Golden Gate [Paperback]

Alistair MacLean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 1987

A tense and nerve-shattering classic from the highly acclaimed masster of action and suspense. A ROLLING FOR KNOX is how the journalists describe the Presidential motorcade as it enters San Francisco across the Golden Gate. Even the ever-watchful FBI believe it is impregnable -- as it has to be with the President and two Arab potentates aboard. But halfway across the bridge the unthinkable happens. Before the eyes of the world a master criminal pulls off the most spectacular kidnapping in modern times!

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Startlingly good!tense!ingenious' Sunday Express 'Alistair MacLean is a magnificent storyteller' Sunday Mirror

About the Author

Alistair MacLean, the son of a Scots minister, was brought up in the Scottish Highlands. In 1941 he joined the Royal Navy. After the war he read English at Glasgow University and became a schoolmaster. The two and a half years he spent aboard a wartime cruiser were to give him the background for HMS Ulysses, his remarkably successful first novel, published in 1955. He is now recognized as one of the outstanding popular writers of the 20th century, the author of 29 worldwide bestsellers, many of which have been filmed.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Pb; (Reissue) edition (February 4, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006144942
• ISBN-13: 978-0006144946
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #812,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Between Pillars of Fortune, July 20, 2005

By 

Christopher "chrysaetos" (Wengen-en-esprit) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Golden Gate (Mass Market Paperback)

"I've always maintained that all Presidential candidates should undergo an IQ test." Would that this were the first sentence of The Golden Gate! Alas, it appears on page 135, spoken like a true criminal mastermind with the fortitude of a German tank. This is Peter Branson, the man behind an admittedly complex presidential kidnapping, who spits (smoothly!) this remark to the President's face, he who asked a question meant to confirm his worst fear: his life, and those of several important Arabian representatives, a shiek, and an oil king, hangs by a thread.

Half a billion dollars is required payment for their lives. MacLean chose a sum that may have seemed exorbitant in 1976, but still holds as incredibly high for a tale told nearly 30 years later.

MacLean is in near-top form as he takes the reader through the antagonists' point of view, their set-up, and how they nab the president in the very middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. Only then does Agent Paul Revson arrive (and in an unexpected way). His affiliation with MacLean's greatest heroes (Michael Reynolds, Peter Mason, John Carter) could be that of a direct bloodline; his flaws make him human, but his extravagant conception of Branson's downfall makes him a military genius. The true Army of One.

The first paragraph is a little deviant---straying from MacLean's signature first sentence idioms---written in a peculiar checklist method. I mention this only because I am aware of MacLean's slight decline in effective storytelling which many have claimed began with The Way to Dusty Death, a title I have yet to read, but I will dispute this notion: Breakheart Pass, Circus, and The Golden Gate are as fabulous, if less character driven, than his earlier books. The Golden Gate is no exception, surpassing Circus in scope and suspense!

Keep an eye out for General Carter. The last name is carried over from the hero of The Golden Rendezvous. My dictionary dash consisted of rubicund (116). I read the 1976 Fawcett Crest edition.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The hero is the key in all MacLean's books!, November 9, 2000

By 

Mary A. Faderan "garden girl" (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden Gate (Hardcover)

I think James Bond should take a leaf from Alistair Maclean's books. His hero in this "yarn" defies description, someone who is smart, a little cynical, unwilling to give in to the momentary distractions of injury or beautiful spoiled women (who are actually great heroines in disguise!) in order to force the hand of the blackguard holding the world in thrall. My most memorable scene in this book is when the protagonist is suffering from a bullet-ridden leg, yet hanging from the side of a porthole in high wind, trying valiantly to get past the villains that have hijacked this ship which has precious lives and gold cargo. It's a real treat and an engrossing read, especially because it is so fantastic! I would rather take a hero of Maclean's stamp than Ian Fleming's any day of the week!

3.0 out of 5 stars British characters masquerading as Americans, March 20, 2008

By 

Birck (Philadelphia, PA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Golden Gate (Mass Market Paperback)

I agree with most of the foregoing reviews for this book. I found it in a beach house we rented and got through it quickly. It's entertaining and works in spite of the unlikely happenings. I almost jettisoned it unfinished, however, because of one bizarre quirk. Someone else in this forum remarked that one of the characters speaks in British idiom-with a convenient excuse about going to school in England-but it's worse than that. ALL of the characters talk as if MacLean had never set foot in the USA! Did he? I mean, we are talking about the Golden Gate Bridge, at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, right? But the characters all talk as if they came straight out of borstal, Wormwood Scrubs, and Scotland Yard! At one point near the end, there's a real howler: one of the local lawmen on the bridge mutters something about calling in the armed police.
The Armed Police?
That was the last straw. Obviously, MacLean was unaware that there are no "Armed Police" in America, and really couldn't be bothered to get it right. Sloppy work, MacLean. The weird dialogue made suspension of disbelief difficult. If he couldn't manage American idiom, why set it in the US?