Circus

This is a book of Cold War intrigue but not a book to keep you up late to read the next chapter. To steal plans from a lab in eastern Europe, you would expect an elite team to be sent in or at least a James Bond. In this story, they are sending in a circus. The first thing I noticed was that the author was getting rid of characters fairly soon, narrowing the field for heroes.
The main character is an aerialist and mentalist whose feats are far-fetched and greatly exaggerated. I find the character unlikable. The main female character is an inept CIA agent, chosen for her looks rather than her intelligence. It's an easy read and might even be considered a YA yarn.

MacLean is a strange author. He is very interesting, with well thought out and executed characters. But it almost seems his books are written so that MacLean comes up with a good twist ending, and then writes the whole book coming up with ways to throw you off the track from his twist ending. They are good fun reads, but it always seems like something is missing...

If you can imagine a government that is willing, even anxious, to kidnap its talented citizens if that's what it takes to get them to represent their country... If you can imagine a young woman in the intelligence field who is more beautiful than brainy (not dumb, mind you)... If you can imagine a man possessed of almost superhuman mental powers, used on the ground, on the high-wire, and on the trapeze... You'll still have to read the book, because you'll never imagine the story being told this way.

I grew up reading Alastair MacLean novels. I was hooked right away; they were good stories, with suspense-filled plots and great settings. And always, always, there was a traitor somewhere that was intent on murdering everyone else or destroying what plan there was.

But the last ten or so novels were flat and uninspiring, something I suppose came about because of MacLean's alcohol addiction that would eventually kill him. Circus was somewhat on the cusp of the change from the brilliant stories to the flat dull tales. It has its moments but lacks the edge, the sharpness of his early stories. Yes, the MacLean formulaic killer is here, knocking off the good guys, but there just seems that missing ingredient that made the earlier stories show more great. Out of 5 stars I'd give it between 2 and 3. show less

A twisty tale of espionage, with a circus' high-wire artist caught up in the middle of the intrigue. Nicely done, another gripping read from this author.

This appeared near the end of MacLean's useful life, when he was starting to dial it in. There are some good conceits and the characters are not without interest, but nowhere near his best.

Bruno Wildermann is member of the blind eagles, working for the Wrinfield Circus he is billed as the greatest trapeze artist of all time.

Using his skills he is approached by the CIA to return to his home country and steal the newly discovered formula for antimatter. Along there way he must encounter murder & double agents at every turn.

A nice idea for a book and the first 3 quarters was very well written, however the ending seemed a bit too convenient for my liking and didn't flow as well as the rest of the book.