The Way to Dusty Death (Written by Alistair Maclean and published in 1973) - the story of a man's attempt to find out the truth behind an accident on the race track

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987. The title of the book is derived from Shakespeare, where Macbeth laments the death of his wife.
Johnny Harlowe, a formula one race car driver is part of a violent accident. The flaming wreck maims his girl friend, Mary Macalpine and his friend and navigator, Issac Jathou. This accident makes Harlowe an emotional wreck and he drowns his sorrow in the bottle. But a lot of accidents happen in the racing circuit and the regularity arouses the suspicions in Harlowe. He undertakes an investigations on his own. But soon he realizes that many people he had trusted especially in the racing field colleagues are not to be trusted. He finds unlikely allies in a journalist and a teenage kid.



Harlowe's adventure takes him across the racing car track and pushed him to the edge of him stamina. But he is shrewd and calculative and uses his alcoholism and depression as a mask to cover his real intentions. People do not take him seriously and this gives him a free rein ]in his investigations and unmask the villain.
This is a very simple and light read from MacLean, about 200 pages and may take just over a couple of hours. There are no subplots or reminisces which confuse the reader. This is fairly a single minded investigation till the end. Do not expect a superman with fancy gadget and stupendous power. Johnny Harlowe is a regular guy who works his way through the maze with a flash light and a rope.
MacLean has given a female lead called Mary again who is a pretty wooden character. She is told to be the girl friend but not much of the relationship angle is explored for the reader. Again do not expect romance, sex or even emotions. She is just a girl whom he is with, even ]the reason for his attraction maybe is the fact that she is a multimillionaire's daughter!!!!!
What you get in this book is the details of Formula one car racing details. The car races are well described and the rules are presented well. But for this decade the rules sound outdated but the formula one races of the 70's are well described. Again a little light book and good for a MacLean introduction. Old hands of MacLean ]books should not have any preconceived notions and comparison with HMS Ulysses or Guns of Navarone.
The Way to Dusty Death appeared as a TV movie, starring Simon MacCorkindale as Harlow, and Linda Hamilton as romantic interest Beth Macalpine.