The Way to Dusty Death

The Way to Dusty Death – Alistair McLean

The background is Formula 1 racing (and perhaps the only book I’ve read with this context), and quite interesting as such. The story itself is not so much about racing, but about more sinister under-goings, - not unexpectedly so, as McLean’s forte is spy thrillers. But I do not want to divulge the actual theme here for anyone who may happen to look at my post before reading the book. Only a hint, in words of Johnny Harlow (the hero of the book) - "There are other ways to a dusty death than losing control on a racing track".

I enjoyed this, as always is the case with McLean for me. The suspense, the turn of events at a pace that you can’t even blink your eyes, the protagonist with no training in any related field, but skills that turn out to be extra-ordinary than an intelligence officer, are sufficient to keep one engaged and at an edge for a few hours. However, it doesn’t compare too well against some of his other works, like The Guns of Navaraone, Ice Station Zebra, The Satan Bug. A typical characteristic of McLean’s novels is that nobody and nothing are actually what they appear to be. It’s true to a large extent in Dusty Death as well,  but only for the majority of other characters of the book; for the reader, the suspense is more or less uncovered quite early in the book.

As a die-hard McLean fan, I would recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers. It has all the content for an action movie (even a romance angle, unlike most of his other novels). I am aware of many movies based on his novels, have seen a couple; I hadn’t heard of a movie based on this one, but a quick search revealed there is one. Whether or not there already exists a movie on this one, I think Indian movie makers could do well to take an “inspiration” from this book, should do well in the view of the F1 fever gripping the country right now :-P