 |
 Jacket Blurb |
AthabascaBeyond America's northernmost frontier, amid the frozen oil-rich tar sands of Athabasca, comes this headlong tale of blackmail, kidnapping, and murder-and of ruthless men who attempt to hold hostage the Alaskan pipeline itself...
| J Says |
Not bad for one of his later books, but not up to his usual par. Mainly because the main characters seem to talk everything to death. The dialogue tends to drag the story down a little.
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
Bear IslandOctober is no time to be aboard ship in the Barents Sea, three hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. But that's where the cast and crew of Olympus Productions find themselves. And even before they reach their destination, the ship's doctor has his hands full. Three men are violently murdered, and the company's unspoken fears are confirmed: a pathological killer awaits them on the loneliest, most desolate island in the world.
Does Bear Island guard a secret more valuable than five lives? Why is there no shooting script for the movie-and why has no one except the director been allowed to see the screenplay? Is the entire company marked for death? Does a mass murderer lurk in its midst, a pathological killer?
| J Says |
The very first MacLean book I tried to read. I didn't finish it that first try and I wouldn't recommend it as the first book of his for anyone. While it is a great book, you have to be used to his style to really enjoy it. After reading several others,
The only thing MacLean does occasionally that I really don't like, and this book is a prime example, is hold back facts about the enemy that our hero knows from the beginning. Dr. Marlowe knows all sorts of stuff about his adversaries before the company even sets out. Sure, I like to be kept guessing while reading this kind of book, but that's cheating.
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
The Black Shrike
RESEARCH SCIENTISTS needed for rocket
project overseas. Top priority work, highest
salaries. Box 141.Eight famous scientists answered the ad. Eight left England for Australia. None arrived or were heard from again. The ninth who answered was Bentall, complete with a scientific cover and a girl named Marie, a secret agent like himself.
From the moment they were kidnapped at gunpoint from their Fiji hotel, they were plunged into a fantastic plot for world domination, played out on a secret missile site on a remote Polynesian island.
| J Says |
It always amuses me the way he started and ended both the prologue and the epilogue with the same nine words: a small dusty man in a small dusty room. I can't tell you why he does it, you'll just have
This one contains a great example of why I like the first person perspective so much in his books. After being kidnapped from their hotel, Bentall and Marie must break out of the hold of a schooner owned by Captain Fleck:
... The bolt had come clear of its moorings and the way out was clear-if, that was to say, Fleck and his friends weren't standing there patiently waiting to blow my head off as soon as it appeared above the level of the hatch. There was only one way to find that out, it didn't appeal much but at least it was logical. I would stick my head out and see what happened to it. |
That sort of humor-in-the-most-dangerous-situations attitude always seems to come through more when he wrote from the hero's point of view.
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
Breakheart PassStraight from the Old West, and the breathless imagination of today's top creator of suspense, comes this bold, non-stop tale of a trainload of terror--and of one man pitted against an army of corruption.
| J Says |
I can only recall reading one other Western besides this one, and while Breakheart Pass doesn't come close to Lonesome Dove, it's still MacLean at his best. Oops, now that I think about it, I did read the sequel to Lonesome Dove, The Streets Of Laredo, but it was so depressing I prefer not to think about it. John Deakin is one of my favorite MacLean heroes. Luckier than the average protagonist in his books, he seems to avoid taking the incredible beating that most do. A split lip from Marshall Pearce now and again, but no major bodily perforations or severe beatings. MacLean's main characters could, for the most part, be spokesmen for Timex because they do "take a licking and keep on ticking." Living in Nevada, I find it amusing that one of the bad guys turns out to be the governor of the Silver State himself.
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
Caravan To VaccaresEvery year, for centuries, the gypsies have gathered in a small French tourist town to honor their patron saint.
This time, however, the pilgrimage is not so innocent. This time the caravan is a cover for a sinister conspiracy.
Terror, murder, and violence lie in wait for the unwary trespasser.
Only a chosen few know of the grim secret the gypsies are hiding. They know, too, that discovery may cost them their lives.
| J Says |
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
CircusCIA MISSION BEHIND THE BIG TOP
When circus aerialist and mentalist Bruno Wildermann is recruited by the CIA for a mission that only someone of his incredible talents could undertake, he is aware that he holds the key to the world's survival in his hands. His assignment is to break into the infamous Lubylan prison in Eastern Europe where a deadly secret is hidden-a formula capable of annihilating the earth itself. He is to memorize it. And destroy it.
But even before Bruno begins his terrifying assignment the assassins are already in motion...
Here is vintage MacLean with a suspense that builds of equal parts action, espionage, and the razor-edged excitement of a circus atmosphere.
| J Says |
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
Fear Is The KeyFINDERS KEEPERS
With the exception of the British frigate De Braak, sunk in a storm off the coast of Deleware in 1798, it was the biggest underwater treasure in the Western Hemisphere: Ten million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in gold ingots, emeralds and uncut diamonds, locked in the fuselage of a DC-3, lying half-buried on the ocean floor and guarded by the remains of two men, one woman and a very small boy.
The fortune was there for the taking, and ready to grab it were a blueblooded oilman with his own off-shore rig, a hood so cold and independent that even the Mafia couldn't do business with him and a psychopathic hired assassin.
Against them stood one man, and those were his people, those skeletons in their watery coffin. His name was Talbot, and he would bury his dead-but only after he had avenged their murders.
| J Says |
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
FloodgateWE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM WITH A SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN. THE FFF HAVE ISSUED ANOTHER STATEMENT. "IT SHOULD NOW NOT BE IN DOUBT THAT WE CAN CAUSE FLOODING ACCORDING TO OUR CHOOSING, WHEREVER AND WHENEVER WE CHOOSE."
In this new suspense adventure bestseller by master storyteller Alistair MacLean, Holland is menaced by a new brand of terrorists, a mysterious extremist group called the FFF. They threaten to blow up the country's dikes and flood the Netherlands if their demands are not met.
Now the fate of this small country depends on the wit and daring of three men, undercover agents, who have infiltrated terrorist headquarters.
Mistakes are deadly, but Peter Van Effen, police lieutenant, hopes that his team is more than a match for the madmen.
| J Says |
Talk, talk, talk, talk and then, you guessed it, more talk. The characters in Athabasca were positively taciturn compared to these guys. Then, when there is any action, it's over so fast that it takes less time to read than it would actually take to happen in real time. As if you couldn't tell already, I don't think much of this one.
 |
| Jacket Blurb |
Force 10 From NavaroneTHE GUNS
OF NAVARONE
HAVE BEEN
SILENCEDBut the heroic survivors are far from still. They are ready for action again-and headed for even more excitement in this fast-paced novel of adventure by a master storyteller.
THEIR MISSION: TO FREE AN ENTIRE PARTISAN ARMY TRAPPED IN THE RUGGED MOUNTAINS OF YUGOSLAVIA.
It begins with a parachute drop behind enemy lines and a deliberate walk into a German army camp.
Six men against the might of two armored divisions. They couldn't fight them. So they had to join them.
And then somehow destroy them!
| J Says |
