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.

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.
Because of his war experiences, his novels are also high on the action content. The emotional and the romantic angle is not very much touched upon by Maclean. His characters are highly cynical men who are always part of the high octane action and push themselves against all odds with out any thought for their safety.
The Dark Crusader is one of MacLean’s spy thrillers. He wrote this book under the pseudonym Ian Stuart ostensibly to counter Ian Flemming and James Bond. But I think there is nothing much to this rumor because there is nothing James Bondish about Bentall the hero of Dark Crusader. Bentall is a bumbling, physically less strong, lovesick man who does not have any fancy gadgets with him.

Bentall is called from a mission in Turkey to investigate the disappearance of eight British scientist. Each of the Scientist were recruited following an ad in the paper asking for people with certain qualifications promising much higher pay. The only condition was that these scientist have to be married with no children. These ads are placed over a period of time and are linked with the disappearances.
Now in response to another ad requiring a rocket fuel scientist, Bentall is asked to be recruited. He is paired with Marie Hopeman, another agent posing as his wife. They both proceed to Sydney where the job is said to be. En route they are kidnapped and placed on the island of Vardu in Fiji. Vardu is the home of a British Archaeological team headed by Dr. Witherspoon. Coincidentally a British naval base is situated close by this island. There is something which is very sinister about Witherspoon, that Bentall intuitively is suspicious. He is concerned about the singing coming from the adjacent caves to the sinister Chinese henchman of Witherspoon.
There is a romantic angle to the story with Bentall falling in love with Marie. But she falls sick and he has to choose between saving her and foiling the activities of the murderers. As he unravels the mystery he understands that Witherspoon is working for an communist Asian regime and is tunneling through the island in to the naval base to steal the Dark Crusader missiles. After a tough adrenalin pumping action he manages to do it. But the ending is pretty poignant as he has to choose between his love and his mission and he chooses the later.
A good novel which sometimes tent to meander a bit. Still I would say there is negative comments about Asians and communism which may tend towards racism. But you can overlook it just for the suspenseful story.

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 Satan Bug is written under the pseudonym Ian Stuart. Alistair Maclean is said to have opted for another name to prove that his books are best sellers on account of their content rather than on his popularity. Some say that he took upon the name to counter Ian Flemming and his James Bond.
The Satan Bug deals with the perils off biological warfare. The chief detective Pierre Cavell is called upon to investigate the gruesome murders in Mordon Microbiological Research Institute. He reaches there to find two deathly toxins, a Botulinium extract and the Satan bug missing. The Satan Bug is a lab derivative of the deadly polio virus which can bring mankind to extinction, in a matter of minutes and to top it all no vaccine has been discovered for it.
Cavell finds all the scientists and the research assistants could be viewed under an umbrella of suspicion. Everybody was involved in one way or the other to force the entry in to the lab. The chief security officer who was murdered was fed a candy with the virus by an insider. Cavell chips away the layers of deceptions and alibi’s and concludes that most of the scientists who had colluded with the murderer had been coerced by blackmail.

As the net closes on the villain, he kidnaps Mary, Cavell’s wife forcing him to launch a search on his own. The murderer manages to kidnap the entire police party along with Cavell and kills a constable with Botulinium Toxin. But Cavell’s chase does not prove futile. He unmasks the killer whose real motive was to evacuate London to undertake a massive bank robbery. So the ultimate fight aboard a helicopter, has Cavell revealing the identity of the killer. The villain thus foiled plunges to his death leaving the other phials of the toxins unopened.
If you want an edge of the seat thriller on a bleak day you need to pick up this book. MacLean does not give you a lecture on the pro’s and con’s of biological warfare. He just lets you in to the details of the method and its effects. Like all MacLean’s hero’s Cavell is a cynical, anti-establishment tough nut. He saves the very establishment which scorned him and earns his redemption at last. So pick up the Satan Bug and be sure to wash your hands to kill the germs.

Agatha Christie is most famous for the 2 detectives that she created, the egg shaped egoistical Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and the elderly spinster Miss Marple, with Hercule Poirot being the more famous of the 2. One famous way of writing the books was with the constant companion of Poirot, Captain Hastings being the narrator. However, with the book ‘Dumb Witness’, this concept of Hastings being the narrator was coming to a close, with this being the second last book of Poirot with Hastings as the narrator (the last one being the 1975 book ‘Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case’. Like many of her other books, The Dumb Witness was also the name of the book release in Britain, with the US release having a different name ‘Poirot Loses a Client’.
The Dumb Witness had a not so enthusiastic reception by critics when it was released, with many of the reviewers proclaiming the story as not having the complexity and twists, and not being gripping enough; however, the book did contain many of the usual plots that are present in books by Christie, with a rural setting, a small English village, an old lady, relatives who have a motive for the murder, follow on deaths, use of poison, and also some elements of the occult.

The novel centers around the character of an old wealthy lady, Emily Arundell, who lives in an old English village, and who has written to Poirot for investigation of a suspected murder attempt on her. However, by the time Poirot receives this letter, it is too late. Emily dies, with her doctor declaring that she died of a long standing liver problem that she was suffering from (the doctor was also old, and had a problem that he had mostly lost his sense of smell, something that is very relevant for the story).
Poirot gets involved with the story, since he considers the dead lady still his client, and pretends to be interested in the property to investigate the death in more detail. Like many other stories, there is money, motive; and there is some amount of the occult, a small cute dog, a brooch, and many other points that make this an interesting story.