The Dark Crusader (published in 1961) - by Alistair Maclean - the story of a spy thriller involving missiles

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.
Because of his war experiences, his novels are also high on the action content. The emotional and the romantic angle is not very much touched upon by Maclean. His characters are highly cynical men who are always part of the high octane action and push themselves against all odds with out any thought for their safety.
The Dark Crusader is one of MacLean's spy thrillers. He wrote this book under the pseudonym Ian Stuart ostensibly to counter Ian Flemming and James Bond. But I think there is nothing much to this rumor because there is nothing James Bondish about Bentall the hero of Dark Crusader. Bentall is a bumbling, physically less strong, lovesick man who does not have any fancy gadgets with him.



Bentall is called from a mission in Turkey to investigate the disappearance of eight British scientist. Each of the Scientist were recruited following an ad in the paper asking for people with certain qualifications promising much higher pay. The only condition was that these scientist have to be married with no children. These ads are placed over a period of time and are linked with the disappearances.
Now in response to another ad requiring a rocket fuel scientist, Bentall is asked to be recruited. He is paired with Marie Hopeman, another agent posing as his wife. They both proceed to Sydney where the job is said to be. En route they are kidnapped and placed on the island of Vardu in Fiji. Vardu is the home of a British Archaeological team headed by Dr. Witherspoon. Coincidentally a British naval base is situated close by this island. There is something which is very sinister about Witherspoon, that Bentall intuitively is suspicious. He is concerned about the singing coming from the adjacent caves to the sinister Chinese henchman of Witherspoon.
There is a romantic angle to the story with Bentall falling in love with Marie. But she falls sick and he has to choose between saving her and foiling the activities of the murderers. As he unravels the mystery he understands that Witherspoon is working for an communist Asian regime and is tunneling through the island in to the naval base to steal the Dark Crusader missiles. After a tough adrenalin pumping action he manages to do it. But the ending is pretty poignant as he has to choose between his love and his mission and he chooses the later.
A good novel which sometimes tent to meander a bit. Still I would say there is negative comments about Asians and communism which may tend towards racism. But you can overlook it just for the suspenseful story.