Book Look - #20

THE DEVIL'S ALTERNATIVE by Frederick Forsyth

Plot: Drought,famine & dwindling grain stock are Soviet's problems. Soviet's excessive armament & a probable war on western Europe for grains are USA's problems. The loss of freedom of Ukraine & other smaller nations in the USSR due to Soviet Russia's stronghold is a patriotic Ukrainian's problem. Their problems get traded off spectacularly with a hijack of a Scandinavian mammoth ship Freya!

Highlights:

• The way international politicians move their pawns carefully under the biggest of crises is shown in an amazing narration by Forsyth in a story of a mega-deadlock situation.
• The 3 tracks on USA -USSR, Ukraine & The Ship move in parallel and when the tracks join, the action gets even more exciting and gets set for a photo finish; Here again is the mindblowing final page twist; It seems to be his norm.
• Forsyth's inputs on political diplomacy, ship-related info , arms movement & espionage stuff show, again, his tendency to tremendously research on the subject he writes about; This makes him special.
• On the flip side, he seems too 'pro-UK', for, he reserves his ill-concealed remarks mainly for USSR and for USA to an extent but UK is off the radar every single time!