Book Review; Maddon’s Rock, Hammond Innes

Written in 1947, Maddon’s Rock is basically a war story. It reflects the recent experience of many of his readers.

As always with Innes and unusually for the thriller genre, Innes’ protagonist is not a “hero” in the typical sense, but an ordinary man suddenly thrust into extreme situations by circumstance. Often, with this author this involved being placed in a hostile environment (the Arctic, the open sea, deserts), or unwittingly becoming involved in a larger conflict or conspiracy. The hero is forced to rely on his own wits and making best use of limited resources, rather than the James Bondish weapons and gadgetry commonly used by modern thriller writers.

In this case, the elements of danger are within the Arctic ocean, along with a very nasty villain and bureaucratic insensibility. Big seas and treacherous rocks provide the backdrop for a tale of old fashioned derring do.

While the prose is sixty years old, the tale is a simple one of greed and evil, just as many of the best plots are. There are delightfully accurate dialect passages in the dialogue and the whole hangs together by being believable and smoothly written.

Of course Innes never wrote great literature, yet he was able to bring a sense of danger to the situations he created and a sense of heroism in his characters. Along with excitement and a tale just long enough to hold the reader’s interest and not so long that it is necessary to take a break for sleep or food.

Maybe it is time I began revisiting a favourite author from my reading past.