I loved Canadian author Amy McCulloch's debut, BREATHLESS, about mountaineering with a killer among the party. MIDNIGHT is a well-written thriller in a similar vein, an Antarctic cruise with a limited number of suspects, steadily worsening conditions, and no way of escape.
The cruise line industry is opening up again and an Antarctic cruise, combined with an expensive art auction by a recently deceased modern artist, attracts not just buyers but influencers. I lost count of how many people were aboard just to record and post their exciting trip and emotional moments. Olivia Campbell couldn’t be further from this class; she’s an actuary, just short of her final exam, overworked as always. Her staid London firm is helping to manage the art, and her boyfriend Aaron Hunter-Williams is the art dealer running the auction. She’s on the cruise for work but also, she suspects Aaron is going to propose.
Aaron slips back to the mainland for some reason and doesn’t make it back to the MS Vigil before they cast off. That’s just the first in a litany of problems. Aaron’s assistant art dealer Stefan Grenville can run the auction, as a storm prevents helicopter flights. Grumpily thinking that someone else might as well benefit, Olivia gives up her double cabin to a newly married couple and bunks with Patty, Annaliese, and Janine. Cue unreliable internet, bad weather conditions, and a case of food poisoning. And Oliva starts to feel she is being stalked.
I didn’t need the suspense, I’d happily read a novel about Antarctica. Amy McCulloch tells us she took a last-minute cruise to the frozen continent, so all the details about icebergs, calving glaciers, penguin colonies, and whales are drawn from her life. We see that visitors are obliged to respect the nature here, and if anything goes wrong, you really are in a bad situation. This cruise ship mimics a country house setting, with no way out or in, no law officers, scanty communication, and threatening weather. But it’s a far more thrilling location.
To fill in backgrounds and give us a better sense of her heroine, Amy McCulloch relays Olivia’s family issues and work burnout, both of which may have stopped her from seeing how skeezy her boyfriend is. I saw it in a moment, but maybe men like him infest London, with more expensive suits and watches than they can wear. I wasn’t at all surprised he missed the boat. The pace continues in MIDNIGHT, as well as time-honoured rituals like celebrating crossing the Antarctic Circle. I want to go.
In this pulse-pounding thriller, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica—to camp beneath the legendary midnight sun—becomes a desperate battle for survival against a killer determined to follow their prey to the ends of the earth.
THE SUN NEVER SETS AND THIS KILLER NEVER SLEEPS
Olivia Campbell has always dreamed of spending a sunlit night on the frigid Antarctic continent. But as an actuary who assesses risk for a living, she never imagined she would have the chance. So when her career takes an unexpected detour, and her boyfriend—a high-powered art dealer with a taste for the finer things in life—decides to stage an ostentatious, career-making auction on a luxury liner to Antarctica, Olivia is thrilled. That is, until things start to feel a bit strange. In addition to the scores of wealthy patrons and potential buyers, they'll also be traveling alongside a small group of beleaguered employees of Pioneer Adventures—the company responsible for managing the ship—and their charismatic, divisive CEO.
When the first bodies are discovered, it's easy enough for Olivia to write it off as a terrible accident. But as the situation heats up and the temperatures continue to plummet, she begins to wonder whether she might have booked a one-way ticket to her own demise.
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