Book info

• Title Where Eagles Dare
• Author Alistair MacLean
• Year 1967
• Genre Thriller

Winter 1943, and US General Carnaby has been captured by the Nazis. He is being held in a fortress high in the Bavarian Alps. headquarters of the German Secret Service, and in his head are plans for the invasion of Normandy. A special team of British commandos, a US Army ranger and a female secret agent is hurriedly assembled. Their mission: parachute into the area, break in to the alpine Castle, and rescue General Carnaby before the Germans can interrogate him. But unknown to all, there is another mission, and someone in the group is a traitor...

Thoughts

There’s nothing better than a good spy thriller and this was a great one. I was vaguely aware it was a film but hadn’t realised the book and the screenplay were written at the same time. You can visualise almost every scene, with great descriptions throughout - particularly of how cold it all is!

I thought it was a bit hard to get a grip on the number of characters at the beginning, but one way or another they are soon whittled down to a manageable couple of groups. As always with this type of story, there is double and triple crossing to try and wrap your head around, and it’s a lot of fun trying to keep up. Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 / 5