Book Review - Fear is the key

When you are 15 years old and starting up on your reading of English, what will you start with? The likes of Hardy Boys and the Famous Five are for younger kids and the adventures of Huckleburry Finns and Tom Sawyers are a little too unrealistic to appeal to you. Howard Roark is too complicated to understand and you are too young to laugh on Yossarian’s catch. You probably want something smart and pacy to hold your attention. You probably want a James Bond like protagonist triumphing over all the odds and taking home the prize. While Perry Mason seems the obvious choice at this point in time, one has to admit it does become a little repetitive. And so it all comes down to John Talbots and Keith Mallorys of Alistair MacLean.

Long before Hollywood came to like Michael Crichton, Alistair MacLean was its author of choice. He wrote novels that were brimming with thrilling action and moved forward at breakneck speed. He penned characters that were infallible and heroic in their deeds and they were always pitted against worthy opponents. And though the characters mentioned above are not the stuff that makes legends in English fiction, they – along with the author who created them – have been a big part of the great reading experience I had while growing up. So, it seemed apt for me to start writing this series of reviews by reviewing one of my first and one of my favourite novels by an author who seldom fails to entertain. And that novel is – ‘Fear is the key’.

‘Fear is the key’ is a typical Alistair MacLean novel. It is – as I have mentioned up front – a thrill a minute ride with plenty of action and twists to keep your mind occupied. In that way it is like many other thrillers that you will read. What really sets it apart though – which is also the case with other best MacLean novels – is the sarcastic humour and a touch of emotion. The narrative is gripping and will make avid thriller readers read on till they finish. When you have all these things in place all that remains is a good, believable and intelligent story.

And the story is all that. Let’s summarise it then – this is a story of a lost treasure and a band of goons going after it. But, it’s not that simple of course. The treasure is submerged in a deep chasm in the ocean bed and what the goons need is a salvage expert to drag it up for them. And lo, they find one right in the neighbourhood. He is John Talbot – an expert in deep sea diving and underwater salvage. He is wanted by law for multiple homicides and due to his uniquely and readily identifiable traits finds it difficult to hide from its long hands. He doesn’t want to get involved with this bunch of very dangerous guys. But he seems to have run out of options. The bad guys know all about him and will not think twice before handing him over to the authorities – or better still, before killing him. Things couldn’t be rosier for the bad guys, you would think. But then again, things aren’t quite the way they seem. Thrown in the mix are an oil baron worth many a million dollars, his beautiful daughter, her chauffer cum bodyguard – who is unmistakably English – and a corrupt ex cop. And what you have is a pot boiler which promises to be as exhilarating as a treasure hunt.

Mr.MacLean’s attention to technical detail is commendable and can be appreciated even by those who have only the basic grasp of Physics. And the good thing is as easily explained as all the facets about the salvage vessel are, they are not dumbed down. The action sequences – and there are plenty – are well detailed and lengthy, so much so that one feels exhausted at the end of each, and not because one is tired of reading on but because one feels a part of it. On occasions Mr.MacLean uses detailed descriptions to send a chill down our spine. If the idea of having a soft nosed bullet put into your hip bone or how a 3 year old will spend his last moments before drowning is not enough to make you wince, just read how Mr. MacLean describes it in painful detail and you will – at least.

For such novels – which rely on thrills and spills – characterization often becomes secondary. And one can see that Mr. MacLean doesn’t worry unduly about building his characters up; not that he doesn’t tell us anything about them, but most of it is inferred rather than explained. We only hear that bad guys did terrible things, but they don’t really mean anything to us. We are supposed to hold the killers in fear, but we don’t. The only character that ever gets built up – and that is because of the first person narrative used – is that of John Talbot. In John Talbot we have a protagonist who is formidable and yet manages to convey a sense of vulnerability which means as a reader it is easier for us to be concerned about him. It is only because of his character that we connect to the novel at any emotional level at all. The only other drawback I can think of is that probably the support cast is a little too clever, and that’s about it really.

This novel is like a summer blockbuster. It will probably score less with the critics but it will do a lot better with the fans. Just like a summer blockbuster, if you are a newbie and have just started out, it will stay with you the longest. And when you grow up to become a learned veteran and start enjoying the classics more, you might just keep coming back to it for that rare guilty pleasure.

My recommendation – if you haven’t guessed already – is to get yourself a copy and start reading.