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.

Breakheart pass (published in 1974) - Written by author Alistair Maclean, a western story set in Nevada in the late 19th century

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.
Breakheart Pass is a fast paced western by MacLean. Alistair Maclean departs from his usual world war two environments to reach the out backs of America. He creates a fast paced thriller involving the US Marshalls and the army. So there is nothing British about this story except for MacLean's language.
The novel is set in the 1870's in Nevada. A train starts its journey from Reese city to Fort Humbolt. The passengers include, the governor Fairchild and his niece Marica, the governors Aide, Reverend Peabody, Dr. Molyneux and an assortment of soldiers commanded by Colonel Claremont and US Marshall Pearce. Pearce is in charge of the prisoner John Deakin who is convicted of de-railing a train loaded with supplies for the army. So he is not a very popular man with the soldiers. Dr. Molyneux is a tropical diseases expert going to help with the cholera outbreak.



The passengers are going to fort Humbolt because of the cholera epidemic which has decimated the camp. They are going to relieve the men and provide medical supplies and food. Marshall Pearce is an honorable man who wrangles a ticket just to get to the fort to check on another outlaw.
As the trains chug along the mountainous ravines they encounter murders, a blizzard and villainous Indians. But MacLeans characters are not what they seem. As the novel picks up pace one by one the passengers start to get killed. They are discovered in boxes, among the coal, hanging outside and every gruesome positions. So who turns out to be the unlikely hero, but the outlaw Deakin. He starts investigating.
Soon as the corpses tumble out they realize that all is not well at the fort and cholera is not to be blamed. Deakin is not really a convict but a criminal investigator with the reverend being his boss. Deakin also has a soft corner for Marica, but in MacLean's true style the romance is for names sake only. After reading MacLean I have come to the conclusion that the hero is a man named John and the love interest is always Marie. Is it coincidence or just plain fixation?
There are lot of twists in the plot and in the end the most honorable man turns out to be the despicable fiend and the least honorable the most respected. This book is adapted in to a movie starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Ben Johnson and others. The movie is much different form the book, but the pace is fine. So would like to pick up both for the weekend for time-pass.

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.

Puppet on a Chain (published in 1969) - authored by Alistair Maclean - the narcotics world and Netherland

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.
Puppet on a Chain is Alistair MacLean's detective thriller set in the Netherlands. This book describes the underbelly of the city where drugs and devastation rule. The protagonist is Paul Sharman who is an ex army officer now head of the interpol Narcotics bureau and is based in London. He comes to the Netherlands to investigate a series of disappearances and drug offenses. The drug king pin rules the narcotic ring covering the entire continent. They use a wide range of torturous tactics to keep their hold on the empire. The title of the story gives away the method of torture applied by these drug lords to shut off dissidence.



As soon as he lands in Amsterdams Schipol Airport, he is ambushed and knocked down injuring his solar plexus. His only contact in Netherlands is shot down before his own eyes. The police seem very reluctant to pursue the assailants, but try to fix charges against him. Paul Sharman with him dry and sarcastic humor however decides to go ahead with the investigations. He is aided by two female operatives. One of them is an experienced agent and the other is a rookie. MacLean describes them as breathtakingly beautiful and I find this very uncharacteristic of him. His careless banter with these female operatives add zing to the proceedings.
Soon Sharman realizes that his presence is not desired in Holland and many times he is followed and ambushed. He is beaten and left to die and it is a wonder for many a reader how he escapes. Sometimes it almost borders on absurd, but he is the hero and the story must go on. So the nine lives that Sharman seems to leads saves him time and time again, and he follows his follower who lead him to a ware house which is filled with rubber toys and neatly stacked books. The books are called the Gabriel Bible and are scooped up from inside. Thee inscription outside the book reads "With the Compliments of the First Reformed Church of the American Huguenot Society". This sets his thinking process along the methodology adopted by the smugglers to smuggle drugs across the border.
The high adrenaline chase is full of boat chases and murders across Amsterdam. Sharman is a no nonsense thug who does not feel any qualms of bumping anybody. Soon he is fighting the war in the Netherlands and must save him and his associate. So who wins this cat and mouse game? No answerer's for guessing that! but there are many surprises while on the way. A great book for thrill seekers.

Seawitch (published in 1977) - Author - Alistair Maclean - action related to a massive oil platform

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.
Seawitch is the story of a rich ruthless oil magnate who can pull all stops to make profit. Lord Worth is a very rich businessman whose main interests are in oil. This tycoon builds the largest oil rig off the waters of Houston and has invented some special type of equipments to enable his company to drill maximum quantity of oil at his will and fancies.
So the other oil tycoons get the jitters as the price of oil starts to slide. So what do they do? Well the easy way out, hire a killer to stop Lord Worth in his path. The competitors are an inhuman bunch as they don't care how the mission is accomplished and are ready to pay the highest price to stop Worth.



The hired killer, John Cronkite has a major ax to grind against Lord Worth as he has been the root cause of many of his miseries. So Cronkite talks to the Russian, Cuban and another communist renegades top source for the weapons to destroy Seawitch. But Lord Worth gets the whiff of his plans as one of the conspirators is a spy. He hires detectives to defend Seawitch at any cost.
In the mean time, Lord Worth's two daughters are kidnapped from his villa and are held prisoner on the Seawitch. To make matters worth the Russian and some Cuban submarines are making their way to destroy the oil platform. Lord Worth approaches the Ministry of Defense to scare the submarines and succeeds. But Cronkite has managed to steal some nuclear weapons and reached the Seawitch.
Does Lord Worth succumb to pressure? No way, he has got aces up his sleeve in detectives Mitchell and Roomer who are in love with his two daughters, Marina and Melinda. These are ex-policemen who are the typical cynical, rough and tough MacLean heroes. They are brutally honest and totally in love and will go to any lengths to rescue their damsels in distress. So the match is set and the fight is to begin.
Lord Worth who reaches the rig is also imprisoned and Cronkite and his men booby traps the entire oil platform. Mitchell and roomer arrive with a doctor as a scientist. They try to take over when Cronkite's back is turned and Roomer gets hurt. He leaves to get more relief as Mitchell mans the platform. But Cronkite will not go so easily. He takes over Seawitch again and this time places the nuclear weapons. Soon high adrenaline shooting game commences where Mitchell kills four of Cronkite's men. Lord Worth, his daughters and the good men leave stealthily and watches the oil rig explode with Cronkite and his men on board.
Seawitch was written during the fag end of MacLean's writing career and you can feel him loosing touch. I feel you can buy it as a one time read and forget it.

Force 10 from Navarone (published in 1968) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - Mallory and Miller sent to Yugoslavia to fight along with the partisans

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 that he was part of, and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Force 10 from Navarone is the sequel to the highly successful Guns Of Navarone. Guns of Navarone had featured the doughty heroes of MacLean, Mallory, the resourceful mountaineer, Miller, the the explosives expert, Andrea Stavros, the brooding cool Greek resistance fighter, Brown, the engineer and radio expert and Stevens the medic. Brown and Stevens were martyred in their last mission to silence the German guns in Navarone. After the Aegean war Andrea stays over to marry the Greek resistance fighter,Maria and Mallory and Miller return to the war in Europe.
Force 10 picks up the threads right after the war. Miller and Mallory are ordered to return to Navarone and fetch Stavros for a mission in Yugoslavia. Stavros after much resistance comes with them. They are joined by Royal Marine Commando's who fill up the vacancies of Brown and Steven's. But one of them, Reynolds is less than pleased to be a reserve. But a team they must be, to fight the Germans in eastern Europe. They are briefed by Colonel Jensen about the mission. They are supposed to go to the Neretva region in Bosnia and check out why all allied agents have been kidnapped and if possible undertake a rescue mission.



They meet general Vuckovic the commander of the partisan forces supporting the allies in Yugoslavia. He informs them that the partisan forces are trapped against the river with German Panzer forces moving in on them. He indicates that if the partisans are defeated the German Army will control all of Yugoslavia and asks for help from the allies to prevent the slaughtering.
The mission starts as soon as they are air dropped down to Neretva and are captured by Drozhny, a huge partisan Bosnian. They tell him that they are allied deserters who are being tried by the army for selling Penicillin. Drozhny produces them before a German captain Neufeld who informs a stunned Miller that Drozhny and group are German collaborators called the Chetniks. Thus the mystery of the continuous capture of allied agents become clear.
Now in the hands of the enemy they have to engage them with lies and deception. They meet the singing blind minstrel Peter and his sister Maria who have secrets of their own. After a series of twists and action the heroes manage to rescue the captured Allied Prisoners and outwit the Germans. The ending is phenomenal with a dam burst and washing away of the Panzer divisions.
This book was also adapted to become a movie, directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox and Franco Nero and was a moderate success. But the movie has little in common with the book apart from the principle characters and the title. So grab your copy and enjoy the action packed thriller.

The Caravan to Vaccares (published in the year 1969) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - murder story set among the gypsies

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.
Another pot boiler from Alistair MacLean. The hero is Neil Bowman who investigates the mysterious disappearances involving the gypsies along with his friend Cecile Dubois. He is pretty smitten by Cecile and is on the verge of falling in love with her.
Soon the mysterious disappearances which continues is an head ache fort the local police. Bowman suspects that the gypsies are hiding something which is deadly. The entire clan of gypsies make an annual pilgrimage to the patron saint Sara in Provence, in the South of France. They make a hazardous journey through the iron curtain every year.



As Bowman starts his investigation he finds that the gypsies are funded by a Guise Stromme whose trail leads to Le Grand Duc de Croytor or Charles as he insists on calling himself. Bowman comes across two pretty English girls, Cecile Dubois and Lila. Lila becomes the girl friend of the duke. Le Grand Duc de Croytor is a folklorist and a gourmet who has a nose for all the fine things in life. He is described as a large man whose interest in food is commensurate his size. But Bowman feels his strength during a hand shake and wonders about the affable duke. He plans to write a book about the gypsies and their customs and thus frequent their haunts very often.
As the investigation proceeds Bowman finds himself drawn in to a cat and mouse game with the assailants. The game of treachery, kidnappings and murder unfolds in which nobody is what they seem to be. In the end the gypsies are out witted and the duke is found to Bowman's Boss. The pretty English girls marry the hero's which is a rare MacLean generosity. Usually MacLean finish off the pretty female leads and never culminates a romance. Thankfully this time he does for a lesser know book.
This book is to a large extent a typical MacLean book. A cynical doughty hero and pretty lasses and murderous villains and an amazing twist in the plot. But I feel very much for the portrayal of the gypsies and Asians in the book. They are treated as fanatical murderous rogues out to wreck western civilization. This treatment almost borders on racism and I feel this is a very wide spread complaint against MacLean, given that such tendencies are there in other books of his. Otherwise the action is sleek and the plot is well managed. This may not be Guns of Navarone or HMS Ulysses, but is still worth a look and read.