Maddons Rock by Hammond Innes

Maddons Rock Reviews

• 
  Charles van Buren

  "The love of money is the root of all evil."
  
  Maddon's Rock is a well done adventure/suspense novel which begins in the waning days of WWII and continues into the immediate post-war period. The story starts in Murmansk with a convoy headed to Great Britain. The British flagged ship on which the main characters sail carries a secret shipment of silver bullion. Even the men guarding it are not told what they are guarding. The presence of the silver leads to theft, murder, apparent shipwreck and considerable disaster for many innocents.
  
  Four and a half stars.
• 
  Frida Hultgren

  Dad's favorite book <3 Miss him...
• 
  Gu Kun

  3.5
• 
  Sam Reaves

  Hammond Innes was a thriller writer of the great British post-war generation, along with Desmond Bagley, Gavin Lyall and others. This is a salt-encrusted sea story, about a couple of British army enlisted men assigned to guard a shipment of silver being shipped to the U.K. from Murmansk on a creaky old freighter in the late days of the Second World War. The ship's captain is a sinister Shakespeare-quoting loony, the warrant officer in charge of the guard detachment is a weak-kneed drunk, and when a storm hits and the lifeboats turn out to have been sabotaged, it becomes clear that the two Tommies are supposed to be the patsies in a scheme to hijack the silver. They escape the shipwreck by a miracle but wind up in Dartmoor after being tried for mutiny, and when they escape, all they want is to get even with the scoundrels who put them there. The quest will lead them to an isolated rock in the Barents Sea, where... OK, no spoilers. Suffice it to say there is a lot of man-on-the-run desperation, bad-weather sailing, skulduggery, contending with nature's awesome might, and even a little romance. Everything you want in a good old-fashioned thriller.
• 
  Paul Cornelius

  Many of the elements that will appear later in The Wreck of the Mary Deare can be found in this Innes postwar novel some eight years earlier. The urgency to chase through choppy, cold seas laden with dangerous rocks, the salvaging of a mystery ship, and the lengthy proceedings of a maritime court case. That and the tale of two captains, taking very different paths.
  
  There is another coincidence, here. I suppose it is a coincidence, at least. And that is the plot device that surrounds the loss of the Trikkala and its cargo of silver bullion. The deception at work is very similar to that which appeared in The Wake of the Red Witch. The latter appeared on movie screens the same year Innes published his novel, 1948. Garland Roark's novel itself was published two years earlier. And, of course, Roark's story about pirates, volcanoes, and the East Indies, Fair Wind to Java, came about also in 1948 before being made into a movie in 1953. Lots of inspiration for Innes in those two works, I think. Nonetheless, the pacing and characteristic teases in which Innes gradually drops hints of impending trouble into his story are present in Maddon's Rock to make this work in both style and substance an identifiable creation of Hammond Innes'.
• 
  Bev

  Gale Warning, originally published as Maddon's Rock in Britain, by Hammond Innes is a little outside my usual mystery fare. Primarily a high action thriller set on the high seas, this book--like much of Innes's work--would normally appeal to those who like their books full of adventure and masculine adventures. The story is told by Corporal Jim Vardy. Vardy and his mates, Gunner Bert Cook and Private Sills, are waiting repatriation to England at the end of World War II. Orders come for them to join Warrant Officer Rankin (as commanding officer) on special detail aboard the S. S. Trikkala, a freighter that will take them and a load of mysterious cargo back to England in a convoy of other boats.
  
  The men are ordered to guard cases marked "Hurricane Engines for Replacement" round-the-clock during the journey. Also aboard the vessel is Captain Halsey, a Shakespeare-spouting captain rumored to be mixed up in piracy, several of his loyal crew (having followed him from a previous ship), and a young woman released from a prison camp, Jennifer Sorrell. Vardy, an army man who would have been better suited to the navy, overhears several conversations and observes some odd behavior that make him suspicious of Halsey and Rankin's true purpose.
  
  When the Trikkala encounters a severe ocean storm (thus the title Gale Warning), Vardy and his mates are ordered into their designated life-boat. A boat that they had previously discovered to not be sea-worthy. Vardy refuses to board the boat--requesting to take one of the "less dependable" rafts instead. Halsey and Rankin deny his request and he defies orders, taking Bert Cook and Jenniferr Sorrell with him. They believe that the Trikkala has gone down and when they are picked up by one of the other ships, it seems that they are the only survivors from the doomed ship. But nearly a month later, Halsey, Rankin, the three crewmen loyal to Halsey are also found floating in the arctic waters.
  
  Charges of mutiny are brought against Vary and Cook and despite their story of the unsafe boat, they are found guilty and sent to Dartmoor for three years. Word reaches them that the five other survivors are planning a trip to salvage the cargo of the Trikkala--which has been revealed to be a fortune in silver bouillon. Our heroes decide to escape from prison and try to beat Halsey and company to the ship with hopes of bringing back proof of their innocence. The real mystery of Gale Warning is whether Vardy will be successful and the revelation of the real story behind the sinking of the freighter.
  
  There are no spoilers in my synopsis. My copy of the book has a brief blurb that pretty much covers everything I've told you--and the few bits I've been able to find on the interwebs tells just about as much. The kernel of mystery, as noted, surrounds Vardy's trip back to the Norwegian sea to find the silver. Bert Cook joins him--as does Jenny. Jenny is a sailor as well and it is her boat that is used to make the journey. The adventure and suspense of the final chapters more than make up for the lack of mystery through the first half of the book. These stories may been primarily attractive to men during the war years and those immediately following, but I find Innes's prose compelling and interesting. He's a good story-teller in an action-packed genre. Three and 1/2 stars.
  
  First posted on my blog
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• 
  Algernon (Darth Anyan)

  Another solid thriller from Hammond Innes. For me, it is on a par with the works of Alistair MacLean or Douglass Reeman. It shares with them a love of sailing, particularly the frozen seas of the Arctic Circle. In this case the journey will start in Murmansk toward the end of WWII, via the bleak prison walls of Dartmoor, and finally to Maddon's Rock - a desolate crag surrounded by mountainous waves somewhere to the north of Tromso.
  The classic ingredients of adventure are present here : the innocent by-stander caught by events, the slightly unhinged adversary, the treasure hunt, the sidekick providing both support to the hero and the occassional humorous relief of tension, and of course: the romantic element. The success of the recipe rests in the engaging first-person narration, the built-up to the final confrontation and the powerful rendition of the forces of Nature unleashed.
  
  I only rated it 4 stars instead of 5 because some of the plot twists were a little too convenient for the advancement of the story.
  
  This was a page turner for me, the kind that , once picked up, will be finished in one sitting, most probably at around 3 a.m.
• 
  D.C. Grant

  Always a good read from this old master. I used to read these in my late teens and twenties and always enjoyed them. Good, clean, old-fashioned adventure. Probably a little tame by today's standards but no reason not to like it. His work is timeless.
• 
  David Evans

  More questionable behaviour from seamen here (see The Wreck of the Mary Deare) as Corporal James Vardy (apparently not the Leicester City man, but a soldier whose sailing expertise would have suited a naval career but for his eyesight)and two fellow soldiers are being repatriated from Murmansk to England towards the end of the Second World War. Their transport, SS Trikkala, is part of a convoy and carrying a valuable cargo that Vardy is entrusted with guarding. Unease grows as snippets of conversation between the dangerous-looking Captain and his cronies indicate that perhaps all is not as it should be. An attractive Scottish SOE agent billeted aboard gives moral and intelligence support.
  Vardy’s actions in trying to thwart a heinous crime lead to his Court Martial (more brilliant courtroom drama from Innes here).
  Desperate to prove his innocence he vows to uncover the truth about the fate of the ship by the most outrageous journey into Alistair Maclean’s Bear Island territory and the eponymous Maddon’s Rock.
  The author admits it’s based on Treasure Island and what’s not to like about that? Well only three stars indicate some flaw and I think it’s the ease with which Vardy manages to evade recapture and persuade the provider of his sanctuary to underwrite his suicidally mad plan which seems a little too pat.
  Otherwise perfectly plausible, rollicking stuff.
• 
  Robert Newell

  Another excellent story from Hammond Innes. His ability to create suspense and paint an image is superb. The range of characters gives the book a fascinating storyline, that makes you want to keep reading. His stories based on nautical themes are always very strong and this is no exception.
• 
  William Laing

  Very exciting WWII sea story.
  
  There is great naval detail of northern waters in this tale of mutiny and piracy on 1945-6. There is an exciting prison escape in the middle of the book between the sea episodes.
• 
  Frederick Tan

  Good read.
• 
  Helen

  I'm pretty sure I'd read this one before years ago. Bits of it seemed familiar, but it obviously wasn't all that memorable. It was an okay read.
• 
  Avel Rudenko

  Originally under the title "Maddon's Rock", "Gale Warning" was a real treat to read, considering it was first published in the late nineteen-forties. The book started out kind of dry and took some time to gain my interest but it delivered a unique flavor of original writing, allowing us to peer into the time it was written in. If you like an old-fashioned adventure story, set on the high seas; you've come across the right read. If there was any downside to this book, it would be the old English sailor dialect, that was a little painstaking to get a-hang of and fully comprehend, at first. The writing reflects the time this book's setting took place in. There's something attention-grabbing about an old ship abandoned on an island, full of silver bullion. Enjoyed reading Inne's writing immensely.
• 
  Alton Motobu

  After a slow start this turned out to be an exciting, fast-paced thriller. There were three acts: a mutiny at sea, an escape from maximum-security prison, and a battle between good and bad guys on an isolated rock island in the Arctic Circle. The prison escape was great except it seemed a bit too easy for the escapees since everything that could go right turned out to go better than expected, so they made it across England to Scotland without incident. In the final act Innes described the dangerous sea conditions, the treacherous access to the rock island, and the death battle between good and evil to the point where you could almost feel what the characters were going through. I gave it only 4 stars because the book seemed too short (222 pages in my edition); I wish the book were a hundred pages longer so more details or plot twists could be provided.
• 
  Lee

  Husband really looked forward to listening to this and wasn't disappointed.Will be downloading the rest of Mr Innes books. Great narration too :)
  
  Descriptive without too much violence and an easy read at bed time.
• 
  Lili

  One of my favourite writers, I'm never disappointed. He always write a gripping good story, and the reader is never disappointed.
• 
  David Ferguson

  Even on my second read this was a page turning 'couldn't put it down' story by one of the great sea story authors of the 20th century.
• 
  Keith

  Re-reading after having read this in the late seventies.
• 
  Chris Gilmore

  Hammond Innes wrote men's adventure books between the '30s and the '80s - this one comes from shortly after the second world war, and is pretty much a classic Innes novel.
  
  In this novel, a couple if soldiers find themselves aboard a ship returning to England from Russia in 1945. They have a special cargo to guard, and this cargo leads them into all kinds of trouble. They find themselves embroiled in a nefarious plot against their will which, when they try to save themselves, leads to them getting court-martialled and locked up in Dartmoor prison. When their nemesis appears in the local news announcing some new plan, they decide to break out and foil his plot - hoping to clear themselves in the process.
  
  Innes novels are good fun. They feature stories of adventure in exotic places - remote Scottish islands (Atlantic Fury) - or, as in this case, barren rocks near Svalbard, desert oases (The Doomed Oasis), Norwegian glaciers (The Blue Ice), or the Canadian North (The Land God Gave to Cain). They feature male lead characters in a world of men, who get involved in things usually bigger than themselves, but manage to get through. Maldon's Rock features an interesting female main character, though sadly just when you think she's going to be a sort of Sydney Fox by insisting she captain the boat in the latter half of the novel, she starts asking the lead character for his advice at every turn. Their one romance scene is pretty wooden, so perhaps it's for the best that Innes mostly sticks to the world of hard-working men.
  
  For what it is, I recommend it - though my favorite Innes novel so far is The Blue Ice, which reaches a climax in which all the parties end up huddled together in a dark Norwegian shack on a glacier before making a mad-dash ski chase down the glacier and leaping over a train. If you like this sort of thing, I recommend it. I'll be reading more, myself.
  
  The audible version read by Richard Mitchley is one of the best I've heard, BTW. He's great with accents (except for the Polish guy) and goes a decent cockney, scottish, welsh, london, and American - switching back and forth seamlessly as the characters talk to one another. I was quite impressed.