Monday, February 03, 2020

Book review - MacLean #5 - "Night WIthout End" by Alistair MacLean

Excellent action thriller with the advantage of inherent tension in the location - Greenland, where a plane crashes, so there's constant cold and wind and Maclean's doctor hero writing "I never thought it was possible to be so cold" a lot.

The hero isn't a professional agent, just a doctor, but he's brave and tough... although he does make a few mistakes, which for me added to the tension (he's unduly hard on himself). The surviving passengers on the plane do feel influenced by movies - the movie star, the rich woman and her maid, the hot airhostess, the ex boxer, the elderly Jew, the reverend - but it helps they are different and so you can keep track of them.

I couldn't pick who the villains were - MacLean does a neat line in misdirect. The last segment of chasing after the bad guys is well done - I thought it would lose momentum after they were rescued but he got it back again. The villains maybe do leave the hero alive longer than they should.

But great cat and mouse stuff and it's a shame it was never filmed.

No comments: