Snake Water

by Alan Williams

A disillusioned young drifter, Ben Morris, washes ashore in a steamy South American port looking for a new start in life and finds himself entangled in a web of murder, corruption and greed. The remote and mysterious ‘Snake Water’ is rumoured to hold a fortune in raw diamonds, but to reach it the would-be treasure hunters have to cross the volcanic mountain, desert and primeval swamp which defeated the Conquistadores. Morris finds himself braving snakes, carnivorous crabs, swarms of mosquitoes, rival gangsters and a feared tribe of native Indians, but it could be his travelling companions – a footloose divorcee, a psychopathic German and a totally amoral Rhodesian desperado – who provide the greatest danger.

204 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Alan Emlyn Williams was a journalist and foreign correspondent, reporting from notable hotspots worldwide including Hungary in 1956, Algeria, Vietnam and Northern Ireland. In 1962 he started writing thrillers which brought him the accolade "the natural heir to Ian Fleming" but it was his well-researched spy stories such as The Beria Papers and Gentleman Traitor (which featured real life traitor Kim Philby) which brought him international success.

Reviews

[Barry Simiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a revisit to many years ago. I liked this book in my late teens/early twenties, the saw the movie derived from it Starring Lee Marvin. It was called the Pink Jungle. God alone knows why. The writer was touted in the early 70s as being the next Ian Fleming.

Don't know about that bit.

looks its seriously dated, and it hasn't aged well, but its still an okay read that still held my interest. Giant plot holes though. Like, real big. Chief among them, The Xano Indians, mythical mountain tribe a bit like the Pygmy Bandar from the Phantom comics, only where the Bandar are in just about every issue of the comic, these guys never really show. pity. There's a lot of suspense built around them, but they never eventuate. Sad, it would have boosted the sspense and the action if they had.

It's a serviceable read and some history. I still like it.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. I blew through it in two days. I picked it up in a used bookstore without knowing anything about it because I saw it was published by Anthony Blond, who published a lot of really interesting stuff at the time, including notably Simon Raven's books. Plus the blurb on the jacket promised greed, revenge, murder, nightmarish events... Yes, please!

The plot, which is wildly improbable and full of holes, but who cares, involves a Welshman who has come to a fictional South American country trying to escape the memory of his wife, who died in a car crash four months earlier. His stay gets off to a bad start when he's fleeced at customs by a local cop. Later he meets the same cop again and punches him, then has to go on the run to avoid the wrath of the authorities. He winds up meeting a South African Jew and an eccentric old Colonel with a tale about an uncharted river with millions of dollars in diamonds just lying on the ground.

There's a treasure hunt, a lot of suspense, a few murders, and it's all a lot of fun. It reminded me of a 1965 version of H. Rider Haggard. Of course, like other similar books of the period (think Ian Fleming's James Bond books) there's lots of casual racism and sexism, and the book probably wouldn't go over well with many readers in 2022 for that reason. But if you can over look that aspect, it's a rollicking page-turner with edge-of-your-seat suspense and quite well written.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this novel through its film adaptation, The Pink Jungle. The star of the film, James Garner hated it. And so did Alan Williams. I, of course, liked it and still do, although it's difficult to find. Williams' novel (and the film) takes place in a fictional South American country, where Ben Morris has gone in search of adventure and to forget about the death of his wife. Prone to explosions of anger, Ben soon finds himself on the run for hitting a policeman. He then falls in with a group of treasure hunters that includes Stopes, a disgraced ex official with the British embassy, South African psycho Sammy Ryderbeit, and potential love interest Mel(anie). Off to find a stash of diamonds they go, traversing mountains, jungles, deserts, and volcanoes. It's actually fairly interesting. And I'm partial to adventure stories set in South America and the Far East. So Williams' book sets up perfectly for me.

If judging from this book alone, Williams is right below the first rank of postwar adventure writers. Among that group, I'd include Eric Ambler, David Dodge, Hammond Innes, James Ramsey Ullman, and perhaps Max Catto. Williams is right in a group below that. He was described as the next Ian Fleming when he published his first book. But he's far better than Fleming, creating grittier characters and more adventuresome situations. I've already downloaded eleven more of his novels.