Irving Wallace was born in Chicago, to Jewish parents,Bessie and Alexander Wallace Who had Emigrated from Russia. He completed his studies in California and started out as a journalist at a tender age of 15. He studied creative writing at the Williams Institute in Berkley and from the mid-30s he worked as a free-lance correspondent. In 1941 he married Sylvia Kahn; they had two children. Irving Wallace served in the air force during world war two and later collaborated in several movies as a writer. His first book “Sins of Peter Fleming” did not attract much attention. But his second book influenced by the Kinsey report was a best seller. He has been a prolific churner of best sellers and his books have been adapted as major movies.
As you read The man, you just feel that Wallace is holding a mirror to the society which has to prove itself in accepting people who we ourself prove to be different. Today the Barack Obama presidency rolls on you just cant be amazed by the events of the 60′s where a racially charged America forced to accept a black president comes up to our expectation to truly prove its secular and equality credentials.

A quirky accident, kills the American president, vice president and the pro term speaker which throws up the question of succession. Douglas Dilman, the President Pro Tempore, largely a ceremonial position, is thrust in to the limelight to succeed the slain president. The ultimate question remains in the book lingering, will America boiling in the race cauldron accept a black president. The book follows the ethical and moral questions about race discrimination which emotionally scars and almost overwhelms a capable man.
Douglas has to maintains a distance with everybody. He cannot encourage any black friends for the fear of alienating white constituents. His family itself is torn between his son who enjoys being the beacon of black power to the daughter who has given up on her race. His relationship with his secretary, Edna Foster is very cautious one which involves a no close door policy. The other senators and right wing newspapers pillory his every stance right on domestic policies and international relations. The author portrays each cruel barb with such force that the reader feels enraged by the tactics of the villains. The portrayal of Eaton and Zeke Miller as ambitious upwardly mobile whites in a racially vitiated atmosphere is real.
But Douglas Dilman is no remote controlled mannequin. He slowly comes on his own confident in his abilities and truth which makes his opponents desperate. So the motion is set in to remove the president, the motion of impeachment. Soon character assassinations, threats and bogus impediments are laid down which actually befuddle the public. But will the truth survive, will the senate be blinded by color believe the lies of Miller and Co or uphold the constitution which says “ All Men Are Equal” and will Douglas Dilman win the trust of his children, lady love and the public to be true inspiration and commander in chief?
These burning questions remain and shades of Harper Lee’s “try to kill a mocking bird also emerges”. A true inspirational story which will resonate through generations.

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.
Floodgate is the second book of Alistair MacLean to be set in Holland. The first was puppet on the chain which dealt with the Netherlands underground drug mafia. He brings in the familiar detective Peter van Effen who continues his sleuthing in this book.
Schipol airport in Amsterdam is flooded and the planes are floating around aimlessly. The dykes which kept the north sea out has been breached and the sea has devoured Schipol completely and the authorities are completely baffled. Peter Van Effen, the detective par excellence is brought in by the authorities. Soon FFF, an Irish Liberation force calls in claiming responsibility and threatens to carry on more strikes against the dykes. This pours in the panic as a breach through the dykes would submerge Holland completely under water.

Van Effen goes in to action and checks in all the employees of the airport. He suspects informants among the staff would have helped the terrorist. In the mean time the terrorist have acquired nuclear weapons and threaten to detonate them in the sea triggering a tsunami to submerge Holland.
He is ably assisted by beautiful assistant Annemarie Meijer, an heiress to a large fortune and other beautiful women. Van Effen is very close with to the dreaded underground gang the Krakers and enlist their help to combat the terrorist. Soon the game starts to outwit the terrorists. The FFF has to be stopped for the interest of Holland.
Soon the action hottens up with Agnelli the head of the Krakers gang along with his brothers infiltrate the gang and pass on information to Van Effen. Soon many operatives like Anne Marie and Marie are captured and held for ransom. The leader of the terrorist Samuelson is supposedly an earl who is motivated by revenge for the killing of his sons. Sometimes you feel that MacLean just awakens sympathies for his character even when he planning in human ways to kill.
But the ultimate action is ingenious, although a little tame for such a grand operation. Van Effen successfully gases all the terrorist unconscious and arrest all of them and rescue the hostages. Anne Marie and he predictably fall in love with each other and walk in to the sunset.
This may not be MacLean’s best books of the time but the plot is the winner. A very cleverly thought out action plan with with a tame ending is Floodgate. Still I would recommend it for its sheer clever storyline from MacLean.

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 book about the battles in world war two from the MacLean Stable. Here the author takes the reader to Yugoslavia where the war rages on with its convoluted politics. On one hand the Germans and the Italians are fighting the war with the native Yugoslav’s called Partisans ably aided aadn supported by the communist led by general Tito. They are thwarted by one of their own I.e the Chetniks who side with the germans. The allies try to hitch their horse to the Partisans to defeat the Nazi’s.

The main lead is Pete Peterson, an Yugoslav royalist who is the typical macLean man with his dour and cynical ways receives coded orders from his German commanders to deliver it to the German resistance deep in Yugoslavia. Just as the Germans even the readers are confused about the name Pete Peterson for an Yugoslav. But MacLean has an humorist explanation for that. It seems that Pete is the son of an Englishman who never went back to england after coming to Yugoslavia. MacLean provided another funny anecdote about a village in Italy populated by Scots who had landed there decades ago for a battle. It seems those villagers had ruddy Scottish faces and a name starting with “Mac” .
Well the fun ends there for this novel. The plot meanders through the boring fist fights and Nazi vs Allies dialogues. Pete is accompanied by two operatives, gEorge the fat and Alex the dour. He gets two radio operatives, part of the Yugoslav Royalist gang, Sarina and Micheal, the pretty fraternal twins. And so they set pace to Yugolavia and meet many characters on the way, the drinking Giacomo, pretty Lorraine, Marija, Major Harrison and of course the villains.
No prizes for guessing that Pete is really a Partisan. But the loyalties of the other participants is always circumspect. They fight the Nazi’s and are captured many time. But each time they are released as a group in tact to reach the other side. Contrary to MacLean’s earlier books the fighting is pretty tame and easy passage for the heroes. In the end the villains are captured, the traitors are unmasked and the hero loves his pretty operative. As usual the women whine a lot and cry over his shoulder. One gets her husband and the pther falls for Pete. The villains are captured and delivered to the Britishers.
MacLean is said to have reached a low point in his career during the 80′s and many books witness his decline and this book is one of those. There is nothing much to offer the reader and I do not recommend it during a holiday. Just pick it up when you just need to fill your gaps in your day with some light reading.

This movie is adapted from the book by Tom Clancy and is a sequel to the hit patriotic Games. Directed by Phillip Noyce it starts Harrison Ford, Ann Archer, and Henry Czerny. It deals with the struggle of Jack Ryan, the US intelligence chief against the Columbian drug cartels.
Jack Ryan is appointed as the Deputy Director (Intelligence) after his boss is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In the mean time, one of the President’s close friends are found murdered by the Deli drug cartel of Columbia. The President considers the drug cartels to be of clear and present danger to the United States and asks the security advisor to bring down the cartels. Cutter, the security advisor selects Jack to head the operations and he is presented with the task of getting congressional approval. Jack gets the approval and the funds required for the operation provided no troops and black ops are used in that country.
Cutter to keep jack out of the loop engages the CIA deputy director Ritter for a parallel operations. Ritter and a secret field operative Clark under take the mission and travel to Columbia to disarm the drug cartels.

The king pin of one of the gangs Ernesto Escobedo looses 600 million dollars due to the freezing of his assets. He deputes Felix Cortex his intelligence chief to sort out the problem. Cortex acts as a romantic interest to Moira Wolfson the secretary of FBI director Emil Jacobs and gets the inside information about Ritter’s operations. Cortex has an hidden agenda, as to head the drug cartels himself. To fulfill his ambitions he assassinates Emil Jacobs in a car bomb accident in which only Jack Ryan survives. An enraged United States orders the bombing of the Cartels. In this operation many drug lords and innocent men and women are massacred. Cutter is dismayed but keeps Jack off the information.
Jack and Cortex find out that the the US Government had ordered the killings. Cortex inks a deal with Cutter, to cut down the US operation in return for the lesser degree of drug shipments to the US. He also promises that the drug cartels will give an impression of the US wining the drug war to dupe the public. Cutter agrees and ask Ritter to delete the files.
Jack hacks in to Ritter’s files and confronts him about the duplicity. Ritter taunts him saying that he has permission to act from the President himself and Jack would be responsible for all his actions, as he had asked for funding from the Congress. In the mean time the foot soldiers lead by John Clark are ambushed and Jack leaves to save them. He convinces Clark and the soldiers about Ritter’s cunning and they decide to unmask him.
Jack provided Escobedo with Cortez’s activities and the enraged Escobedo orders his execution. Cortex kills Escobedo and is in turn killed by Clark’s men. Ryan and co escape from Columbia with the prisoners and reach the States. Jack confronts the President about his culpability and is offered favors. A disgusted Jack declines and leaves the President to depose before a congressional committee. This was a big box office success and was followed by the prequel Sum Of All Fears in 2002. A good movie for all action buff’s.