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The Rig
From Publisher's Weekly: "Collee strikes black gold with this taut drama. The exotic Madagascar setting shimmers realistically, the oil rig looms as a menacing behemoth, and even the minor characters achieve major status as the reader is never sure whom to believe right up to the perfect ending."
"Sophisticated thriller that hops back and forth from the untouristed tropics to the steppes of Alberta to great effect" - Kirkus reviews.
Times are hard in Madagascar. Many people had pinned their hopes on the discovery of oil; but there is not oil, and in a tragic finale to the futile exploration, a plane crash kills the departing foreign drillers.
In Canada, Spence, an injured rig worker, is offered the job of taking an inventory of the Madagascan rig. He accepts reluctantly, realizing that only his work can save him from the battle. But in the dusty, decrepit environment of French East Africa, his seemingly simple task becomes increasingly complex. Slowly he discovers the paranoid notion that the air crash was no accident.
Like John Collee's previous two novels, The Rig is a page-turning thriller laced with accute observations and memorable characters - the driven, almost crippled Spence, the beautiful, half-french, half-African Perpetude Peyrame, the drunken polygamist Morgan Hanssen, the casual murderer Elgin Kirk, Mitchell the lonely missionary, and Velo-André, the poignantly optimistic 'Ministre des Ressources Minérales' - all fallible people blown like sand into the grinding wheels of international power.
"Sophisticated thriller that hops back and forth from the untouristed tropics to the steppes of Alberta to great effect" - Kirkus reviews.
Times are hard in Madagascar. Many people had pinned their hopes on the discovery of oil; but there is not oil, and in a tragic finale to the futile exploration, a plane crash kills the departing foreign drillers.
In Canada, Spence, an injured rig worker, is offered the job of taking an inventory of the Madagascan rig. He accepts reluctantly, realizing that only his work can save him from the battle. But in the dusty, decrepit environment of French East Africa, his seemingly simple task becomes increasingly complex. Slowly he discovers the paranoid notion that the air crash was no accident.
Like John Collee's previous two novels, The Rig is a page-turning thriller laced with accute observations and memorable characters - the driven, almost crippled Spence, the beautiful, half-french, half-African Perpetude Peyrame, the drunken polygamist Morgan Hanssen, the casual murderer Elgin Kirk, Mitchell the lonely missionary, and Velo-André, the poignantly optimistic 'Ministre des Ressources Minérales' - all fallible people blown like sand into the grinding wheels of international power.
- GenresFiction
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
John Collee
8 books10 followersScreenwriter of Master and Commander, Happy Feet etc. Former doctor. Journalist and novelist
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 8, 2021
THE RIG is an excellent example of an adventure thriller, in the vein of Hammond Innes and Desmond Bagley, with tight plotting, well-developed characters, and a bunch of suspense.
June 19, 2026
An enjoyable mystery thriller with good characters. Worth a read.
November 9, 2015
Conspiracy, suspense, comedy, romance and action all rolled into one - Collee has brilliantly woven together a fascinating plot, which takes place in many different countries. Full of loveable, well developed characters and genuine detail. If you're keen for a fast paced action suspense thriller that isn't afraid to stop for a laugh, a cry or a beer, then this one is for you.
March 10, 2013
This was a good one. My invisible oil shelf. What ever happened to the author.
January 18, 2020
exciting novel from John Collee set in an oil rig in Madagascar - the oil company and its manoevres, political machinations, ego, ambition, suspense all aplenty in this thriller.
November 25, 2015
Quick read. Interesting thriller with drilling rig involved
May 20, 2016
Not my normal reading material but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews