Partisans:

A.M. has written some classics but there are others that are just not aging well (if they were even good when new). Partisans is slow and boring, not to mention just not interesting.

Major Peter Petersen is sent to deliver a message in Alistair MacLean's PARTISANS, but suspicion is the vital element that insures survival in the deadly game of espionage during any war. The questions is who is being set-up and for what reason, but then who is connect to whom by what ties. MacLean delivers an excellent adventure where Petersen is never sure until the last chapter who he can trust and who has more than life at stake. A good read at any time. Nash Black, author of QUALIFYING LAPS.

Alistair MacLean is my favorite novelist. Yes, I am a Christian, but he surpasses my favorite Christian novelists Frank Peretti and Randy Singer. I will say Singer has the potential of surpassing MacLean; at present, I've only read one of his. But for an enjoyable reading that I feel will be of minimal offense to me, nobody can beat MacLean, even with his weaker material. When I read the blurb on the back of this novel, I was very interested; the novel did not resemble that blurb, but seemed more like a run of the mill MacLean novel (particularly one of his later stories). This story is one of those where he introduces you to a group of interesting characters, and then you find out who they really are at the end. "Where Eagles Dare" and "Breakheart Pass" do an excellent job at this, and even the novel immediately proceeding this one, "River Of Death", does a better job. The wrap up of this one is disappointing, though I like the closing better than some of MacLean's. This novel is, like many of MacLean's other (and better) novels, is based during World War II. This one is unique in its focus on Yugoslavia. I found it interesting that MacLean had written Cold War novels, where Communism is the bad guy, but this one actually looks at Communist Tito as a hero. In reading the reviews of MacLean's "River Of Death", there is a mention of MacLean's battle with alcoholism, which I never knew before. However, in noticing how some of his protagonists drink a lot without any negative consequences, such as the Professor in this novel, I'm not surprised. If you want to read MacLean at his best, I would recommend "Where Eagles Dare", "The Guns Of Navarone", "Breakheart Pass", and "Circus". However, if you enjoy MacLean, even in his "frozen dinner" years (which is how Stephen King describes his latter novels in "Danse Macrabe"), then you will enjoy this as well.

MacLean delivers another fun adventure in this 1983 yarn about a World War II espionage mission. Pete Peterson and his motley crew of maybe-Chetniks maybe-Partisans cross Italy and Yugoslavia to deliver a message and unmask a double agent. The characters are MacLean classics: beautiful patrician women, evil assassins, stalwart companions, and a glib and brilliant hero. The plot meanders through the confusion of Yugoslavia's three-way civil war while under Italian and German occupation. A fun adventure, a light read, a real Alistair MacLean classic.

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