For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, engaging with modern pop culture can sometimes feel like navigating a narrow path. From bestselling novels and hit movies to trending television series, much of today’s entertainment contains elements—whether in language, behavior, or moral outlook—that don’t align with the Church’s standards. Although uplifting and morally grounded media certainly exists, it’s often buried beneath a flood of content that clashes with gospel-centered values. As a result, many Latter-day Saints—especially youth and parents—find themselves trying to balance cultural awareness with a commitment to spiritual integrity.
In this occasional column, I highlight books and authors from a variety of genres that can be enjoyed without compromising our beliefs. Previously, I featured several current mystery series from the cozy tradition—reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novels. This time, I’m looking at a different genre tradition—one filled with danger, adventure, and moral challenge—by turning the spotlight on some of my favorite authors from the once-thriving high adventure genre, the precursor to today’s thriller novels.
Before the modern thriller genre took its current form—dominated by espionage, techno-conspiracies, lone-wolf special ops, and often an excess of narrative padding—there existed a lean and muscular, globe-trotting tradition of adventure fiction referred to as high adventure. This subgenre flourished in the mid-20th century and found its essence in tales of survival against nature, man, and moral ambiguity. Gritty, physically intense, and often set in exotic locales, these narratives were as much about endurance and courage as they were about action and intrigue. Four authors stand as towering figures of this genre—Hammond Innes, Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, and Jack Higgins. Each contributed a distinct voice and thematic core that helped shape the DNA of what would later evolve into the contemporary thrilling blockbuster.
Hammond Innes (1913–1998) is often considered the trailblazer of high adventure fiction highlighted by rugged realism. A prolific British author, Innes brought a meticulous sense of place and technical authenticity to his novels, often drawn from his own firsthand experiences. He was an adventurer as much as he was a writer—sailing, mountaineering, and traveling extensively to research his books.
His novels, such as The Wreck of the Mary Deare and The White South, emphasize man’s struggle against nature, corporate greed, and isolation. Innes’ protagonists were not superspies or military men, but ordinary people—journalists, sailors, engineers—thrust into extraordinary situations. The emotional stakes were always as high as the physical ones, and his clean, exact prose created a sense of realism that grounded even the most sensational plots.
Innes’s influence is seen in the way thrillers today still strive for geographical and technical authenticity—something many current authors owe to his trailblazing standards.
If Innes was the realist, Alistair MacLean (1922–1987) was the master of tension, betrayal, and suspense. A former naval officer and schoolteacher, MacLean brought a unique blend of stoicism and irony to his storytelling. His novels, including The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, and Ice Station Zebra, are tightly constructed thrill rides laced with cynicism and moral ambiguity.
MacLean specialized in closed environments—a fortress under siege, a submarine beneath the ice, a mountain stronghold in enemy territory, and others of a similar nature. His protagonists were often professionals with a mysterious past, and the plot twists relied on hidden agendas, secret betrayals, and characters operating under layers of deception.
What MacLean brought to the high adventure genre was an intense psychological component. He wrote not just about bullets and sabotage, but about trust, identity, and moral decay. His clipped, stoic prose style set the tone for countless stories from today’s thriller writers by featuring emotionally repressed heroes navigating dangerous terrains with only their wits and inner code to guide them.
A master engineer of precision plotting, Desmond Bagley (1923–1983) was another giant of British adventure fiction renowned for his methodical sense of pacing and plot architecture. His novels, such as Running Blind, The Vivero Letter, and The Tightrope Men, often revolve around reluctant heroes—scientists, journalists, or engineers—caught in international conspiracies or brutal manhunts.
Bagley’s genius lay in his ability to weave tightly constructed plots that slowly escalated tension while grounding the story in plausible scenarios. Unlike MacLean, who preferred mythic scale and moral fog, Bagley thrived in contemporary, geopolitically realistic settings. His characters were flawed but resourceful, facing down not just human adversaries but the limits of their own courage.
Bagley’s influence is especially visible in the techno-thrillers of later authors like Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy, where attention to procedural detail and geopolitical authenticity elevate the stakes of otherwise straightforward action stories.
The romantic realist of war and espionage, Jack Higgins (1929–2022) is best known for his international bestseller The Eagle Has Landed, which brought an emotional and moral gravity to the high adventure tradition. A master of the wartime thriller, Higgins combined the brisk pacing of pulp with the emotional resonance of literary fiction. His novels often explored themes of identity, loyalty, and the futility of war.
While his early works such as Day of Judgement and The Dark Side of the Street are steeped in the postwar trauma of Britain and Ireland, his mid-career novels focused more on WWII adventures such as Night of the Fox and Cold Harbor as well as tension twisting tales such as Wrath of the Lion, Night The Last Place God Made, and The Iron Tiger. Higgins later expanded his canvas to Cold War espionage and covert operations in his long-running Sean Dillon series. His protagonists—often disillusioned soldiers or secret agents—embody a weary, hardened masculinity. They are not driven by ideology, but by honor and necessity.
Higgins helped bridge the gap between traditional high adventure fiction and the modern political thriller. His blending of high-stakes action with emotional complexity helped redefine what a thriller could be, setting the stage for a more character-driven form of suspense fiction.
Together, Innes, MacLean, Bagley, and Higgins built the foundation for today’s thriller genre. Each brought something essential to the table—Innes’s realism and physicality, MacLean’s psychological tension and stoic heroes, Bagley’s engineering of plot and pacing, and Higgins’s emotional gravitas and moral ambiguity.
Their works are not just relics of a bygone literary era; they are blueprints. Contemporary authors—from Clive Cussler and Lee Child to David Morrell and even Michael Crichton—owe much to the high adventure tradition these four authors pioneered. They demonstrated that action stories could be intelligent, character-driven, and morally resonant without sacrificing excitement or suspense.
In an era of rapid digital storytelling, CGI-driven blockbusters, and algorithmic content, the high adventure novel remains a touchstone for readers who crave visceral, intelligent thrills set against the backdrop of a dangerous, ever-changing world. And for that, we have these four literary pillars to thank.
