Dark Suspense at the Top of the World

Post date: Dec 11, 2014 6:25:56 PM

Beneath the Arctic ice, an experimental American submarine makes an astonishing discovery—an ice island hiding a long-lost WWII Russian ice station and the remains of its personnel. Within weeks, the U.S. establishes control of the aging Ice Station Grendel and begins unlocking its dark secrets, which include human experimentation and the discovery of an ancient Arctic predator. At first both the U.S. and Russia play nice, but each country has secrets to keep about Grendel, and on the frozen Arctic ice cap, a very heated war is about to erupt.Alaskan Fish and Game Warden Matt Pike, his Inuit ex-wife, Jenny – a tribal sheriff – and Jenny's father, are duped into flying to an American Arctic research station near Grendel and become embroiled in the covert warfare. Threatened by soldiers and menaced by Grendel's prehistoric predator, these three plus a handful of submarine crewmen and researchers stranded on the ice station, struggle to survive the predators – both human and animal – and the deadly Arctic weather.

Ice Hunt was one of thriller writer James Rollins' earlier works, written before he started his highly successful Sigma Force series. It is the most suspenseful Rollins book I've read, and the darkest. Don't expect a standard good guys vs. bad guys plot line here, folks. From the beginning, the book is a white-knuckle ride through the Alaskan tundra and the polar ice cap filled with twists and counter-twists. The final few paragraphs are by far the darkest and most blood-curdling, a conclusion worthy of an Edgar Allan Poe story.