Book: Alistair Maclean: Where Eagles Dare

Nowadays one does not hear too much about Alistair Maclean’s novels, but at one time they were all the rage. I remember reading more than 20 of them, and I used to claim at one point of time that I have read almost all of them. This novel was one of my favourite.
The novel was written in 1967 almost in tandem with the movie (1968) based on the novel, starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. The story is a very gripping one, and Maclean typically puts in a lot of tension, about double-cross, and a fair amount of action.

The story is in the middle of the war, before the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944. There is an American General who has been captured by the Germans and put in a mountain-top fortress. There is a lot of worry about whether he will reveal details of the Allied invasion plans under interrogation. In 1944, the allies were planning to invade Europe so as to start to fight the Germans in Europe (having been pushed out earlier); and the exact details of the invasion were a top secret. If the Germans got to know of these details, they would be much more prepared for this invasion and could possible cause it to fail. In the end, even after the invasion caught the Germans unprepared, it was still touch and go for the invading allies.
So, these commandos parachute near the mountain and have to make their way to the fortress, something that is equally challenging. The story moves through a number of twists and turns, with some very challenging situations coming up for these commandos. I really like the way Maclean adds the twists and turns in the story, and there is a final twist.