THE LONELY SKIER - book review

 

The Lonely Skier was Hammond Innes’s tenth published novel (1947).

Neil Blair, the narrator, is recently demobbed, unemployed, married to Peggy, and penniless. He stumbles upon a job with an old Army comrade – writing a screenplay set in the Italian Dolomites. Though in fact the screenplay has been written already by his pal, Engles; what his friend wants is for Neil to ‘keep your eyes and ears open. I’m interested in the slittovia [sledge lift] and the hut, the people who are staying there, regular visitors, anything unusual that happens’ (p10). Apparently the rifugio [ski lodge] Col da Varda, near Cortina, and the slittovia were previously owned by a German War Criminal, who has since committed suicide. The place is up for sale: ‘an incredibly beautiful property, thoroughly equipped by brilliant German engineers, a small hotel with finer panoramic views than the Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden’ (p40).

Neil is accompanied by photographer Joe Wesson. They are others stay at the refugio: a hot-tempered Italian Contessa Forelli, a racketeering pimp, Stefan Valdini, a Greek criminal, Karamikos, and the mysterious worldly Gilbert Mayne.

Neil is witness to the conflicting personalities of these characters in the claustrophobic situation and begins to realise that something is very wrong. Dangerous. Even deadly. And stemming from the recent inglorious past. Ultimately, he is pitted against someone who is determined to kill – and he is among those targeted!

As ever, Innes brings his descriptive powers to bear on the story. He underwent a skiing course in the Dolomites a while before writing the book. The narrative is swamped in verisimilitude; the reader is there. Naturally, as it’s a first-person story, we know he will survive. But others are in jeopardy, not least the likeable if clueless Wesson.

The book was made into a film titled Snowbound – ‘Another few hours and we’ll be snowbound up here’ (p99). Dated 1948, the film featured Robert Newton, Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway, Herbert Lom, and Zena Marshall, among others.

Oddly, throughout the book the spelling is ski-er, while the title is hyphen-less.

It’s not a true spoiler since it is mentioned in the back cover blurb: ‘It lies somewhere beneath the snow, high in the Dolomites, Nazi gold, tainted with the blood of murdered men’. The gold is in essence Hitchcock’s McGuffin. Some of the chapter headings come very close to being spoilers in themselves.

Talking of spoilers, in this Vintage copy there’s an introduction by Stella Rimington; don’t read this first, read the novel then the intro.

As covers go, it's okay, but I prefer the 1980s Fontana colourful renditions.