The Secret Ways (original 1959; edition 1985)

The first spy thriller I've read by Alistair Maclean and I really enjoyed it. Here's another author I can get going on. The list grows :) ( )

The first spy thriller I've read by Alistair Maclean and I really enjoyed it. Here's another author I can get going on. The list grows :) ( )

British agent Michael Reynolds is sent to Hungary to recover a scientist who has gone over to the other side. This being an Alistair Maclean novel, Reynolds is captured and escapes several times, villains turn out to be allies and vice versa; and the lovey dovey mushy stuff is kept to a minimum. Maclean had a knack for writing excellent adventure novels and this, his 4th book, is one of the better ones.

בריחה מהונגריה אחרי המרד ( )

I first read this book many years ago and have not forgotten it, so recently reacquired it after some searching. It is one of MacLean's earliest books, and consequently one of his best. The story of an English agent's attempt to recover a defected scientist, it is also a detailed description of cold war secret police tactics but also a work urging rconciliation as the only way forward. Set in Hungary just after the 1956 uprising (and written in 1959) it is authentic in atmosphere and moves swiftly with a cast of finely drawn characters. Just one query - miuch is made in the book of the winter snow and cold everywhere - why does the cover of my edition shows green hillsides? Don't they read the books before designing covers? ( )