HELL ISLAND is a novella in Matthew Reilly’s Scarecrow series. If reading the series in order, it is number 3.5. If you’re not reading the whole series, then this is a short action packed read.
Schofield is still recovering from the losses he experienced in the previous novel SCARECROW when he is assigned to another mission.
Grant Island was renamed Hell Island after bitter battles there during WWII between the American and the Japanese fighters. Now the US Air Craft Carrier Nimitz has been marooned near Hell Island with all communication from the 600 strong crew lost. Four teams are being airlifted onto the Nimitz and Hell Island, one of those teams is a Delta team led by Captain Shane Schofield known as the Scarecrow. But what they find on the Nimitz and on Hell Island is not at all what they were expecting.
Scarecrow and his team must use all their skills to survive what awaits them on Hell Island.
This novella managed to fit a full novels worth of action into about 100 pages. It started with the first sentence and continued through to the last. If you love action packed stories (and why else would you be reading Matthew Reilly) then you will love this novella.
There was not much character development (too much action for that), so if you want to know about the characters then read some of the full-length novels in the series. Schofield is worth getting to know.
I have only one novel left to read in the series – SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES/ SCARECROW RETURNS.
Published 2003