Puppet on a Chain

Rating:
Summary: WOW! MacLean never fails............
Review: Alistair MacLean is amazing.......
i am hooked to his novels and really dont mind reading them again and again........
Well this one too takes you on a roller coaster ride and my! isnt the end good enough to curl your toes?
I highly recommed this thriller and all novels by MacLean....

Rating:
Summary: Suspense all the way
Review: Alistair MacLean really nails this one! It keeps you on edge thoughout the book as the detective tracks down the most dark evil sadistic characters. It is a book once you get into you will never put down until the final page. I firmly believe this one above all of MacLean's works is his best and deserves to be made into a movie. It would really be a supreme thriller! Find a copy and read it yourself.

Rating:
Summary: knock out!!!!!!!
Review: Easily my favorite book ever! One of the best stories of its genre. Alistair Maclean does a wonderful job of describing Amsterdam. From the moment Paul Sherman arrives at Schiphol, you can feel the tension in the air and thereafter the book is impossible to put down. The canals, the shady characters that abound the story, the helpless victims (Astrid Lemay, her brother George), the ultimate sadists, and their weapons of torture, will make you believe that you are there. If you have read all of Maclean's works but this one, this one is very different in that it brings out the dark side of Maclean's work. Read it and discover it for yourself. You will not regret it!! It's a pity that today's moviemakers do not take a look at this gem and make a movie out of it (there was one done in 1976 and that was not as good as desired). Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, or George Clooney would do a good job of Paul Sherman, I think!

Rating:
Summary: WHEN IS A PUPPET NOT A PUPPET?
Review: Question: When is a puppet not a puppet?

Answer: When it's a corpse, of course!

Yes, In MacLean's _PUPPET ON A STRING_ this was one method that a psychopathic killer used to make his point -- his point being don't try to catch me or "this" could happen to you. "This" being your body hanging from a hook through your neck from a third story flagpole projected out over the street. Gruesome, huh?

The plot revolved around the efforts of Col. Sherman, an Interpol agent, to find and eliminate a major drug supplier in Amsterdam. Our psychopathic killer was a prominent player in, but not the "mastermind" of the drug distributors.

At times during this book, I wondered how Col. Sherman had survived as long as he had. On at least three occasions he was careless enough to get captured, severely beaten, and almost killed. Only a combination of a lot of luck and last second help from unexpected places kept him alive. He also made enough serious mistakes and overlooked the obvious with such frequency that his friends and aides often found themselves in serious trouble or, worse, turned up dead.

Those are the weak points. On the other hand, Sherman was remarkably resilient, and came out of each failure a little closer to finding out who was running the show and what ingenious methods were being used to smuggle the world's largest supply of heroin into those countries where it brought the highest prices.

The action was non-stop, and, at least to this reader, the ending did come as a surprise. I could easily picture it as a spy thriller movie starring whoever is the "star of the moment."

If you can suspend disbelief for a bit and just read _PUPPET ON A STRING_ as a fast paced thriller, I think you'll enjoy it in spite of a few "aw come on, he must be smarter than that" reactions. I know that I did.

Rating:
Summary: WHEN IS A PUPPET NOT A PUPPET?
Review: Question: When is a puppet not a puppet?

Answer: When it's a corpse, of course!

Yes, In MacLean's _PUPPET ON A STRING_ this was one method that a psychopathic killer used to make his point -- his point being don't try to catch me or "this" could happen to you. "This" being your body hanging from a hook through your neck from a third story flagpole projected out over the street. Gruesome, huh?

The plot revolved around the efforts of Col. Sherman, an Interpol agent, to find and eliminate a major drug supplier in Amsterdam. Our psychopathic killer was a prominent player in, but not the "mastermind" of the drug distributors.

At times during this book, I wondered how Col. Sherman had survived as long as he had. On at least three occasions he was careless enough to get captured, severely beaten, and almost killed. Only a combination of a lot of luck and last second help from unexpected places kept him alive. He also made enough serious mistakes and overlooked the obvious with such frequency that his friends and aides often found themselves in serious trouble or, worse, turned up dead.

Those are the weak points. On the other hand, Sherman was remarkably resilient, and came out of each failure a little closer to finding out who was running the show and what ingenious methods were being used to smuggle the world's largest supply of heroin into those countries where it brought the highest prices.

The action was non-stop, and, at least to this reader, the ending did come as a surprise. I could easily picture it as a spy thriller movie starring whoever is the "star of the moment."

If you can suspend disbelief for a bit and just read _PUPPET ON A STRING_ as a fast paced thriller, I think you'll enjoy it in spite of a few "aw come on, he must be smarter than that" reactions. I know that I did.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Maclean
Review: This book is certainly the best of Alistair Maclean. It has all the crucial elements of a detective-thriller. The added bonus is the occasional sarcastic remarks by Paul Sherman which makes one laugh all over. From the very first it grips the reader and keeps churning out unexpected twists in the plot,the main element being Maclean's trademark:- Suspense. It keeps the reader rivetted upto the last page and the action never dies even when the suspense has been revealed. The only drawback in the book is the almost total invincibility of the main character,Paul Sherman. He seems to anticipate and get out of every dicey situation. Barring this,this book is recommended for all Maclean's fans.

Rating:
Summary: A great novel from the master of suspense
Review: This is another of Maclean's successful detective novels. Some of the characters in the books are familiar from his another work, "Floodgate". The action takes place in Amsterdam and it's suburbs and along with intriguing the reader with a great plot, the author also succeeds in portraying the picturesque Hollandish city-life and countryside. Just like in most of his novels, the hero is an invincible individual, accompanied by an astonishingly beautiful woman, for whom he shows no sign of affection until the end. The plot itself is highly unpredictable and is full of interesting twists. It is a great read for any detective-story fan and is, of course, a must-read for MacLean fans.

Rating:
Summary: In the dark and loving it!
Review: This was not the first book of Maclean's that I read, but it was by far the best. This is the best of his keep-you-on-your toes writing. From the very beginning I was drawn in and lost througout the entire book on who the good guys were. This is one of the few books that I was glad to be totally in the dark. It just made the entire experience more enthralling. A short, but powerful book!

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful and entertaining
Review: When Major Paul Sherman of the London Bureau of Interpol arrives at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, he is not greeted in a very smooth manner. Indeed, he is viciously struck in the solar plexus by the airline bag of a swarthy man in a black coat. As Sherman starts to investigate the death of Jimmy Duclos, he wonders why his presence in Holland is so undesirable, all the more since he quickly notices that he is being followed by the grey nondescript anonymity of a man. Skilfully reversing the roles, Sherman follows the mysterious man who leads him unawares to the warehouse of a company called "Morgenstern and Muggenthaler". After having succeeded to penetrate the warehouse, Sherman finds the astonishing array of thousands of puppets identical in shape and size and, more surprisingly so, row upon row of books entitled "The Gabriel Bible". But why does each volume of these Bibles have a hole that was smoothly scooped out of its centre so that it extends almost to the entire with of the book? And why do these Bibles have a fly-leaf with the printed inscription: "With the Compliments of the First Reformed Church of the American Huguenot Society"? Well, surely not an easy mystery to solve for Major Sherman...