Caravan to Vaccares (original 1970; edition 2009)

A string of competently written action scenes held together by a barely coherent and ultimately improbable plot. So... a typical thriller, then. The tone is juvenile and the twist at the end visible from a mile away, but this will keep you entertained on your beach towel. ( )

An annual Gypsy pilgrimage takes place to the south of France each year, however this year there are people getting killed. Carl Bowman is secret service and determined to find out the secret being held.

Maclean has created some strong characters in the form of Bowman, Le Grand Duc & Czerda. As usual there are plenty of twists along the way with very few characters as they seem at first glance. Everyone has a motive and only death can stand between them and the goal.

Some very nice scenes including a bullfight.

I wanted to give this book 5 stars but at times it was slightly too slushy for my taste. ( )

Provence is the setting of this Alistair Maclean thriller -- Provence at the time of the annual pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries of gypsies from all over Europe, even from behind the Iron Curtain. The Duc de Croytor, distinguished folklorist and gastronome, is there of course. So is Englishman Neil Bowman, for no apparent cause.
But something is different about this year's pilgrimage. A small group of gypsies has something they are determined to hide, and Bowman soon learns that curiosity is highly dangerous. Before long he is on the run for his life.
Accompanied only by dark-haired Cecile, who has become as deeply embroiled as he is, he goes through a variety of disguises and a series of ever-narrower escapes. From the dizzy ramparts of Les Baux to the vast limestone caverns beneath it, from fiesta in Arles to the flat, salt-lake-studded plain of the Camargue, from the terror of murder during the Provencal cours-libre in the bull-ring to an exciting action-sequence out at sea, the pace keeps up, the Maclean magic never falters. The nature of the gypsies' secret, the part played by the enigmatic Grand Duc and the beautiful blonde Lila, and the final denouement show Alistair Maclean's remarkable ingenuity at its height.