Bear Island (novel)

Infobox Book
name = Bear Island
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of the 1972 U.S. paperback edition
author = Alistair MacLean
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Thriller Novel
publisher = Collins
release_date = 1971
media_type =
pages =
isbn = NA
preceded_by = Caravan to Vaccarès
followed_by = Alistair MacLean Introduces Scotland (non-fiction)

"Bear Island" is a Thriller novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean. Originally published in 1971, it was the last of MacLean's novels to be written in first-person narrative. This novel is a Locked room mystery with the added twist that the scene of the crimes is set on Bear Island, an island in the Svalbard archipelago of the Norwegian Arctic.

Plot Summary

A converted fishing trawler, "Morning Rose" carries a movie-making crew across the Barents Sea to isolated Bear Island, well above the Arctic Circle, for some on-location filming, but the script is a secret known only to the producer and screenwriter. En route, members of the movie crew and ship's company begin to die under mysterious circumstances. The crew's doctor, Marlowe, finds himself enmeshed in a violent, multi-layered plot in which very few of the persons aboard are whom they claim to be. Marlowe's efforts to unravel the plot become even more complicated once the movie crew is deposited ashore on Bear Island, beyond the reach of the law or outside help. The murders continue ashore, and Marlowe, who is not what he seems to be either, discovers they may be related to some forgotten events of the Second World War.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

"Bear Island" later appeared on film as a 1980 movie directed by Don Sharp and starring Donald Sutherland, Richard Widmark, Vanessa Redgrave, and Christopher Lee. The film was shot in Canada and Alaska, and the scenery bears little resemble to Bear Island. Furthermore, the plot and characterization of the novel were greatly altered by the scriptwriters, to the point of changing the name of the protagonist from “Marlowe” to “Lansing”.

External links

* [http://www.alistairmaclean.de/Insel_Film.htm Movie review at Alistairmaclean.de (German)]