green Ice was published initially in the New York Evening Post so this is likely to be the case. Interestingly I searched the New York Evening post and was greeted with a headline of “Jeff Bezos exposes Pecker” so I don’t think their focus is hardboiled crime stories anymore!
To conclude this is a great story from an author who seems to have been overlooked in favor of the all time greats that emerged from his era. I would highly recommend this and am excited to read Whitfield’s other 2 novels.
4 out of 5 stars.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s the first time I’ve read a novel which isn’t well known at all (with only 45 ratings on goodreads) and I didn’t know what I was going to get, but I am very glad I did pick this one and can’t believe it isn’t more widely recognised.
The action is extremely fast paced, with a murder happening in the first few pages setting the tone. Almost every scene involves either a murder, a standoff, a betrayal or a discussion of the action which allows you to catch your breath. I see a lot of similarities between this noel and Hammett’s work especially The Glass Key. Whereas Chandler is the master of the descriptive prose and each setting and character which Marlowe encounters is brought to life in great detail, I found Hammett got straight to the point, sacrificing detailed description with gritty non stop action. This is certainly what you get with Whitfield’s Green Ice, no messing about with how the building looks and what type of ceiling the foyer has, there’s a body in one room and a gangster in the other so your hurried along to encounter them! It is a refreshing change and one that I did enjoy, although the novelty may wear off if all books were like that!
The only negative I have and the reason why this is 4 stars and not 5 is there are a lot of recaps of what happened previously. This is achieved through either Mal discussing the story with himself or with other characters. It just happens too much for my liking, especially as a lot of the times the theories discussed are obviously wrong which leads to confusion which isn’t ideal in a book which I found wasn’t the easiest to follow anyway due to there being multiple key characters and events to remember. That being said, I do wonder if the multiple recaps are because many of the crime novels at that time were published in separate installments in magazines such as Black Mask so the discussion segments would be used to reintroduce readers to the story similar to how’recap clips are used at the start of television programmes. I believe Green Ice was published initially in the New York Evening Post so this is likely to be the case. Interestingly I searched the New York Evening post and was greeted with a headline of “Jeff Bezos exposes Pecker” so I don’t think their focus is hardboiled crime stories anymore!
To conclude this is a great story from an author who seems to have been overlooked in favor of the all time greats that emerged from his era. I would highly recommend this and am excited to read Whitfield’s other 2 novels.
4 out of 5 stars.
bhalpin's review
3.0
Classic crime novel I got for cheap.
It's of decent historical interest--if you, like me, enjoy noir novels, it's cool to read one of the originals. And there's great tough guy dialogue and turns of phrase throughout.
And the plot is so ridiculously convoluted that I really couldn't follow it all that closely. Something about emeralds that somebody had, or possibly nobody had, and that lots of people get killed over. Never quite sure who did the killing or why, but it's a decent enough ride, and the climactic scene is brilliantly cinematic--so much so that I'm pretty sure it was ripped off in a movie. Maybe Godfather II?
About as much misogyny as you'd expect in this kind of book from this era, and somewhat less racism. (Which isn't to say none--just less than I was bracing myself for.)
Of mostly historical interest, and definitely not worth picking up if you're not already a fan of noir novels.
It's of decent historical interest--if you, like me, enjoy noir novels, it's cool to read one of the originals. And there's great tough guy dialogue and turns of phrase throughout.
And the plot is so ridiculously convoluted that I really couldn't follow it all that closely. Something about emeralds that somebody had, or possibly nobody had, and that lots of people get killed over. Never quite sure who did the killing or why, but it's a decent enough ride, and the climactic scene is brilliantly cinematic--so much so that I'm pretty sure it was ripped off in a movie. Maybe Godfather II?
About as much misogyny as you'd expect in this kind of book from this era, and somewhat less racism. (Which isn't to say none--just less than I was bracing myself for.)
Of mostly historical interest, and definitely not worth picking up if you're not already a fan of noir novels.
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