Customer Reviews

The Way to Dusty Death

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

1973's "The Way To Dusty Death" is master storyteller Alistair MacLean's intriguing effort to build a suspenseful crime story around the Grand Prix car racing circuit in Europe. His protagonist is one Johnny Harlow, a Grand Prix champion who, as we meet him at the opening of the story, has just survived an horrific crash that has killed a fellow driver and crippled his girlfriend at trackside. In fact, as the story develops, it appears that Harlow has lost his edge and is trying to find his nerve in a bottle of Scotch.

As with any Alistair MacLean story, nothing and nobody are quite who they seem to be. The reader soon learns that the members of Harlow's Coronado Racing Team are enmeshed in a mysterious plot, and one being played for deadly keeps. The disgraced Harlow turns out to have unexpected skills, and unexpected allies in the form of a journalist and a young teenager, as he tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. The climax of the movie is an exciting, vivid, life-or-death car chase between a Ferrari and an Aston Martin on a precipitious mountain road along the Mediterranean.

MacLean's storyline is exotic and exciting, if a little too trite at the wrap-up. His dialogue is up to its usual snappy standards. "The Way To Dusty Death" does require a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader, as top-flight drivers display the talents and motivations of characters in a James Bond movie. The reader is kindly advised to sit back and enjoy the ride.

"The Way to Dusty Death" -- the title comes from a Shakespearean line -- is a revenge story set in the world of high speed auto racing. The protagonist, Johnny Harlan, is a gifted race car driver who appears to have fallen under the spell of alcohol after a devastating wreck that kills his best friend and fellow driver, along with maiming his girlfriend. But in actuality, Harlan's alcoholism is a facade to allow him to investigate the circumstances behind the accident.

There's plenty of car chases, sneaking around, and other staples of the adventure novel. Still, the book gets only three stars because it's curiously unthrilling compared to other books by Alistair MacLean. While this one is okay, you would do better to look for any of the following:

"The Guns of Navarone" "The Golden Gate" "The Black Shrike" "Where Eagles Dare"

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.