Night Without End by Alistair MacLean

This is another book that I have not read in 30 years and neither have I seen the film that I can recollect. There is a film of Night Without End though, as I looked up the web and found a site for reviews according to another fan of Alistair MacLean’s books. The review provided is clear and concise but I just am going to write how I found the book just as I have done with others. So it is a subjective view of the story rather than a meaningful critique.

The main character is a Dr Mason and he is a scientist not a highly trained espionage agent. The detailed description of the part of Greenland creates a visual painting and raises a chill that starts goose bumps. The extensive detail also allows one to gain an appreciation of the limits of human endurance in such adverse weather conditions. However, I do think this is my third novel with the cold weather and snow and gale force winds that I was getting a bit of weather fatigue! May be the ability to read 3 such works in a row tells something about my endurance ability.

The story is about espionage again and this time the central character is just at the wrong place and demands r made on him as he discovers the people killed in the crashed plane did not die of accidental causes. They are not equipped to deal with an air crash and on top the radio gets broken accidently? Dr Mason decides to gather the band of motley survivors – a well-known actress, a up and coming boxer and his manager, a socialite and her maid, a couple of businessmen and a preacher – and attempt to go the hundred odd miles to the nearest base. The treachery of the unknown villain/s and the weather seem to compete as to which one of them can break the people. Sadly some of them do not survive due to both the reasons.

The suspense of what this whole thing is about – the killings and the deliberate crash of an airplane so far out to its normal flight path – remains intact all the way through the book until the last few chapters. The character of each member of the story is very well portrayed as per the usual skill of Alistair MacLean. It is hard to see how anyone could be a cold blooded killer? They all seem so harmless and nice. Dr Mason struggles to apply his analytical skills to solving the problem of identifying, the who and the why of this, what he sees as, senseless violence. The end when it comes seems rather dramatic and violent. But by this time you also want the villains to get their comeuppance. It was good to read this book as I had no recollection of it after so many years.