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.
Published in 1971, this book deals with the current flavor of terror, Islamic terrorism. MacLean describes the future terrorist and their methodologies, like nuclear destruction of the Earth. This shows that his thinking was much ahead of his time and today after 4 decades the world is fighting the same war.
MacLean has taken the theme from the Earthquake which shook California in 1906 resulting in wide spread damage to the tune of sixty million dollars and large number of deaths. The citizens of California still live under the threat of another earthquake because of the San Andreas fault line passing through the city. This ring of fire in the Pacific has been the cause of earthquakes in Japan and South America in the later decades. What if some man made activity result in the destabilization of the San Andreas fault line? This novel is taken from this premise.

Sergeant Ryder is the honest police detective who has little regard for his superiors as most of them are corrupt and not talented. He undertakes an investigation in to the corruption in the higher offices of the police department. Some Islamic terrorist steal nuclear weapons and take multiple hostages which include Ryder’s wife.
So Ryder has to battle corruption, bureaucracy and pig headed superiors who try to stone wall his investigations. Ryder after a wild goose chase conclude that the Russian connection is not for real and the origin of terrorists are different. Then the game begins.
After a few twists and turns Ryder gets to turn the table on the terrorist with help of unlikely allies and manages to save the world. This book is not considered the good books of MacLean. There are so many plots and subplots which are weak and will not stand the scrutiny of the reader.
The only redeeming feature of this book is the nuggets of information that MacLean throws our way about he earth quakes and its aftermath. Maybe in the 1970′s it may have seemed very far fetched, but somehow it seems all too plausible. For action buffs this too results in disappointment as there is lot of sermonizing about governments and corruption. This book is about the angst of one man in this case Ryder against the nepotism prevalent around the world. For the first time reader the advice is not to be disheartened by this book because the story teller has given us great pieces earlier.

Fail safe is a film released in 1964, starring Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau and others. It is about a fictional cold war scenario which escalates to nuclear war and is adapted from the book of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler; the ultimate horrors of a nuclear exchange and the quest to avoid a suicidal war.
The strategic Air Command or SAC notices a suspicious aircraft heading to America from Europe. American bombers are deployed to counter the plane. According to the routine, six fighter planes are deployed around strategic points called the fail safe points around the Soviet Union. If the attack is innocuous the bombers are recalled back to the fail safe points.
Due to a technical transgression the attack code CAP 811 is transmitted to the six fail safe planes. The planes are the vindicator bombers with nuclear war heads commanded by Colonel Grady. Colonel Grady gets the code and tries to confirm it through radio. Since the frequencies are routinely jammed by the Soviets it fails to get through and he puts the attack in motion. Accordingly the bombers are dispatched to bomb Moscow.
According to the attack procedure, once the bombers are cruising towards the target they refuse to accept any audio alterations to their mission. It is felt that the enemy may use impersonators to distract them from their mission.

In America the whole establishment is in a tizzy. The president calls on the Soviet Premier to make him understand the accident. General Black, the Air chief fears that if Moscow is bombed the Soviets may launch nuclear missiles on America. To make them understand the sincerity of American operations six planes are deployed to shoot down the planes. But due to fuel constraints these planes fail and are lost. American President assures the soviet Premier that all of it was an accident and if Moscow is bombed he himself will order the bombing of New York. The Soviets are thus convinced of his sincerity.
Initially the Soviets refuse American help but turn around to ask for assistance. Americans help them to shoot down the plane. Five bombers are shot down and the President through the radio asks Gray to desist from the bombing. But Gray following orders says that he cannot take audio orders anymore fearing it to be an impostor. Soon the soviets detonate nuclear bombs in the air to avoid being hit, but Gray passes through and detonates the bomb over Moscow. When Moscow burns the American Ambassador’s phone melts giving a shrill tone.
The Soviet Premier tells the President that he acknowledges that it was an accident and he does not blame anybody. Both the heads of state promise not to depend overtly on machine controls anymore. However, there is a price to be paid to avoid a nuclear war.
The President orders General black to bomb New York City as he had promised the Soviet Premier as a show of solidarity. The First Lady and Black’s family are in New York, putting them in harm’s danger. Black bombs new York city and commits suicide. The last haunting scenes are the lively scenes of New York City, all to be incinerated in the back drop of the shrill sound of the melting phone.
A classic and haunting film highlighting the cost of distrust.

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 elements also play a very important in MacLean’s writings.
The Golden Rendezvous is an action packed ocean thriller. It takes place aboard SS Campari which is a ex-freight ship which has been turned in to a luxury cruise ship. It is weighing anchor in the exotic Caribbean. The ship is fitted with all the luxury accessories that a man can think off and is patronized by the who’s who of the society. It is captained by the mercurial and moody Captain Bullen.

A series of events sabotage the voyage of the Campari. The island where the Campari is weighing anchor is enveloped in a coup. Soon certain passengers are recalled back because of family emergencies and their place is taken by sinister new ones. Apart from this a rumor floats around that a nuclear bomb has been stolen from a nearby naval base.
All this bothers the hero, chief officer John Carter. He has to contend with the temper of Captain Bullen and is distracted by the attentions of the millionaire heiress Susan Beresford. During the shooting he is severely injured and embarks on a mission to find out the truth. He finds to his dismay that the criminal mastermind, Carreras has smuggled in a Nuclear device. Soon the action unfolds with all the passengers being held as hostages with a ransom call of million dollars gold in bullion.
Now carter with his injured leg has to foil the kidnappers and disarm the device. He does in-spite of the death defying activities in which he is ably assisted by Beresford and the doctor. They with the help of a scientist neutralize the nuclear bomb and prevent the escape of the culprits. Carter also finds time to melt into the green eyes of Susan Beresford.
Alistair MacLean has cleverly put in his navy experiences within the book. His knowledge of the navy, the ships, nautical terminology and the ocean is impeccable. You just fall in love with the brave soldier whose death defying stunts are described so vividly.
This book was made in to a movie staring Richard Harris and the lovely Ann Turkel. A good read for action buff’s.

Arthur Hailey (April 5, 1920 – November 24, 2004) was a novelist very popular for some of his books such as Wheels, Airport, Hotel, Overload, etc. He was not that prolific, in the sense that he wrote in total around 10-12 books, but some of his books such as Wheels, Airport, and Hotel were very popular and remained on bestseller lists for quite some time.
Arthur Hailey books present detailed views of specific industries, such as Wheels about the automobile industry, Hotel about the hotel industry combined with the civil rights movement and racial discrimination, and so on. Some critics accuse him of covering up a lack of good literary skills by disguising it through providing a lot of detail.

In High Places was the third book by Arthur Hailey (following Runway Zero-Eight and The Final Diagnosis), and covered an area that is still not covered too well even now. There are numerous books and movies on the politics of the United States and Great Britain, but Canada has never been covered by major books or movies in terms of politics. In High Places was a book that took a look at the politics at the top level in Canada, including the Prime Minister.
The book covers the issues plaguing the Prime Minister of Canada, James McCallum Howden. The Prime Minister is a dedicated person, spending huge amounts of time for his work and not able to spend the required amount of time with his wife, Margaret who understands the situation. What adds to the tension in the book is the situation where there is a huge stand-off with the Soviet Union with the threat of nuclear war seeming almost inevitable. A nuclear war would mean that missile interception and destruction (with a nuclear fallout happening over Canadian territory and poisoning its land mass). There is the pressure of signing a pact with the US called the Act of Union, but that would reduce Canadian sovereignty by giving the US a much greater responsibility of Canada’s defense and its armed forces, not a prospect that is easily acceptable.
And of course, there is the inevitable back-stabbing, intrigue, involvement with women at the highest levels, and so on, which make this a hugely interesting book.