When Eight Bells Toll

I was intrigued by this novel. When I saw someone pointed it the great characters in it, I read it to maybe get hints for my novel. The person was right. However, it took me a while to get into the book. In fact, it took four chapters before I was hooked enough to finish it. The end of the four chapters, for that matter. (There are only ten chapters in the book -- I was a third of the way through the book at that point). I am not saying I did not enjoy the book. MacLean is my favorite novelist, and it always is a joy to read his writing. But I could have put the novel down and left it unfinished during the early reading. I also found the grand finale where everything was explained lacking. Rare is the MacLean ending that satisfies me ("Guns of Navarone", "Where Eagles Dare", and "Circus" are the exceptions out of the eleven I've read). One thing I'll caution -- there are a couple of violence scenes that are graphic, more graphic than MacLean tended to be in his later novels. I have not seen the movie, but if it followed the book, it would have been R rated due to violence. This is actually the second oldest MacLean novel I've read. Yet I found similarities to later novels, particularly Bear Island which is, like this novel, told in the first person. However, I will say the beginning was one of the most effective novel beginnings I've ever read.

"When Eight Bells Toll" is a first-rate crime drama by famed story-teller Alistair Maclean. The story is built around the pursuit by British Treasury agent Philip Calvert of a murderous gang of maritime bullion hijackers operating out of the rugged coastline of Western Scotland. Calvert is a highly experienced agent who may be in over his head in this tense tale, attempting to parse a plot obscured by cover stories, lies, kidnapping, murder, and treachery. The plot includes a wealthy shipping magnate, his former actress wife, a group of very ruthless killers, and various inhabitants of the West Highlands whose cooperation has been coerced or bought. When Calvert's cover is blown early on, he is forced into a desperate race against time to locate the hijackers before they can kill their hostages and escape. His search by air and sea takes him over the remote isles and sea lochs and forces him to make allies of some unlikely locals. The double-crosses continue to the very last page. Maclean's gift for understated and ironic dialogue, bothin which Calvert faces an opponent armed with a Colt .45 revolver in the cabin of a ship he has just stealthily boarded. The scene sets a sardonic tone for the remainder of the story. Calvert is a typical Maclean hero, world-weary and sometimes cynical, yet ultimately honorable, who must battle bureaucracy as well as the bad guys to solve the crime. Maclean was born and raised in Scotland, and spent part of his childhood in the Highlands. Maclean brings that experience richly to bear in capturing the setting and characters of "When Eight Bells Toll". The rugged weather and terrain of Western Scotland are authentically portrayed, as are the ways of the West Highlanders themselves. The plot becomes almost too complicated to follow at times. MacLean resorts to some brute force exposition late in the story to ensure his readers are still with him at the showdown climax in a boathouse on a remote island. A love story involving Calvert and one of the suspects seems forced and perhaps a little too convenient to the conclusion. On the other hand, MacLean was a highly polished writer by this stage of his career and portions of the book fairly crackle with suspense. This book is highly recommended to fans of Alistair Maclean's work and to others looking for a enjoyable reading experience.

A great story! Although written in the 1960's, the mixing of technological devices with basic human traits in a government agent works just as well today. If you make a few substitutions (such as cell phones for radio aerial in a mast), this novel would be a best seller in the 21st century. In any era, the man pulling the trigger must still justify his actions.

"The Peacemaker Colt has now been in production, without change in design, for a century." An inciteful beginning to MacLean's first tale in three years, after Lawrence of Arabia: A Biography (he also released Ice Station Zebra in '63). This sentence is a perfect example of the humor (you'll know it's humor soon enough) MacLean writes into our hero's personality. While I've noticed MacLean's first-person narratives contain fair amounts of his dry wit, When Eight Bells Toll is the first book of his that has made me laugh out loud on several occasions. My favorite part was when Philip Calvert, the hero, is running through trees in a heavy downpour, and he can't see where he is going, so he keeps running into trees. His thoughts as this is happening is simply a delight to read! A British secret service agent with a sense of humor. Of course, MacLean's book is not all laughable. Calvert and his boss must figure out why ships and their crews are disappearing - and each vessel had been carrying valuable cargo. I enjoyed reading Captain Imrie's doppelganger (he's a far nicer character in Bear Island). MacLean isn't afraid of killing off characters. And he throws in the usual dash of twists to toss the reader off his seat, although it has fewer than some of his other books. The book is also loaded with exposition. I found myself dragging my eyeballs over some of the pages, unfortunately. While the book kept me guessing to the very end -- and you're guessing about an extraordinary amount of things -- I didn't feel it was MacLean's strongest work. This is on a sliding scale, of course, as I feel MacLean's tales are more complex in design and more realistic than many modern books published today. The title refers to seafaring vessels and crew who keep track of time by ringing bells. Eight bells represents six different hours of the day, one of which is midnight. Of the time-span each chapter represents, I noticed chapter six (8:40 pm - 10:40 pm) is the only chapter that takes place between the three bells and six bells of the first (evening) watch, meaning eight bells never "toll" during this chapter. Unrelated, but interesting to note, is that a Christian church will ring a bell nine times for the death of someone. Mr. MacLean also slightly rewrote the story for the 1971 film with Anthony Hopkins.

As the title suggests this is a standard alistair maclean book. It is a simple stoty about a secert service agent who hunts down a gang of bullion pirates. The pirates are ruthless and will kill anyone who comes in their way. In course of his investigation agent Calvert losses a number of his associates. A beautiful girl is sent by the pirates to keep watch over the agent. She is out smarted by Calvert. There are some efforts at puuting comic relief by means of Calvert boss and some of his associates. A book that I have read every second year for last 7 years and still I keep reading it...