The Reluctant Contact by Stephen Burke, Book Review
I’m not good at gushing, but this one grabbed me. Maybe it’s
that I’m old enough to remember Communist Eastern Europe. I could empathise
with the fear and suspicion the characters live with every day. While
travelling behind the Iron Curtain one very cold winter, I changed some money on
the black market. This was illegal and I wondered afterwards how wise it was to
do this for the sake of a better exchange rate. Not long after that, I was
standing in my room looking out of the window when I saw a shortish, non-descript
man in dark clothes, flanked by two tall police officers in uniform, approach
the cabin I was staying in. There was an unpleasant flutter in my stomach and
my body tensed. ‘Don’t be silly, Toria, they could be going anywhere.’ Not long
after that I heard them stamp their boots at the front door to get rid of the
snow and I started feeling sick. Not at long after that they rapped on my bedroom
door and stepped in. At this point I had to sit on my bed because my knees had
started to wobble. (I’m better at reading thrillers than acting in them). They
came over to my bed, at which point I was ready to pass out. It turns out the
gas heater, which was next to my bed, was broken, and the smallish man was the gas
engineer. I’m not sure if the cops came along to protect me from him or him
from me. 😊
Sorry for the digression, but The Reluctant Contact, an amazingly
atmospheric book, catapulted me back into this memory of fear. I’m sure you don’t
need your own experiences of communism to enjoy this riveting crime thriller
set in Pyramiden, a Soviet Mining enclave in Norway. The characters come alive
against the backdrop of ice and cold and the mystery of a dead body in a mine
shaft engages you until long after lights out. Is it a crime thriller or a spy
thriller or a bit of both? It doesn’t really matter. I love crime books set in unusual
places and I’d challenge you to find one more interesting or exotic.
The author Stephen Burke was born in Ireland and his first
novel, The Good Italian, was shortlisted for the Historical Writers Association
Debut Crown Award. He is also a screenwriter and director.
First published in 2017 by Hodder & Stoughton in hardback
(£20.99).
My teenage son, who loves geography, started showing us maps of the Svalbard Archipelago. We became fascinated with the most northern place of human habitation. Other family members wondered if any mystery novels were set in Svalbard. They found The Reluctant Contact, an engrossing story which conveys the harsh isolation of the environment, and the human ingenuity in surviving there. It is set during the cold war, and the novel convincingly depicts what people had to do to survive in the Soviet Union. This combination of a harsh environment and a controling society provides a tense backdrop for the main character's story. I did not want to stop reading. I recommend this book.
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