The Black Tower (Published in 1975) - Authored by PD James - Danger to Dalgliesh

Published in 1975, the Black Tower is the fifth in the series of Adam Dalgliesh books written by Phyllis Dorothy James, also known as P. D. James. The Black Tower, like its predecessors is not a thriller, but a slow mystery which starts creeping up on the reader, as the story builds, focusing on the setting and characters rather than the events that take place.
In The Black Tower, the Scotland Yard detective has shown to have risen through the ranks and is now Commander Dalgliesh. The book starts in a sober mood, with Commander Dalgliesh not being his usual robust and gentle self. This is because he was misdiagnosed with leukemia which turns out to be glandular fever. However, when an old friend, Father Baddeley, sends him a letter requesting him to stay at Toynton Grange care home in Dorset with him, Dalgliesh decides to visit.
Unfortunately, Father Baddeley seems to die of natural causes before Dalgliesh can make his trip. His body cremated and buried as well. But when the death of another patient, Mr. Victor Holroyd, takes place, Dalgliesh is on edge, as his training and gut instinct tells him that neither death was accidental or unplanned. Victor is said to have committed suicide, with 2 people having witnessed this. One was Julius Court and the other Dennis Lerner.




In spite of various clues which present themselves, the local police do not budge on its ruling that the deaths were not murder. After a few days, when yet another patient as well as the doctor’s wife are found dead, Dalgliesh can sit back no longer. Dalgliesh keeps poking around and connecting the sequence of invents, along with motives and soon comes to the conclusion that one of the suspects runs a heroin smuggling business, using the patients clinic and their biannual tour to get the products from outside the country.
When the culprit realizes that Dalgliesh has found out the truth about him, he tries to kill Dalgliesh, who leaves behind signs for the police to find and save him. James’ novels are not only about the ingenuity of the hero, in this case Dalgliesh, but also a strong villain or culprit, whose eventual defeat makes the protagonist look even stronger.
Better than the storyline is the atmosphere created in the book by P.D. James, which is unsettling to the extent that it’s borderline morbid. The entire story has an ominous feel to it. The setting is perfect, with broken locks, poison pen letters, secret lovers and the looming Black Tower. Overall the book is simple with exquisite James style prose. As a reader you are captivated by the writing and want to read more.
But writing in a manner which builds up to something, is not an easy task. It means that the end must subsequently have an even stronger climax. With James however, this is not a problem. The end is superbly chilling, and feels more so because of James’ impeccable calm and control of her characters, till the very end. All in all, yet another short, fast and brilliant read in the typical P. D. James style.

High Stakes (published in 1975) - Written by Dick Francis, a toy designer being cheated by his trainer

Richard Stanley Francis or Dick Francis was born in Pembrokshire, Wales, England on October 20th 1920. His father was a renowned jockey and Francis was catapulted in to the world of Horses, Jockeys and racing. He dropped out of school to train as a Jockey and was a fighter pilot in the Royal Air-force during World War II. After the war Francis became a celebrity Champion Jockey winning over 350 races. He was the lead Jockey for the Queen Mother. But he had to drop out of Horse racing after a serious fall and became a racing correspondent for Sunday Express. Dick Francis churned out numerous best sellers and most of his books deal with the mysteries in the realm of Horse racing and Jockeys. He wrote more than 40 international best sellers and is the recipient of numerous awards. Being a three time recipient of Mystery writer of America's Edgar Award he was made the Grand master of MWA. He is also the recipient of Britain's Crime Writers Association's Gold Dagger Award for fiction in 1979 and the Cartier Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award. He also has the Gumshoe award to his credit. He was accorded a CBE in 2000. Dick Francis died in his Caribbean home on February 10, 2010 bringing down the curtains to an illustrious life.
Published in 1975, High Stakes is vintage Dick Francis, a thriller amidst the turmoil of the racing world. The star is Steven Scott who pays for his expensive hobby of horse breeding with his inventive toys. As a toymaker Steven is a novice with horses and relies on his trainer Jody Leeds whom he trusts implicitly. The duo nets winner after another and this makes Steven a successful horse owner. But as he goes through his stable finances, Steven realizes that he has been taken on a ride.



Jody Leeds had been pilfering large sums of money and Steven proceeds to sack him. Rudely awakened from his neat take aways Jody tries to hurt Steven where it matters most, by taking away his prized stallion, “Energise”. Jody tries to run over Steven while escaping with Energise and is stopped. But he tries again and succeeds in carting off the horse which makes Steven dig deeper.
Soon public opinion sympathize with Jody which further sends Steven's quest to despair. He finds that the racket involves many small betting outfits which have been loosing money. Villains who soon loose money over this affair try to stop Steven and soon he is facing a game of life and death. But Steven is not the one to let things go. He soon acquires new friends which involve his romantic interest and puts in a great plan to get back his horse. All his mechanical inventive genius is put to use to get back Energise and neutralize the villains.
This book is a real page turner with its taut story telling. The ramblings of the horse racing scenario is absent with Dick Francis focusing on the inventive genius of the hero who succeeds to get the horse back. The plot is mesmerizing and I say that the book is a must read.

Circus (published in 1975) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - a tale of intrigue behind the iron curtain

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.
Circus is an espionage thriller set in the cold war era. The hero is a a trapeze artist with intense hatred for the communist regime's. Bruno Wilderman is a highly skilled trapeze artist who has got superhuman and clairvoyant skills. The east German regime has tortured and killed his family members. So he is a sworn enemy of the Stassi who has killed his wife..
The CIA needs such a person to raid the impregnable Lublyan Fortress for get the secret formula for a device which would annihilate the earth called the anti matter. Anti matter exists in the universe as an opposite of matter. Just like another universe can exists, for other matter we would be the antimatter. So the presence of either one of them would flatten the universe. I find this explanation pretty fascinating and this is one reason that I would pick up this book.



Only a trained and skillful personal could get in. CIA bosses visit the circus to recruit Bruno where they witness his phenomenal skills of mind reading. He is a magician who guesses the right numbers and right words on papers and can work the trapeze blind folded. But for a superman Alistair MacLean says that he is not very handsome, but with a pleasant face. Thank god for small mercies, otherwise he would have been the ultimate man himself.
Apart from Bruno the mission is assisted by his boss, Tesco Wrinfield and a female CIA operative, Maria Hopkins. The circus is supposed to travel to Crau, where Lublyan fortress is located and the provide the alibi and cover for Bruno to fulfill his mission. But before the Circus leaves town the people who recruited Bruno are both killed in a brutal fashion.
Bruno is in the hands and guidance of Dr. Harper and the Admiral. Maria provided the beautiful female companion who falls hopelessly in love with Bruno after seeing his first performance. Well with such sensibilities, I wonder how she became a CIA operative. She is a typical MacLean heroine, very pretty airhead who does not have anything to do but to fall in love with the hero and if MacLean provides, marry the victorious protagonist.
So after several deaths and twists Bruno gets in to Lublyan and gets the formula of anti matter and proposes to Maria. The most loyal and trust worthy character gets the boot to die as he is proven to be the traitor. Then MacLean's villain, the communists are obviously the the mean fiends who are ultimately vanquished. Bruno also avenges the death of his wife and his family. This is not one of MacLean's well known books. I would suggest a one time reading just to honor the pace of narrative. Otherwise this thriller meanders the familiar path with nothing great to set it apart.

The Money Changers (Published in 1975) by Arthur Hailey, focusing on the world of banks and money

Arthur Hailey was born in Lutton, Bedford-shire, England. He served in the Royal Air force as a pilot in World War II. He migrated to Canada and has written best sellers like Airport, Wheels and Hotel. He moved to the Bahamas with his writer wife Sheila. Arthur Hailey died on November, 2004 leaving a legacy of best sellers and over 170 million books in print.
Moneychangers is not only about money, it is about all the effects of money i.e. power, greed, affairs, isolation, loneliness etc. In Money Changers, Hailey tries to present the dynamics of banking. As usual a detailed prelude emerges about the principles of banking, the economics, ethics and above all the operations. He even makes the reader familiar with fake currencies, fraud credit cards and the risk of investment. Towards the end of the book he even explains about the advantages of investments in bullion.
The first Mercantile bank (FMA) is a family run bank and the current chairman Ben Roselli is fatally ill. He is grooming two vice-presidents of the company, Alex Vandervoot and Roscoe Hayward, as his successors. Alex Vandervoot is an honest, principled albeit easy-going person. But his banking fundamentals are strong and he feels that the future of banking lies in retail banking. He believes in giving back to the society and does not believe in risking the banks credibility to bring in the gains.



What is Hailey's book without a love and personal angle? Alex Vandervoot's personal life is in shambles. His once lovely wife is confined to a psychiatric facility and he himself fees very guilty about it. He chances upon Margot Bracken, a hard nosed activist lawyer who works for the underprivileged community. To compound matters, the First Mercantile American withdraws financial assistance from some of the projects of the community. Margot's spirited non-violent protest becomes a success, but Alex's detractors pin him down to the wall. They feel that Alex has been assisting Margot to pressurize the bank.
Roscoe Hayward, on the other hand, is a very religious, rigid person. He believes that the future profits of the bank lie with big business lending. He does not believe in charity and community projects. Roscoe teams up with a corrupt businessman and undertakes to lend big loans to him. In return for this, he strikes alliances with politicians and is treated to all the pleasure in the world.
But as the businessman defaults and flees the country, Roscoe is left with a huge crisis. This financial crisis threatens to engulf the whole system, setting up a panic reaction among the shareholders, stakeholders, employees and the stock market. Roscoe Hayward faced with criminal offenses commits suicide, paving the way for Alex Vandervoot to take over the ruined financial institution.
Money Changers is a book about the power struggle between two individuals, but Hailey's research gives the lowdown on the other operatives like mafia, currency rackets and fraudsters who at every stage try to undermine the system. Money Changers is a book for a banking student and a simple layman who does not understand numbers. It is an engrossing tale about the institution which determines the fate of millions in the world – the bank.