North Slope

by Michael Parker

North Slope is a barren desert of ice in Alaska that stretches from the Brooks Mountains to the Beaufort Sea, frozen during the winter clear to the North Pole. It is in this wilderness that the Fyffe Oil Company struggles in its search for oil. Andrew Fyffe, owner of the company, finds time and money are running out. On the rig a man has been killed; suspicion and fear are rampant among the drilling crews as they continue their superhuman efforts before Fyffe goes bust. The one man who (Fyffe believes) can save the company is McKinnon, once a famous wildcat oil man, but now a drunk, a drop-out. Fyffe kidnaps McKinnon from a drinking spree and flies him up to the oil rig, Fyffe One. When McKinnon sobers up he quickly sees he will need all his old resourcefulness, skill and courage to save the rig from catastrophe. The violent action of this story takes place against the background, strongly conveyed, of Alaskan Arctic winter and night. The rig and its crew confront dangers from temperatures far below zero, from fire, and from a subtle and complex intrigue ruthlessly executed by men whose objectives do not include the welfare of Fyffe One. This first novel tells a powerful story with conviction, a story to spellbind the reader and a mystery to be solved.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Action

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Brought up in London. Attended Sir Walter St. John's Grammar School for boys in Battersea until the family moved to Portsmouth in 1954. Continued education at Southern Grammar. Left school with no qualifications and started work as a Junior deigner at Twilfits (Corset/Brassiere manufacturer). Left after one year and joined the Merhcant Navy as a Steward. Two years later married Pat, my teenage sweetheart and went to work on a building site. Three months later I joined the RAF as an electrician. Left 16 years later on a redundancy package and worked in a food factory for a couple of years. Left and worked in the Middle East for a year. Then back to another food manufacturer (Mars) for 17 years until early retirement in 1996. Moved out to Spain with Pat in 1997. We have four sons, ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Sadly, my wife passed away with terminal cancer. We'd been married 60 years. Pat and I moved back to England in 2014.

I have written all my adult life with moderate success. My first novel, NORTH SLOPE was published by Macmillan in 1980. My second, SHADOW OF THE WOLF in 1984 by Robert Hale. My third, HELL'S GATE was published in 2007 by Robert Hale followed by THE EAGLE'S COVENANT (2007) and THE DEVIL'S TRINITY in 2008. This was followed by THE THIRD SECRET, in 2009 and then A COVERT WAR in 2010. THE BOY FROM BERLIN was released in December 2011, and has now been picked up by Harlequin who have purchased (leased) the paperback rights for North America and Canada. Harlequin have also released my thriller, THE EAGLE'S COVENANT in paperback. I have self-published WHERE THE WICKED DWELL, NO TIME TO DIE and A SONG IN THE NIGHT. I have also written and publsiehed three Cozy Romance novekls under the pen name of Emma Carney. I also have three non-fiction titles poublished.

Robert Hale published my novel, PAST IMPERFECT, in January 2015. This is an romance with a hard edged back story. It has now been published by The Wild Rose Press in America.

Reviews

[Jay Fromkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Parker has written a compelling book about oil exploration on the North Slope of Alaska. Unfortunately, he also grafted into this setting a murder mystery. More unfortunate is his lack of an attentive editor.

I've been on oil rigs in Wyoming during the winter. It's cold and dangerous. Multiply that cold and danger exponentially, and it must surely be as Parker has described in North Slope. The scenes at the drilling camp, on the rig, traversing the Arctic range by bulldozer and dogsled are vivid and well structured. If this book had simply been about the struggles and terrors of drilling for oil in Alaska, the book would be worth four-to-five stars. His descriptions are that good. But the murder mystery is not. In a way, it's like an Agatha Christie whodunit, with a circumscribed set of suspects within a confined location - not a locked room, but a landlocked (but for a helicopter) setting. I don't find Christie's mysteries interesting, and I didn't find this mystery interesting either.

But the biggest problem with this book is the want of an editor. Coffee is always "piping hot." Words are missing as in the sentence, "McKinnon looked at him for seemed like an eternity." I'm pretty sure he's missing the word "what". The word "but" appears as "hut". I have no idea what this means: "The silhouette in the front left-hand oat moved..." Sometimes the word "river," associated with a specific river, is capitalized, and sometimes not. Words are strangely capitalized, such as "company" and "law" though without any context that would suggest capitalization would be proper. The pronoun "I" often appears as the number "1". Comparing two oilmen, Parker writes that "He didn't know which of them had been the best,.." A comparison of two should result in one being "better," not "best". Plots are too frequently described as "evil". In an unnecessary sex scene, the protagonist's lover "put both her hands around the hack of his head." Perhaps that should have been "back of his head," unless "hack" is a part of the cranial anatomy of which I'm unfamiliar.

The beauty of an e-book is that it can be edited and republished. I'd suggest Parker find the time to do that.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seriously? You cant call that a mystery! You can't even call it a thriller. This book was so boring that it was sadly predictable in its slow build up to nothing. I cant even call the ending a crescendo. It was just there, like the sex scene, like the storm descriptions, and like the hundred thousand typos, grammar errors and editing mistakes.

I made myself finish this book, hoping for a little thrill, but never got one. Of books I didn't like but still finished, this ranks right at the top.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book set on the North Slope of Alaska at an oil rig. There is a lot of jargon that I don't have the technical knowledge to determine its accuracy but it did, for me, detract from the story. I had read that some editions corrected numerous editing shortfalls. Apparently I don't have that edition. While the editing was distracting the real shortfall, for me, was the story itself. I kept asking myself why would the lead character, McKinnon, do what he is doing. The most surprising thing was why I kept reading a novel that I really was not enjoying.

[Michael Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful description of a harsh environment and tough characters, November 18, 2010
By
R. Nicholson-morton "Nik Morton" (Alicante, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: North Slope (Paperback)
Apparently, the author wrote this book while working in Saudi Arabia. Set in the claustrophobic oil drilling station in the barren ice desert of Alaska, it's a far cry from the hot sands of Saudi! In fact, even though almost 30 years after its original hardback publication, this book makes for a riveting read.

Michael Parker effortlessly inhabits the territory of Hammond Innes with his masterful description of a harsh environment and tough characters. The fact that there's a murderer in the midst of the crew on the drilling operation, which itself is a race against a deadline, keeps the pages turning.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

North Slope is not a book I would have been likely to pick up but as it was briefly free on Amazon I felt there was nothing to lose and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The writer brought the inhospitable environment alive and provided a gripping story to keep the pages turning (or finger pumping the page down button on my kindle, to be more accurate). Another reviewer has commented on the need for a good proof reader/editor to sort out some problems with the text and I must agree that there were quite a few irritations but I found that, as I got into the book, the problems were less frequent or perhaps in the grip of the story I simply didn't notice them so much! On the basis of this book I would certainly be prepared to try another by the same author.

[ian cheney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amateurish and awful

Couldn’t finish it,very poorly written like a ‘boys own’comic book simplistic plot and absolutely no sophistication in the writing at all.

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent mystery set in the Alaskan oil fields. Mysterious goings on at the North Slope field need investigating. The owner can only think of a former foreman who is now down on his luck.

Good selection of characters keep you guessing as to the possible suspect, and the main ones are well written as they try to look for a killer while keeping up the search for a massive load of oil.

The weather and conditions play a big part as everything draws to its conclusion.

[Angela C Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story

This story line was very intriguing right up to the end. Although it was about drilling for oil in Alaska it held enough facts on the topic to keep me engaged without over doing it.

[David C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page Turner!

A North Alaska oil rig, murder, mystery, and a God foreboding climate make this a "can't put it down" read.

[Melissa Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read!!

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

Good read kept me guessing never knew where it was going to go next more twists and turns in every page

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what moved me to want to read this book (could be the $2.99 price on Amazon for the iPad). I know nothing about oil rigging, but it was an interesting mystery/murder book. At times when the author is describing the cold and the storms in Alaska, you wanted to run and grab a blanket!!

[Bob Zwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was exciting, suspensfull and the setting in Alaska peeked my enjoyment. Iread the Kindle enook version. It had gramatical errors and British vocabulary that was obvious but not a hindrence.

I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys reading about the challenges of the Alaskan wilderness and enjoys murder mystery.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading. I got involved with the second page and stayed involved until the end. Parker's story and way of presenting it made me reminiscent of Alistair MacLean, a favorite of mine. Lots of good action and written in a way that made the reader part of it.

[Layne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a well written mystery set in the oil fields of Alaska. I enjoyed the book. It was a entertaining and the pace of the plot kept me interested right until the end. It was well worth the price I paid for it, which was nothing. This was another free book on Amazon.

[Deliasue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was about the Alaska Oil fields, the devastation of the cold weather and how it hurts the people who work there. It is so cold they can only stay out in it for a few minutes. It causes men to do terrible things to other men when their minds play tricks on them.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Bit of a murder/mystery. Boy book really!

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Action packed crime thriller set in the Alaskan oil industry, full of tough men in a tough environment.

[Holly Hilbrands · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, nonstop action. Learned lots about drilling and Alaska

[Sharon Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read and easy but not something that I could not put down. I was left with the feeling that, ok, this was interesting but it did not entice me to want to read any more of his books.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little thriller. Well written. Read when you are somewhere warm :)

[Sandra Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to the very end

Really held my interest throughout the entire book. Exciting twists and turns. Unpredictable ending. Kept me guessing throughout the exciting ending. Loved it.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this book, not sure why.