I found [Caravan to Vaccares] childish schoolboy stuff. I can only think [Mr. MacLean] was having a slack moment, for Bear Island has all the tight construction, high adventure and excitement we really expect from [him]. But funnily enough, despite the setting—a charter ship with film crew on the Arctic seas and what must be the most inhospitable island of all time, and despite the tremendous violence of the action, Mr. MacLean and Miss [Agatha] Christie are siblings under the skin.
Quite simply it is who is doing what and why. The familiar formula is, like The Mousetrap, a collection of odd people in isolation. Murders happen (I lost count after a while) and gradually we understand that much mightier things are at stake than simple personal animosity. As always, Mr. MacLean's idea of women is fairly rudimentary, but the men are all fully developed and more than commonly tough. Technical knowledge—of ships and geography—is powerfully demonstrated, and overall Bear Island packs a great punch. (p. 46)
Roger Baker, in Books and Bookmen (© copyright Roger Baker, 1971; reprinted with permission), November, 1971.
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