Ægæerhavet, ca 1970
Den britiske fregat "Ariadne" er forsynet med ganske avanceret udstyr. Officielt til havdybdemålinger, men uofficielt til meget andet. Skibet ledes af en kaptajn Talbot.

??? ( )

A NATO surveillance ship crew witnesses an unidentified military-type plane crash into the sea close by, as a businessman's yacht nearby catches on fire, requiring a rescue...coincidence?

There's a bit of national security doings going on in the background while the NATO ship's good captain and crew try to figure out who sabotaged a military flight carrying nuclear mines that could explode with the slightest provocation. And what about that mysterious entrepreneur?

Though slightly dated, this is a good solid adventure/suspense story by the author of The Guns of Navarone. ( )

This is a thriller set entirely in the Mediterranean Sea. A British frigate watches a large airplane drop from the sky in flames. At the same time, a yacht nearby catches fire. Aware that it all seems to be too much of a coincidence, Commander Talbot is wary when he picks up three men and two young women from the yacht. As they raise the plane, he and his officers start researching the back ground of the yacht's owner which seems to lead to terrorism and drugs.

A fast and entertaining read typical of this author. ( )

MacLean's last book and perhaps his most boring. You won't miss anything if you give this book a pass.

If you want to read Maclean, there are dozens of his better books out there. ( )

As Alistair MacLean's last novel, this 1986 offering does not match the quality of his works of the 1950s and 60s. The set-up shows promise. A strategic bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashes into the Aegean Sea, near a pleasure yacht that (apparently by coincidence) is burning and sinking. Captain Talbot and the crew of the Royal Navy ship Ariadne pick up the men from the yacht, and then seek to rescue the nuclear weapons. The immediate problem is that one of the weapons is now "live", and threatens to explode, setting off the others, thereby causing explosion of the nearby volcano of Santorini and bringing on a catastrophic tsunami and perhaps even a global nuclear winter. Of course the rescued crew from the yacht turn out to be saboteurs who caused the airplane crash, and who have their own plans for the nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, as with several of MacLean's later works, there is far more talk than action. What little action does take place is behind the scenes (that is, not described). The result is desultory and disappointing. A younger MacLean would have turned this into a gripping novel. Santorini is the outline of one, but delivers far less than it promises. ( )