Peter Tonkin - Killer

[humgoo]

Peter Tonkin - Killer (Coronet, 1980)

Imagine you're a thirty-nine-feet, seven-tonne killer whale who has been trained since you were a calf to kill enemies, the trigger signal being a reaching arm (as if to plant a mine). Now you see some idiot on the slipway pointing with his left hand. You go to neutralise the target at once and wait for your reward. How can you know that the idiot is some big shot from the Navy who has come to see if the training programme deserves to be given more funding as requested? Instead of reward, you receive three shots from a .38 revolver. Badly hurt, you manage to escape to the open sea, in panic and anger. Mostly anger. Human flesh tastes good, by the way.

Meanwhile, twenty-five-year-old Kate Warren, a rising star in the Department of Botany at Oxford, has come to Anchorage, Alaska. Under the name of Elizabeth Edwards, she is to become an assistant in an Arctic expedition. She has adopted the pseudonym to surprise Dr. Warren, her estranged father and leader of said expedition (her Oxford professors having played along, providing the necessary reference letters—obviously, that's what academics would do in such a situation). World-famous botanist and workaholic, Dr. Warren hasn't seen Kate since he attended the funeral of his abandoned wife a decade ago.

Dr. Warren having been suitably surprised and the crew having assembled, they board a private jet bound for Barrow, where the camps are located. Besides the Warrens, the crew include Colin Ross, a gigantic cold weather expert who's still haunted by an ill-fated Antarctic expedition that cost him an arm and a wife, diminutive and sagacious Eskimo Job (rhymes with robe) and Simon Quick, Ross' brother-in-law, who blames Ross for what happened five years ago, jumping at every chance to provoke the latter, that is, when his eyes are not fixed on Kate's breasts.

Oops. Someone must have forgotten to check the fuel tank. Water in it has turned into ice crystals, which means only one thing: Crash!

Veteran pilot Ed managed to crash-land the plane before he was stabbed to death by penetrating icicles. Kate, Dr. Warren, Ross, Job, Simon as well as young co-pilot Preston survive and find themselves on the Arctic ice pack.

No problem. Their crates are all there, which should sustain them before rescue comes. No such luck. The fuel tank is leaking. Sparks. Boom. The explosion sees to it that the ice they're standing on separates from the main pack, and the floe is drifting fast, carrying them far away from their last known location.

But we must not forget our orca friend. Scarred facially and mentally, he became the leader of a pod, which consists of like two dozen killer whales. A very effective gam (you see I'm trying to use all the synonyms for a pack of whales, as this is probably the only occasion in my life on which I can write about killer whales), they have just killed and devoured a blue whale. The explosion of the plane has caught their attention and they go to investigate. Sight of humans and their waving arms having jogged the memory of the leader, the attack begins at once, and other Artic mammals are soon to join the fray.

Also recently reprinted by Valancourt under their Paperbacks from Hell imprint.

[Swampirella]

I love your summary, it almost (but not quite) makes me want to buy a copy. Well done!