Night Without End
Encyclopedia
Night Without End is a thriller novel
by Scottish
author Alistair MacLean
, first published in 1959
. It is generally considered one of MacLean's very best, especially in its depiction of the unforgiving Arctic
environment; among others, the Times Literary Supplement gave it strongly favorable notices when it came out.
airplane crash-lands on the Greenland
ice cap far from its usual route after flying in a seemingly erratic fashion. A scientific research team based near the crash site rescues the surviving passengers and takes them to their station. The team finds one passenger and most of the flight crew are dead with one of the pilots having been shot in the back. The onthatly 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. Meanwhile the pilot who was shot and in a coma is found to have been suffocated. An attempt is also made on Dr Mason's life by getting him to be lost in the arctic night. The scientists suspicion falls on stewardess but she is soon cleared. Dr Mason orders the radio operator, London, to stay behind and repair the radio so that a field expedition can be contacted. The dead passenger is determined to be a military courier and soon after that the wreck goes up in flames.
Dr Mason leaves with the group along with the other scientist, Jackstraw while remaining in touch with their station by means on a short range radio. Meanwhile, the field expedition returns to the station and contacts Dr Mason. They inform him that a massive military mobilization has happened to locate the crashed plane and that it carried something very important. The governments having refused to divulge anything have tried to contact Dr Mason's station. Finding the station to be non-responding, they have requested the expedition chief, Captain Hillcrest to check out the station.
Dr Mason decides to go on with the journey since any attempt to return will induce the murderers to act and keeps this new development to himself and Jackstraw. Captain Hillcrest sets out after the group but soon finds that the petrol he picked up the station has been tampered with. Sugar has been added to the petrol causing the sugar to melt and stick to the engine parts leading him to get bogged down. A solution is found to this when on of the passengers, a chemist, suggests that the petrol be mixed with water and the top layer of the resultant mixture be siphoned off. Almost at the same time, the governments also relent and inform Dr Mason through Captain Hillcrest that the military courier carried a top secret missile guidance mechanism and that it is made to look like a tape recorder. Dr Mason realizes that one of the passengers picked up such a device at the crash site. But this precipitates the murderers into action and they take over the group.
Finding that killing the entire group is not feasible, the criminals make them ride with them. But soon they abandon all of them save the stewardess, for whom Mason has developed a soft corner, and the father of a passenger who is a boxer. In the process, one of passengers left behind is killed. The group stumbles on in the arctic blizzard guided by the guard dogs with one of them dying during this trek. Soon they come across the abandoned sled that contains rocket sondes. They use it to guide Captain Hillcrest to them and set out in chase across the arctic landscape.
They manage to catch up with the criminals near the shore where a trawler waits for the criminals. But the intervention of navy, on information from Captain Hillcrest, frightens off the trawler. The criminals are surrounded here and after a bitter hand to hand combat between the protagonists and the criminals, the mechanism and the hostages are rescued.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
author Alistair MacLean
Alistair MacLean
Alistair Stuart MacLean was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers or adventure stories, the best known of which are perhaps The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare, all three having been made into successful films...
, first published in 1959
1959 in literature
The year 1959 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*April 30 - Theatrical première of Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, originally performed on radio in 1932....
. It is generally considered one of MacLean's very best, especially in its depiction of the unforgiving Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
environment; among others, the Times Literary Supplement gave it strongly favorable notices when it came out.
Plot summary
A BOACBritish Overseas Airways Corporation
The British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd...
airplane crash-lands on the Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
ice cap far from its usual route after flying in a seemingly erratic fashion. A scientific research team based near the crash site rescues the surviving passengers and takes them to their station. The team finds one passenger and most of the flight crew are dead with one of the pilots having been shot in the back. The onthatly 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. Meanwhile the pilot who was shot and in a coma is found to have been suffocated. An attempt is also made on Dr Mason's life by getting him to be lost in the arctic night. The scientists suspicion falls on stewardess but she is soon cleared. Dr Mason orders the radio operator, London, to stay behind and repair the radio so that a field expedition can be contacted. The dead passenger is determined to be a military courier and soon after that the wreck goes up in flames.
Dr Mason leaves with the group along with the other scientist, Jackstraw while remaining in touch with their station by means on a short range radio. Meanwhile, the field expedition returns to the station and contacts Dr Mason. They inform him that a massive military mobilization has happened to locate the crashed plane and that it carried something very important. The governments having refused to divulge anything have tried to contact Dr Mason's station. Finding the station to be non-responding, they have requested the expedition chief, Captain Hillcrest to check out the station.
Dr Mason decides to go on with the journey since any attempt to return will induce the murderers to act and keeps this new development to himself and Jackstraw. Captain Hillcrest sets out after the group but soon finds that the petrol he picked up the station has been tampered with. Sugar has been added to the petrol causing the sugar to melt and stick to the engine parts leading him to get bogged down. A solution is found to this when on of the passengers, a chemist, suggests that the petrol be mixed with water and the top layer of the resultant mixture be siphoned off. Almost at the same time, the governments also relent and inform Dr Mason through Captain Hillcrest that the military courier carried a top secret missile guidance mechanism and that it is made to look like a tape recorder. Dr Mason realizes that one of the passengers picked up such a device at the crash site. But this precipitates the murderers into action and they take over the group.
Finding that killing the entire group is not feasible, the criminals make them ride with them. But soon they abandon all of them save the stewardess, for whom Mason has developed a soft corner, and the father of a passenger who is a boxer. In the process, one of passengers left behind is killed. The group stumbles on in the arctic blizzard guided by the guard dogs with one of them dying during this trek. Soon they come across the abandoned sled that contains rocket sondes. They use it to guide Captain Hillcrest to them and set out in chase across the arctic landscape.
They manage to catch up with the criminals near the shore where a trawler waits for the criminals. But the intervention of navy, on information from Captain Hillcrest, frightens off the trawler. The criminals are surrounded here and after a bitter hand to hand combat between the protagonists and the criminals, the mechanism and the hostages are rescued.