In High Places

Arthur Hailey had a gift for finding locales for his novels that exploited the curiousity of the audience for finding out about often mentioned but little understood functions. At this point, the Foreign Affairs ministry of the USA. It is entertaining in the fashion of the 1960's and quite informative about the procedures of international relations. World War Three is once more, delayed, by the way.

Arthur Hailey, the master of fiction-with-realistic-settings, has taken Canadian politics as the backdrop for In High Places. As can be expected, he has presented the human side of politics with all things good, bad and ugly. Though it is an engaging read right through, for someone who has read and enjoyed most of his works for the inside details that he provides of the industries in which the stories are set, it is somewhat unsatisfying. It feels as if Hailey was on a deadline to finish writing this novel. Or else, Canadian politics is, maybe, not as colourful as that of many other nations and, choosing it as the setting, Hailey could do nothing more. That said, I enjoyed this one too, though not as much as I had done his other great show more works. So it is between 3 and 4 stars, rounded up to 4 due to my bias towards Hailey! show less

Wanneer de Canadese president James Howden hoort dat zijn land het toneel zal worden van een nieuwe wereldoorlog, neemt hij razendsnel maatregelen. Een ultra-geheim verdrag met de Verenigde Staten lijkt de enige oplossing.
Howdens vastberadenheid in 's lands belang wordt echter overschaduwd door de methoden die hij gebruikt. Het zijn dezelfde instrumenten die hem aan de macht hebben gebracht: intimidatie, omkoping en chantage...