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Tropical Ice is an ecothriller. Perhaps this is a new genre. Author KL Smith is a travel writer who specializes in scuba destinations. His complete familiarity with diving shows – it is such a relief to read a novel in which the hero doesn’t strap an “oxygen tank” on his back to go diving. But I digress. Tropical Ice chronicles the adventures of Matthew Oliver, a freelance travel writer (surprise surprise) who flies to Belize to write an article about the country. When he gets there, he has an unpleasant shock. An old friend of his, Jack Africa (who runs a dive operation), is under suspicion of having committed a murder – a murder that is revealed to the world when a body emerges from a shark feed “popsicle” in front of a group of horrified divers.From there things happen quickly. Matt stumbles upon a shark finning operation which soon expands to become a sea horse and live fish operation but lest we stick to marine topics Smith takes Matt into rain forest where howler monkeys and jaguars become important components of the story.New characters emerge – a good ole boy American Ambassador, a corrupt business man and a dodgy Chinese trader, a misguided mammologist and a jungle lodge owner who is dangled as a possible love interest of Oliver. But my favorite character was Little Man and you’ll have to read the novel to find out about him.Matt Oliver gets knocked out so many times even the NFL wouldn’t let him play anymore. Smith has a very optimistic view of the damage our brain can take and at times I just rolled my eyes and sighed “not again” as our hero gets decked for the umpteenth time. But despite this minor criticism Tropical Ice is a rollicking good yarn which provides authentic local color. I have spent considerable time in Belize, both diving and in the rainforest. I can attest that Smith’s depictions are accurate. His marine biology is immaculate but terrestrially he got it wrong once when an alligator ambled across an airstrip – unless it was imported by that dodgy Chinese businessman there are no alligators in Central America (or anywhere else except China and the USA).The ending dissatisfied me – but that’s because I am a total romantic and I wanted to see Matt Oliver happily paired off with a gorgeous woman (btw – there is no pairing in this book – in fact the hero doesn’t even achieve an erection – which is not surprising considering the physical damage inflicted on him).If you like diving, rain forest or Belize you will enjoy Tropical Ice.Highly recommended – but over-priced at $7.99.