NIGHT WITHOUT END

BOOK REVIEW by Nati Peris Tena

If you have some leisure time and want to spend a good while, at the same time as you learn some interesting things about living in extreme weather conditions, do not hesitate in turning the pages of this book.

Book Tittle: NIGHT WITHOUT END

Author: Alistair Mclean

Publisher: Oxford University Press – Stage 6

Pages: 108

Year: 1959

Book Type: Thriller and adventure with suspense elements.

Plot summary:

In the middle of a stormy night, a British Airways airliner crashes on the Greenland ice cap near an isolated weather station where three scientists are living for several months. The scientific team rescues the passengers, there are ten survivors, the rest of the people apparently have died in the crash. Their only means of asking for help is through the scientific´s radio transmitter, but inadvertently it is destroyed by someone. Several following happenings make evident that the crash is not a simple accident and the rescue turns into a nightmare for the three scientists. The hurry to reach shelter from the savage ice blizzards, before all supplies run out and the Arctic winter freezes them, with temperatures falling 50 degrees centigrade below zero, drive all of them into an adventure through the endless nights of the Polar ice cap. Altogether with the presence among the survivors of a camouflaged killer with a gun and a secret avid to hide.

Opinion:

I really enjoyed this book because although I have never been to Greenland, the reading of this novel made me feel as if I were immersed in its frozen environment, due to the novelist using vivid descriptions of unforgiving landscapes. With great ability he gives you a sense of the place where the book is set, and makes you feel like you were a part of the setting. All this completed with a very intriguing plot, makes this book a good candidate to be read.

Language/Style:

The author uses a formal British language. Mainly the more difficult vocabulary is related with weather conditions and descriptions about the Polar ice cap. In general, the words used are quite easy to understand by the context, and moreover, you do not need to look up so many words in the dictionary because there is a glossary at the end of the book which contains the most unfamiliar words.

Characters Description:

The story is related in first person by its main character, called Peter Mason. He is a doctor and the person in charge of the scientific station. He manages the rescue team and organizes the travel through the Polar ice cap to the coast to bring people to safety. He discovers the presence of a killer among the rescued people and tries to unmask him. The other members of the scientific team are Jackstraw, a very skilled man with guns and who knows all about how to survive on the Greenland ice cap, and the radio operator Joseph London. They configure a team where everyone can rely on the other, because in such extreme weather conditions their survival depends on team work. But suddenly the passengers of the crashed airliner become a new danger in their already dangerous world.

The survivors of the crash landed plane are the other significant characters. They make up a very heterogeneous group composed by a business man (Nick Corazzini), an actress (Marie Le Garde), a minister of religion (Joseph Smallwood), a boxer (Johnny Zagero) and his manager (Solly Levin), a London society woman (Ms Dansby-Gregg) and her personal maid (Helene), a Senator (Mr. Brewster), a silent Jew (Theodore Mahler) and an emotional stewardess (Margaret Ross).

Almost all of them want to be rescued as soon as possible, but there are several people that are trying to put setbacks during the travel to safeness because they have something to hide.

1/10 Score: 8