Friday, December 05, 2008

Crime novels set in Antarctica

The Guardian's article in July, Crime fiction: Around the world in 80 sleuths, had this to say about Antarctica:

80. South Pole

The North Pole has Ice Station Zebra and The Thing. Antarctica has Greg Rucka's graphic novel about US Marshall Carrie Stetko, out solving murders in the most desolate continent on earth.

Read 'Whiteout' (Oni Press)

(Whiteout is being made into a film starring Kate Beckinsale (US release - Sep 09))

I've just received a proof of Robert Masello's Blood and Ice (US Feb 09, UK Mar 09) which spans time, genre and locations but seems to include a significant chunk of time/plot in Antarctica:

Publisher's synopsis:

Troubled journalist Michael Wilde takes on a commission to write a feature about a remote research station deep in the frozen beauty of Antarctica. On a diving expedition in the polar sea he discovers two bodies encased in ice. The pair, a man and a woman chained together, their dress from the nineteenth-century, are brought to the surface - along with a trunk containing a strange, but sinister cargo. As the ice around them begins to thaw, the mystery of these time-bound lovers begins to unravel.Michael is gradually drawn into a horrific story that starts in the London barracks in the 1850s and leads to the bloody battlefields of the Crimea and the tragic Charge of the Light Brigade. Now, in the Antarctic wastes, the Cavalry officer and his lover are reawakened into a world where the midnight sun lasts for months, where there's nowhere to hide and no place left for the living to run...In this chilling supernatural thriller, spanning five continents and several centuries, Robert Masello weaves together an extraordinary tale of eternal life and undying love. Gripping and intensely moving, "Blood and Ice" will take its readers on an enthralling, and unforgettable journey.

Anyone know of any other titles set in Antarctica?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cheated, and looked in the CD-ROM version of Hubin's Crime Fiction IV:

Iain Banks, The Business - Little 1999
Hyam Yona Becker, The Temple of Hashem - Gefen 1997
Nick Carter, Operation: McMurdo Sound - Charter 1980
Nick Carter, White Death - Charter 1985 [Nick Carter]
Louis Charbonneau, The Ice - Fine 1991 [Kathy McNeely]
Lincoln Child, The Ice Limit [with Douglas Preston] - Warner 2000
William Dietrich, Ice Reich - Warner 1998 [1938]
Stephen K. Forbes, False Cross - Signet 1989
John Griffin, The Antarctic Convergence - Hale 1979 [Richard Raven]
Craig Harrison, Days of Starlight - Hodder 1988
Payne Harrison, Thunder of Erebus - Crown 1991
Hammond Innes, The White South - Collins 1949
Hammond Innes, Isvik - Chapmans 1991
Geoffrey Jenkins, A Grue of Ice - Collins 1962 [Ship]
W. E. Johns, Biggles Breaks the Silence - Hodder 1949 [Biggles (James Bigglesworth)]
Thomas Keneally, The Survivor - Angus 1969
Thomas Keneally, A Victim of the Aurora - Collins 1977 [1910]
Bob Langley, Precipice - Bantam 1991
David Mariner, Symbol of Vengeance - Hale 1975 [New Zealand]
James Markert, The Hell That Is Ice - Chicago Spectrum 1999
Bob Mayer, Eternity Base - Presidio 1996 [Dave Riley]
M. E. Morris, The Icemen - Presidio 1988
Geoffrey Peters, The Chill of a Corpse - Ward 1968 [Insp. Trevor Nicholls]
Douglas Preston, The Ice Limit [with Lincoln Child] - Warner 2000
Matthew Reilly, Ice Station - Pan 1998
Bob Reiss, Purgatory Road - Simon 1996
Kenneth Robeson, The South Pole Terror - Bantam 1974 [Doc Savage]
Joseph Rosenberger, The Atlantean Horror - Pinnacle 1985 [Richard Camellion]
David Stevens, White for Danger - Collins 1979
Peter Tonkin, Powerdown - Headline 1999 [Richard Mariner]
Erik Van Ees, The Last Blue - Century 1983
Dennis Wheatley, The Man Who Missed the War - Hutchinson 1945

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Thanks Stan. Quite a few then! I've got that CD as well, never thought to have a look!!

Martin Edwards said...

An impressive list. Yet, oddly, none of them published by Penguin!!

Anonymous said...

Amazing list. There are a couple of Alistair MacLeans set in somewhere very cold - Ice Station Zebra and a better (but not so well-known) one about a convoy. Whether Antarctica or Arctic, I can't remember.

The book sounds good though- tempting!

Anonymous said...

I've got lots of polar genre fiction, including crime fiction, on my website:
http://www.phys.barnard.edu/~kay/polar/

Jose Ignacio Escribano said...

Albert Sanchez PiƱol, Cold Skin may qualify as well as a crime novel set in Antarctia. More information can be found in this link:
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/espana/spinola.htm

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Many thanks for the additional suggestions.