Like I said, I was excited for this book, and after the prologue, I was even more excited. I am not a writer myself I have tried and spinning a good yarn is no easy task. I don’t like to trash any author on GR or anywhere else. Ok, hold up-it really does pain me to write this review. I was mildly entertained at the best of times, and frustratingly confused and eventually bored at the worst of times. What I got was Guaranteed Value Tom Clancy with some Robert Ludlum and a speck of Michael Crichton thrown in there. I was expecting a rollicking adventure, on the high seas, across a barren and formidable arctic landscape, with espionage and intrigue, and all that yadda yadda. I had been looking forward to this book for a few months now, and was excited when I finally got to it. There are some entertaining minor characters and I feel I now know enough about Siberia to not want to go there, but really this was a waste of precious reading time. Meanwhile Johnny, with no personal stake in the mission, gamely risks both his and a lot of innocent Russians, to bring back something of ultimately minor interest. It all felt completely pointless: mysterious goings on in a research base involving a prehistoric corpse, so the CIA go to all the trouble of tracking down the One Man who can get in there, and sending him off, then pretty much abandoning him to his fate. I've plodded on through chapter after chapter of excruciating detail about Johnny's journey to deepest darkest Siberia, waiting for the payoff that didn't come. Written in 1994, it was re-released last year, and having heard about it from a normally reliable friend, I bought it then, but took a while to get to it, then took an even longer while to finish it. ‘A breathless story of fear and courage.Weird, annoying and overly long, this is not 'the best thriller ever' as claimed by Philip Pullman in the intro. ‘As significant as … le Carré in bringing a gritty new realism to the thriller.’ ( Sunday Telegraph) ‘Sensationally good … One of the great thrillers of the last century.’ (Charles Cumming) So desperate, he sends a plea across the wildness to the West in order to summon the one man alive capable of achieving the impossible …

But one scientist is desperate to get a message to the outside world.

It’s a place so secret it doesn’t officially exist once there, the scientists are forbidden to leave. A Siberian hell lost in endless night: the perfect setting for an underground Russian research station. ‘Hugely thrilling, brilliantly written, perfect … I didn’t want this book to end.’ (Anthony Horowitz) A sensational classic: this chilling tale of Siberian espionage is ‘the best thriller I’ve ever read’ (Philip Pullman) ranking with ‘ The Silence of the Lambs, Casino Royale and Smiley’s People‘ ( Spectator).

Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson