Bear Island by Alistair MacLean

Alistair MacLean has rightly been called the Master of Action and Suspense. Harper Collins has republished MacLean in a very nice trade paperback size (easier to read than the usual weather beaten paperbacks from the 1970's you usually find in dusty old shops, or by the pool in the hotel lobby) including The Guns of Navarone, South by Java Head, Ice Station Zebra, and Athabasca.

Here is Bear Island.

The Morning Rose, at this point beyond her last years as a Arctic steam trawler, is host to a disparate gang of travellers; the cast and crew of a film to be shot on Bear Island in the Barents Sea 300 miles north of Norway. Along with the male and female leads, the co-stars, and the director, are the financiers and the heads of Olympus film studio; all sailing into a nauseating gale. Aside from seasickness, one of the guests has been poisoned with food or strychnine - and they are just the first. Two other men are poisoned and one has disappeared, most likely over the deck into the black night. Liberal shots of brandy all around might calm the growing panic, at least they are going to try it. Our narrator Dr. Marlowe takes control of the scene and everyone is questioned and requested they stay in their rooms - they have come too far to turn back, and filming will go ahead.

A very strange endeavour this film, to be shot under notarized oaths of secrecy from the cast and crew, and with no one having read a complete script. The plan is to shoot all the unconnected outdoor scenes before completing the film back on the soundstage.

When they arrive at the abandoned weather-station huts along the inhospitable coastline, they find they have no radio, and Marlowe discovers there is another member he can rely on; an undercover government expert sent to find out what is really going on. The director and some of the financiers of the film once knew one another, in Europe, during the war. It has been rumoured that the Nazis transported gold and valuables out of Germany through Norway, could this have something to do with why they are on this barren island? When another member is killed and found frozen in the drifts, they begin teamed watches through the night. The murderer is still in their midst.

We will soon find out who is responsible, and what is hidden under the cover of the film, when Dr. Marlowe reveals who, in fact, he has been all along.

This is a solid mystery with a slow burn, certainly filled with tension but without a lot of action. The first half they are stuck on the rolling sea, and once on the island another mystery unfolds. This gave me exactly what I expected, well written, well paced. If you are into adventure stories you won't be disappointed with Alistair MacLean.

This was made into a film in 1979 - in which they threw out the story and just kept the title!

The thirteenth film made from a MacLean novel, how could it go wrong? An English company shot it in northern British Columbia, Canada, for realistic snow and tax purposes. It starred Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, Lloyd Bridges and Christopher Lee as a United Nations scientific team investigating climate change, Featuring a giant underground NATO U-boat submarine base, an avalanche, and lots of spies - nothing like the novel, but apparently MacLean got a kick out of it. I saw it in theatres when I was 14, and even then agreed with the Los Angeles Times quote: "Best left to the easily satisfied".

My other reviews for Alistair MacLean:

River of Death

South By Java Head

1971 / Tradeback / 455 pages