The Danger (Published in 1983) - About kidnapping, authored by Dick Francis

Five weeks, three days, ten hours - that’s how long it’s been since twenty three year old Alessia Cenci has gone missing, aka kidnapped. Andrew Douglas, partner, Liberty Market Ltd, an insurance company, where he is adviser on kidnappings - is the man sent to bring back the young jockey and deliver the ransom, in Bologna, Italy. He is suave, collected and clever, making him the perfect negotiator in ransom cases, within the ‘circles’, he is looked upon with respect for his many successes. When Alessia, one of the best female jockeys in the world, is kidnapped, as she drives home in her expensive sports car - he is the obvious weapon of choice, selected to get her back - alive. After he does so successfully, his services are sought once more when the three year old  son of a derby winner is abducted while he plays innocently on a South Coast Beach and the senior steward of the Jockey Club goes missing as he drives to a press reception in Baltimore.
On further investigation it is revealed that the kidnapper, though making all three incidents look independent, is actually the same person - a serial abductor, and while it may seem to the reader that Andrew is sometimes tailing a wild goose, yet he is on the right track, one which spans England, Italy and America! Andrew is pitted against Giuseppe, aka Peter, a cold blooded, elusive and wily European kidnapper, whose favorite prey are people associated with the racing circuit. Paradoxically, Giuseppe is actually from a wealthy family, and has fallen out with his father, and may have walked down the path of crime because he is in dire straits!




The book was written in 1983, a period fraught with kidnappings, which were the most favored modus operandi of criminals - they were ruthless, violent and lacking all human emotion - the abductors were able to put the fear of God not just in the victims and their families, but were also able to capture popular public imagination with vile apprehensions and forebodings of who could be next? Given this background, the story begins in Italy, a country no stranger to high profile kidnappings and unsuccessful police attempts to prevent them or to rescue victims. Even after the kidnapping of the little boy in England, the UK police seem adamant to do things their own way, endanger the child’s life. It is only the Americans who exercise caution and cooperation with Andrew, understanding the dangers of the odds stacked against them.
The technology and some of the settings may seem jaded in the twenty first century, yet the novel is gripping, taking an emotional look into survivors; for instance, Alessia is unable to commit to a relationship after the kidnapping, given that she is mistrustful of the intentions of men. There is the sign of blossoming of a relationship towards the end of the story, though with Andrew. Typically Francis, it is a good thing that comes in too late in the book!
An equine thrill to entertain you on a journey or weekend afternoon, with the interesting perspective that when all  else fails, and if the kidnappers don’t want you to call the police- rely on an external agency that can chalk out the best deal for you!

Novel - The Robots of Dawn - Isaav Asimov (published in 1983)

Isaac Asimov is known as one of the masters of science fiction, but he was more than just a writer of science fiction. In addition to science fiction, he wrote a science books and with a total book collection (books that he would have written or edited) in the hundreds. His books came out in a time when there were many other authors of science fiction, but Asimov has always been counted among the top writers in his field, along with other authors such as Arthur C Clarke and Robert A Heinlein.
Some of the most famous works of Asimov includes the Foundation Series (which takes a look at society during and after a massive galactic empire came to an end), and also includes the science of psychohistory (that seems to predict the future based on large masses of people, but is not usable on small scales). In addition to this, Asimov is also very famous for his many books on robotics, some of them set on their own and others in terms of their involvement with non-earth societies at a time when they were shunned on earth.
He is also very famous for his 3 laws of robotics which seek to provide safeguards on the actions of robots and prevent them from behaving in a Frankenstein manner.
And of course Asimov was also famous for his short story Nightfall, which took a society which has always every had light in its sky, and how it reacts when it knows that all those suns that light up the sky will vanish for a period of time and there will be night (a concept that people have never had).

Robots of Dawn is the next novel in the series of the earth-based plainclothes detective Elijah Baley (with the earlier novels in this series being 'The Caves of Steel' and 'The Naked Sun'). So far, the interaction with the spacers and with robots (primarily the detective partner, the humanoid R Daneel Olivaw) has led to changes in the attitudes of Elijah. He has started believing that it is the future of humanity to move out and occupy planets rather than the spacers doing so. For this, they have to start moving out from their caves of steel and become more comfortable with open spaces and with being under the sun. So, far because Elijah has been successful in his past investigations, he has managed to gain fame and also enabled some rights for earth.
But each time, he faces investigations where there is a lot at stake. If he fails, not only will he face demotion, but earth will also lose out. And now he is getting into a murder investigation where there is a lot more at stake. There is a tussle going on on the world of Aurora, which is seen as the chief spacer world, and where there are groups which are fighting a power struggle over whether new worlds would be settled by spacers or by people from earth. The group favoring spacers wants to use humaniform robots (which look exactly like humans / spacers) but the technology for them is only available with the robotist Dr. Hans Fastolfe. And the murder is that of one of the 2 humaniform robots in existence, R. Jander Parnell.
Because of the skill needed to create a mental block in such a robot, Dr. Fastolfe is the one who is blamed for the crime, and he himself admits that only he has the abilities, but that he did not do it. However, if he is proved guilty, then his faction will lose power and the group advocating spacers doing the resettlement using robots will win. And into this mess is inserted Elijah Baley, and since the winning of Dr. Fastolfe's group is so important to earth, he is again under a lot of pressure. He is partnered with R. Daneel Olivaw again, and this time, he comes into contact with another robot, not a humaniform robot through, with the name of Giskard.
So starts the investigation, and Elijah comes across a number of people, some in favor, and some against him But because he is doing the investigation of this important case, they also have to give him an audience. He comes into contact with a person from the previous book, Gladia Delmarre, who had the robot in her staff, and who had also taken the robot as her sexual partner and treated him like her husband.
How does Elijah Baley overcome all the problems placed in his path ? Does he manage to prevent Dr. Fastolfe from being proven guilty ? How did the robot get a mental block which effectively killed the robot.

Floodgate (1983) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - Irish terrorists threatening the Netherlands with water

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.
Floodgate is the second book of Alistair MacLean to be set in Holland. The first was puppet on the chain which dealt with the Netherlands underground drug mafia. He brings in the familiar detective Peter van Effen who continues his sleuthing in this book.
Schipol airport in Amsterdam is flooded and the planes are floating around aimlessly. The dykes which kept the north sea out has been breached and the sea has devoured Schipol completely and the authorities are completely baffled. Peter Van Effen, the detective par excellence is brought in by the authorities. Soon FFF, an Irish Liberation force calls in claiming responsibility and threatens to carry on more strikes against the dykes. This pours in the panic as a breach through the dykes would submerge Holland completely under water.



Van Effen goes in to action and checks in all the employees of the airport. He suspects informants among the staff would have helped the terrorist. In the mean time the terrorist have acquired nuclear weapons and threaten to detonate them in the sea triggering a tsunami to submerge Holland.
He is ably assisted by beautiful assistant Annemarie Meijer, an heiress to a large fortune and other beautiful women. Van Effen is very close with to the dreaded underground gang the Krakers and enlist their help to combat the terrorist. Soon the game starts to outwit the terrorists. The FFF has to be stopped for the interest of Holland.
Soon the action hottens up with Agnelli the head of the Krakers gang along with his brothers infiltrate the gang and pass on information to Van Effen. Soon many operatives like Anne Marie and Marie are captured and held for ransom. The leader of the terrorist Samuelson is supposedly an earl who is motivated by revenge for the killing of his sons. Sometimes you feel that MacLean just awakens sympathies for his character even when he planning in human ways to kill.
But the ultimate action is ingenious, although a little tame for such a grand operation. Van Effen successfully gases all the terrorist unconscious and arrest all of them and rescue the hostages. Anne Marie and he predictably fall in love with each other and walk in to the sunset.
This may not be MacLean's best books of the time but the plot is the winner. A very cleverly thought out action plan with with a tame ending is Floodgate. Still I would recommend it for its sheer clever storyline from MacLean.