Focusing on events leading to the end of the world as we know it, Bernard Besson’s The Greenland Breach is a well written corporate/political espionage thriller. Told from multiple points of view, and taking place in multiple settings, Mr. Besson’s characters are well developed and engaging. Good dialogue and an interesting mystery kept me turning the pages to discover what was going to happen next.

When partners and lovers, John Spencer Larivière and Victoire Augagneur, are offered a large sum of money for a “freelance job” by the CEO of Northland, an oil and gas company, they can’t agree on whether or not they should take the job. While John stresses the need their small consulting firm, Fermatown, has for both cash and clients, Victoire suspects their job may involve more than just “babysitting” the CEO’s daughter. After accepting the job, they are then asked to “obtain” information on what Northland’s rival, French company Terre Noire, has aboard their ship, the Bouc-Bel-Air. Soon John, Victoire and Luc, Fermatown’s computer specialist, find themselves in the middle of a global conspiracy while the world’s shifting climate begins to tear everything apart.

While slowly paced through the opening chapters, Mr. Besson’s story picks up the pace as the events taking place in both Greenland and the rest of the world heat up. John, Victoire and Luc soon find themselves neck deep in danger, with John facing the most danger when he heads to Greenland to try to get to the truth. While a silent villain, it’s clear that corporate greed, man’s lack of concern over the environment, and progress itself have brought everything to a cataclysmic point.

Will John be able to outsmart and outmaneuver the agents hired by their competition? Will Victoire and Luc be able to provide John with backup when he needs it? And what will happen to us all when two rival companies are determined to decide the world’s fate based on what they discover in the deepest ice from Greenland? You’ll have to read The Greenland Breach to find out. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Mr. Besson’s work.

I’ve finished this title and I’m still trying to determine whether it really is a well-crafted espionage-like thriller, a carefully researched warning, or a mix of the two. What I have no questions about is the thrill ride that often felt too real to be fiction that is contained in the pages.

Putting the world on notice, Mother Nature has started to react, often violently with tsunamis, earthquakes and ice shifts. A result of the damage that is caused by ‘progress’, and those who have been warning of the possibilities and potentials are silenced or discounted by those with deeper pockets and a stake in the massive potential profits to come.

Two corporations involved in “climate research” are actually at the core of this story: their jostling for primacy in the industry, the corporate espionage and rush for profits is not unlike that shown in the gold rush or even the oil boom. Money, not doing good or finding a remedy to halt further damage, or repair damage done is at the root of the story, much like real life.

It was an interesting read from the standpoint of the ins and outs of corporate grabs for technology, power and money. With several twists and turns with multiple dead ends, it really is a book that requires concentration and patience. The author does recap events after the worst of the twists, and while ordinarily this would be an inclusion I wouldn’t want, it did help keep the confusion to a minimum. Told in multiple small stories that all prove connected in the end, the story has a nice variation in pacing to keep the pages turning. While I wasn’t overly fond of the conversations, as many felt far more formal than needed, the story did keep me interested and questioning. And I shall never look at a ‘formal study’ on climate change without researching to discover the primary financier.

I received an eBook copy from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review during the France Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.