Terry Holland’s debut novel AN ICE COLD PARADISE introduces a series character in Harry Pines, an ex-con making his life as a detective of sorts in Hawaii. He starts off as a Travis McGee type before coming into the current world of detective fiction. Harry is not a licensed P.I., but sure acts like one; with fees that are a bit steep, he provides service like no one else.
That’s why he is hired by Valerie Sabatino to find her missing nephew, Danny, the son of Harry’s former cellmate. Not only is Danny MacGillicuddy missing, but is AWOL from the Army. This is not the type of detective story where Harry goes it alone, breaking heads and so on. He does all his investigating with Valerie in tow, giving his whole backstory, in which we are introduced to countless people who will pop up later.
And that is one of the few speed bumps in this book: the constant influx of people into this story all there to help out Harry in any way possible. It gets to the point of some serious overload; you might lose track of one or two while reading. I understand it’s the first in the supposed series, but if Holland held back a couple, it would have made PARADISE not as unwieldy in some spots.
It becomes apparent that while investigating the missing person that Harry is not making the greatest progress. But he is uncovering something more sinister than he expected, with a chuch-run escort recruiting service. This is where Harry makes a discovery that throws the missing person case into a completely new direction, sending this McGee-like character into a 21st-century world of contemporary detectives, where private high-tech bodyguard services are for hire.
For an ex-con, it’s unusual that Harry is not only buddy-buddy with the local police, but also a restaurant-owning lawyer. Harry and his friends come face to face with a gun-running operation and a religious sect bent on building an army. The reader might need to take a break from it all, just to get his bearings.
Holland is a talented writer who is great at juggling all these situations and characters, but maybe he should have kept some of it for the next novel. I got the feeling that he tried to cram in as much information as possible, so that when the next one comes out, he’ll be able to have these people come and go, with their backstories already in place. PARADISE is a valiant attempt for a debut — it just could have used some light pruning. —Bruce Grossman
Related posts:
- Road to Paradise
- One Cold Night
- Cold in Hand
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> The Gorton’s Fisherman Came in from the Cold
- Q&A with ROAD TO PARADISE’s Max Allan Collins
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Gee, Bruce, I think you seriously misunderestimate the intelligence of the typical reader of American crime/adventure fiction. I don’t think anybody who reads without moving their lips will have any trouble at all keeping track of Harry’s crew. In fact, I think they will find them uniformly entertaining and interesting.
And as for Harry having a better class of friends than you think an ex-con should, maybe you’re one of those who considers recidivism such a certainty that we shouldn’t let them out in the first place.
A correction: There is no “church-run escort recruiting service” in the book. Not in the one I wrote. Do you move your lips when you read?
Terry Holland