Lean and mean
I read a few Alistair McLean thrillers when I was a kid, although I don't think that I ever read "The Guns of Navarone",
perhaps his most famous work. But I do remember reading one book whose
name I can't recall right now, a book that was in retrospect so
disturbing that I have to mention it in a blog post to ensure that I
didn't just dream it up or something.
The premise of this book was that a gang of criminals had kidnapped two beautiful daughters of a crooked billionaire, and were holding them in the billionaire's oil rig. And by the way, they also had a small nuclear bomb with them. Two heroic policemen who are dating these girls (I assume that if the book had been filmed back then, the guys who played Apollo and Starbuck in the original Galactica would have been perfectly cast) decide to take the law into their own hands and infiltrate the oil rig. One by one, they overpower the criminals and take over the rig, killing some of the criminals in the process and locking the rest into a room.
At the end of the book, when our two heroes are speeding away from the rig in a boat with the girls, they casually mention to the girls that they didn't actually turn off the nuclear bomb's timer. After all, if the real lawmen got to search the rig and interrogate the criminals, the crooked billionaire might get in trouble with all his crookedness coming to light. Better just have the nuclear bomb destroy all evidence, and there is no need to shed tears for this gang, since they were all murderers, most of them even multiple murderers.
I just can't help but occasionally think of that room. Sometimes it even keeps me awake at night.
The premise of this book was that a gang of criminals had kidnapped two beautiful daughters of a crooked billionaire, and were holding them in the billionaire's oil rig. And by the way, they also had a small nuclear bomb with them. Two heroic policemen who are dating these girls (I assume that if the book had been filmed back then, the guys who played Apollo and Starbuck in the original Galactica would have been perfectly cast) decide to take the law into their own hands and infiltrate the oil rig. One by one, they overpower the criminals and take over the rig, killing some of the criminals in the process and locking the rest into a room.
At the end of the book, when our two heroes are speeding away from the rig in a boat with the girls, they casually mention to the girls that they didn't actually turn off the nuclear bomb's timer. After all, if the real lawmen got to search the rig and interrogate the criminals, the crooked billionaire might get in trouble with all his crookedness coming to light. Better just have the nuclear bomb destroy all evidence, and there is no need to shed tears for this gang, since they were all murderers, most of them even multiple murderers.
I just can't help but occasionally think of that room. Sometimes it even keeps me awake at night.
"Merinoita" was name of that book in finnish, I am not sure if original was "Sea witch".
Posted by urogallus | 9:19 AM
"Sea Witch" it is. Here is a link to the Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0449202992/qid=1149003613/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-0799636-5442268?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Posted by Φ | 11:48 AM
Alistair McLean has another book with quite a similar plot, only in that book the evildoers are speeding away from their intended victims who have cunningly swapped the atomic bomb intended for them to the evildoer's ship. Actually quite a good story.
Posted by Anonymous | 2:20 PM