Bear Island

Just finished reading “Bear Island” by Alistair Maclean my favourite author.  Dr. Marlowe is a doctor on board a fishing trawler Morning Rose which is headed towards Bear Island in Barents Sea for some film shooting of which nobody knows what the script is about. Enroute, the film crew start getting murdered one after another in mysterious circumstances. The plot gets murkier when the crew lands on the inhospitable and alien Bear Island and the murders continue. Written in first person narrative, Maclean gradually lets the suspense out one after another taking the story to some connection in post war Europe. A gripping enthralling book, a typically pot boiler by Alistair Maclean. Rating 5/5 – Highly Recommended

The Blood-Dimmed Tide

John Madden has retired as a detective from Scotland Yard and settled in his rural home happy with his surroundings. One day he and his wife Dr. Helen Madden were returning back to his house, when he chanced upon the body of a little girl, hidden, with a badly mutilated face and apparently raped also. His detective instincts kick in, despite protests from his wife, he gets involved in the case. Then another body is discovered in similar fashion but that disappearance was reported almost three years back. And another body in similar fashion. Case goes out of local police hands into Scotland Yard and slowly bits by pieces they stitch together a series of crimes being committed by a psychopath, all of young girls and all in similar fashion - rape and then post mortem mutilation and sometimes even post mortem rape. The gap of three years in the murders forces them to surmise that it could have been somebody who has been out of the country during that period. The murders are set in 1926 to 1929 period when Europe was in turmoil due to rising Nazism of that era. The case develops international ramifications but thankfully Rennie has not diverted too much attention to that part of the case. Rennie Airth's narrative is quite good and keeps the suspense intact. Goodreads 4/5