Night Without End - Alistair MacLean
My mum has told me at various times that Alistair MacLean writes 'exciting' and 'action-packed' books. I have tried starting one or two at various points, but obviously wasn't in the right space for them. That has now changed, thanks to Night Without End, a book that lives up to mum's recommendation.
The book opens at a remote research station in Greenland, where three individuals, including our narrator, are based. Late at night, they hear the sound of an approaching plane, and soon the plane has crashed nearby. The three researchers rush to save as many people from the plane as they can, and then have to figure out how to help them survive, considering their supplies will quickly run out.
This would be enough plot to propel some stories, but our narrator, Dr Mason, quickly realises that some of the crew have been murdered, and this changes the feel of the whole story. Now, we are wondering which person or persons is responsible for any little thing that goes wrong, and as the group begin to make plans to head south, to civilization, we also start to wonder what the murderer/s are planning next.
An interesting touch in this story is the way in which Mason keeps making the wrong decisions and wrong assumptions. I am used to having detectives that are one step ahead of the villain, but here we quickly realise that Mason might actually be wrong about the person he is focussing on, and even after he has changed his opinion, we wonder if he might have made other mistakes going forward.
The other interesting element of this book is the survival aspect. Survival in Greenland seems near impossible if this book is anything to go by; as time goes by we see the effects that exposure has on people - particularly those who are elderly or unwell - and Mason, with his medical expertise, is able to drop hints about the likely outcome for a few of the characters.
That is another thing! Foreshadowing! Wow, Mason really foreshadows a lot! We are informed that people will die, we are informed that he is making a mistake, we are informed a lot of things that Mason, in the moment, doesn't realise. This is an interesting choice; it occasionally undermines the tension of a moment, but more commonly gives a slight foreboding to events.
Overall, the book is a page-turner. I can now understand why MacLean was a popular author, even if parts of the book seem a bit dark, particularly when some of our protagonists have short tempers!
Recommended.
Completed 28 July 2024.
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