Night Without End
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''Night Without End'' is a thriller novel by Scottish author
Alistair MacLean Alistair Stuart MacLean ( gd, Alasdair MacGill-Eain; 21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987) was a 20th-century Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. Many of his novels have been adapted to film, most notably '' The G ...
, first published in 1959. The author has been complimented for the excellent depiction of the unforgiving
Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
environment; among others, the ''
Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' gave it strongly favorable notices when it came out.


Plot summary

A
BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passi ...
airplane crash-lands on the
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
ice cap far from its usual route after flying in a seemingly erratic fashion. An
International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; french: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific ...
scientific research team based near the crash site rescues the surviving passengers and takes them to their station. Most of the flight crew are dead. The station's only means of contact with the outside world, a radio set, is destroyed in a seemingly accidental manner. With not enough food for everyone and no hope of rescue, the leader of the scientific research team, Dr Mason, decides that they must set out for the nearest settlement, some 300 kilometers away at the coast. Meanwhile, the crew member who was found with massive brain injuries an who since fell in a coma is found to have been suffocated with a pillow. Inspecting the plane, Dr Mason discovers that one of the pilots had been shot in the back. The dead passenger is determined to be a military courier. An attempt is also made on Mason's life by stranding him in the arctic night, soon after that the wreck goes up in flames. The scientist's suspicion falls on the stewardess but she is soon cleared. Mason orders another scientist, Joss, to stay behind and try to repair the radio so that a field expedition can be contacted. Mason leaves with the group along with the other scientist, Jackstraw, while remaining in touch with their station by means of a short range radio. Meanwhile, the field expedition returns to the station and contacts Mason. They inform him that a massive military mobilization has located the crashed plane and that it carried something very important. The government, having refused to divulge anything, had tried to contact Mason's station. Finding the station to be non-responding, they have requested the expedition chief, Captain Hillcrest, to investigate. Mason decides to go on with the journey since any attempt to return will induce the murderers to act. He keeps this new development to himself and Jackstraw. Hillcrest sets out after the group but soon finds that the petrol he picked up at the station has been tampered with. Sugar has been added to the petrol disabling the engine and leading him to get bogged down. A solution is found when one of the passengers, a chemist, suggests that the petrol be mixed with water and the top layer of the resultant mixture be siphoned off. At almost the same time, the government relents and informs Mason through Hillcrest that the military courier carried a top secret missile guidance mechanism disguised as a tape recorder. Mason realizes that one of the passengers picked up such a device at the crash site. This precipitates the murderers into action and they take over the group. Finding that killing the entire group is not possible, the criminals initially take the survivors with them, but soon abandon all of them except for the stewardess, for whom Mason has developed a romantic attachment, and the father and manager of a passenger who is a boxer. In the process, one of the passengers left behind is killed. The group stumbles on in the arctic blizzard guided by sled dogs. Soon they come across an abandoned sled that contains rocket
radiosonde A radiosonde is a battery-powered telemetry instrument carried into the atmosphere usually by a weather balloon that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them by radio to a ground receiver. Modern radiosondes measure or calcula ...
s, which they use to guide Hillcrest to them. A chase ensues across the arctic landscape to the shore where a trawler waits for the criminals. But the intervention of the Navy, on information from Hillcrest, frightens off the trawler. The criminals are surrounded and after a bitter hand-to-hand struggle, the secret device and surviving hostages are rescued. The first criminal is killed, however the second is still on the go. Having himself and the stewardess locked in a fast moving glacier, Dr. Mason manages to rescue her, but the killer is left to die.


Reception

The ''New York Times'' called it a "bang up adventure yarn filled with realistic, well researched data." The ''Chicago Tribune'' called the book "powerful".
Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the Mo ...
in ''The Guardian'' called it "clumsily written, absurdly implausible, thoroughly chilling."


Proposed adaptation

In August 1959 film rights were bought by George Seaton and William Perlberg who had a deal with Paramount. They wanted to make the film with
Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...
with whom they had a long-term contract. They hired
Eric Ambler Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 22 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for book ...
to write a script.
Lilli Palmer Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Cinema of the United States, Hollywood produ ...
was announced as co star. In 1961 Seaton said they wanted to film it after ''The Hook''.
William Holden William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
was attached as star. In December 1961 it was announced Richard Wilson would direct at Paramount. In 1963 Wilson said he still had a commitment to make the film, and had written the script with his wife Elizabeth Vance."Wilson Turning Out Horse-Race 'Study': Sidney Pink Goes Panacolor: Seattle Fair Man to Repeat" Scheuer, Philip K. ''Los Angeles Times'' 29 Jan 1963: D7. However the film was never made.


References


External links


Book review at AlistairMacLean.com
{{Alistair MacLean Novels by Alistair MacLean 1959 British novels Novels set in Greenland William Collins, Sons books Doubleday (publisher) books