The Way to Dusty Death

This is MacLean at his most cynical. We have the anti-hero, Johnny Harlow (not Harlan like an idiot reviewer wrote earlier), the stupid "femme fatale" and the fool youngster. MacLean was a fine writer in his day and he came close to recapturing that earlier style in this book. But he falls short because the protagonist has no heart. That's the difference. Keith Mallory, John Talbot, Johnny Bentall, John Carter & Johnny Nichols had heart. This guy didn't. He was just a cold-blooded killer like the protagonists in subsequent books. The saving grace of this book is that it has one of the most exciting car chase scenes I've experienced since the chase scene from the movie, "Bullit." Though Bruno Wildermann was somewhat likeable and sympathetic in "Circus," he was still a cold killer. Read old MacLean.

It took me two nightshifts to get through the book. In reading hours I would estimate it to be approximately 4 hours. If you are looking for a book thats easy to read or a book of which to make a review, then you should choose this one.