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.
Athabasca published in 1980 is a action thriller which happens in the Arctic oil refinery. In many ways it is similar to night with out an End, with murder, sabotage and rescue undertaken by tough men in an unforgiving terrain and environment.
The operation manager of an oil company operating in Prudhoe Bay Alaska gets a ransom note to pay a billion dollars to avoid any damage to the installation. The criminal threatens to blast the oil pipelines in Alaska and another one in Canada, thus plunging the world in to a crisis.

So the company directors bring in Jim Brady Enterprises who are specialist in oil field operations. They also double as anti- sabotage experts. Dermot and Mackenzie, the best in the field arrive at Alaska to foil the criminal designs of the saboteur. But their investigations lead them haywire and the unthinkable happens. The operations manager is murdered and one of the petrol pumps in the Trans-Alaskan pipeline is damaged. So they call their boss, Jim Brady to help them with the investigations, but to no avail. The body count keeps on increasing and the criminals keep striking at will.
In these difficult times humor is something which keeps the whole action going. The investigators engage in friendly banter and keep swigging spirits. MacLean is said to have written this book during his whiskey dependent days and it sure shows. Dermot is severely injured and a lot of twists in the plot happen. In the end the criminals who include Bronwski and co are arrested and the king pin Reynolds who was using them as a cover is unmasked in a public meeting. All is well with the bashful Jim Brady and his motley group of investigators. Dermot finds love and escorts her home while Jim Brady again calls another round of drinks.
This is not one of McLean’s well known effort and in fact it has been pilloried by all sections of readers. The action and the suspense which sustains in his earlier book is missing. Dermot and Mackenzie are pretty laid back in their investigations and loose their grip on the proceedings. The wry humor exhibited by many MacLean leading men is also missing. MacLean is famous for compressing his action in few pages that the readers are at the edge of the suspense. He usually writes the plot in a taut and water tight manner that the reader never puts the book down. But in Athabasca the plot meanders a lot and the reason for the sabotage itself becomes clearer after 60 odd pages. If you are a first time reader, MacLean has written wonderful tales, so try it after this.

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.

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 egomaniac criminal Branson and his henchmen kidnap the president and threaten to blow up the golden gate bridge if their ransom demand is not met with. The criminal master min Peter Branson along with his comrades kidnap the president, his army chief, a oil sheikh and A Prince of a Middle eastern country. The spectacular action unfolds in the middle of the Golden gate Bridge in San Francisco. He also capture Mount Tamalpious which hosts the radar station to control the aircraft activity over the bridge.
So the investigating agencies are crippled by air and land and sea. Branson demands one billion dollars in ransom and a pardon for all criminal activities. He professes to be non violent criminal and executes the action with a smooth hand. His main henchmen are, Van Effen, Chrysler, Bradley and Giscard. Branson is portrayed to be a very able leader and a good friend who takes care all of them.

But Branson had a major flaw, he is fame crazy. When he cripples the law enforcers, he allows news media to cover this event. He invites everybody to witness the kidnappings provided if they have a camera and pen with them, only fire arms not allowed.
So the FBI exploits this major loop hole. Its devious head Haggenbach picks up his finest agent, Paul Revson to check mate Branson. So enter Revson who is a cool cynical MacLean hero armed with a camera and a pen. He flatters Branson and gains entry in to the inner circle close to the kidnappers. Here he meets Dr. O’Hare, a medic and April Wednesday, a journalist who prove to be his unlikely allies.
Revson’s ingenious plans start to take shape. He with the help of Dr. O’Hare bring in small guns, cyanide revolvers, smoke bombs and medicines. The villains start disappearing with Revson catching and drugging them to smuggle them out aboard a submarine under the bridge. In this mission he is ably assisted by April Wednesday and Revson soon falls in love with her. The game of cat and mouse continue with the FBI playing with the emotions of the henchmen.
After emotionally wrecking the kidnappers, Revson in the final bout of action with the help of Cartland, the army chief, rescues the President and his guests outwitting the villains. He also wins the lady whom MacLean has not given much of a thought. A simple thriller worth a read.

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.