What do you think?
Rate this book
The Satan Bug
Gripping and tense story of secret agents, even more secret government facilities, and a deadly virus, from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.
HELL IS ABOUT TO BE UNLEASHED…
Five strands of high-voltage wire, 200 yards of bare ground and double barbed wire fences patrolled by armed guards with dogs separated Mordon Research Centre from the outside world.
Yet behind the locked doors of E block, a scientist lies dead, and a new toxin of terrifying power has vanished…
HELL IS ABOUT TO BE UNLEASHED…
Five strands of high-voltage wire, 200 yards of bare ground and double barbed wire fences patrolled by armed guards with dogs separated Mordon Research Centre from the outside world.
Yet behind the locked doors of E block, a scientist lies dead, and a new toxin of terrifying power has vanished…
260 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1962
167 people are currently reading
959 people want to read
About the author
Alistair MacLean
351 books1,212 followersAlistair Stuart MacLean (Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacGill-Eain), the son of a Scots Minister, was brought up in the Scottish Highlands. In 1941, at the age of eighteen, he joined the Royal Navy; two and a half years spent aboard a cruiser were to give him the background for HMS Ulysses, his first novel, the outstanding documentary novel on the war at sea. After the war he gained an English Honours degree at Glasgow University, and became a schoolmaster. In 1983, he was awarded a D. Litt. from the same university.
Maclean is the author of twenty-nine world bestsellers and recognised as an outstanding writer in his own genre. Many of his titles have been adapted for film - The Guns of the Navarone, The Satan Bug, Force Ten from Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Bear Island are among the most famous.
Maclean is the author of twenty-nine world bestsellers and recognised as an outstanding writer in his own genre. Many of his titles have been adapted for film - The Guns of the Navarone, The Satan Bug, Force Ten from Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Bear Island are among the most famous.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
July 9, 2013
Up until recently, my only experience with Scottish author Alistair MacLean's ninth novel, 1962's "The Satan Bug," was via the film that was loosely made from it three years later. It has long surprised me that this picture--despite featuring two of my favorite performers, Anne Francis and Richard Basehart--is a rather pedestrian, somewhat dull affair, and on the whole, a fairly unmemorable experience. (To be completely honest, it's been quite a while since I have seen the film, and DO need to see it again soon to refresh my memory.) MacLean's source novel, as it turns out, is a wholly different proposition entirely. Set during two particularly cold and rainy October days in Wiltshire and London, as opposed to the film's sunny California desert, the book is as gripping, suspenseful and exciting as any reader could wish for; simply stated, it is a compulsively readable page-turner. Released just a year before MacLean's slam-bang "Ice Station Zebra," it amply demonstrates that the great thriller writer was surely on some kind of a roll at this point in his career.
In the book, the reader makes the acquaintance of Pierre Cavell, the former head of security at the Mordon (I love that name, with its almost subliminal suggestion of death!) Microbiological Research Establishment, and now working as a private detective. Cavell is handed the case of his life when Mordon's current security chief is found murdered on-site, one of its head scientists disappears...and eight vials containing deadly botulinus toxin AND the so-called Satan Bug (a strain of the polio virus that has been made a million times more deadly, a single spoonful of which could shortly wipe out all life on Earth!) are discovered to be missing! When one of the botulinus vials is released over a section of Norfolk, killing hundreds of animals and people, Cavell realizes that this cunning but maniacal thief certainly does mean business indeed. And as the clock ticks down to an attack on the heart of London, matters grow even more dire for Cavell, as his beautiful bride of just two months is abducted by the madman....
"The Satan Bug," for its first 2/3, comes off almost like a cross between Jacques Futrelle and Agatha Christie, with Cavell evincing the sharp ratiocination abilities of The Thinking Machine and Hercule Poirot; in its final third, the novel dishes out some tremendous chase and action sequences. Cavell, during this case, must sift through the alibis of a good two dozen or so Mordon suspects, and every character, it seems, has something to hide. It is the sort of book in which no one can be trusted; where virtually everyone is playacting or double-dealing for his or her own end...even the "good guys." Cavell goes through some fairly physically grueling treatment during the course of his 48-hour investigation, and it is no small wonder that he emerges both alive at the book's end and that he is able to figure out the culprit in this very complexly plotted affair. Like so many of MacLean's other action leads, Cavell impresses the reader with both his mental agility AND his ability to carry on against near insuperable odds. The book features much in the way of surprises (Cavell's exact relationship with his boss, The General, did surely catch me off guard!), and as far as the reader's ability to figure out the identity of the culprit...well, my advice would be to not even try; just sit back and marvel as Cavell blunders and divines his way closer to the truth. The novel also features any number of stunning set pieces, such as when one of the Mordon scientists, Dr. Gregori, tells us in some detail what the Satan Bug is capable of; a nasty fight that Cavell has with the madman's mute henchman, Henriques, on a high fire escape and then amongst the interior roof girders of an enormous railway building; and the absolutely thrilling sequence in which Cavell, close to physical collapse and sporting several broken ribs, must duke it out with the killer in a bucking helicopter high above London. (The film also featured a helicopter climax, but in a completely different context.) I found the book absolutely riveting, both the detective section and the thrilling denouement, and feel that it should greatly please just about any reader.
Having said that, I must also report that "The Satan Bug" is not a perfect book, and that MacLean can justly be accused of having made a few flubs during the course of his complicated story. Most egregiously, a character named Tom Hartnell on page 75 (I refer here to the classic Fawcett Gold Medal edition of the mid-'60s; the book is currently available in a nice-looking Sterling edition) is called Roger Hartnell by page 128! MacLean tells us that the city of Tornio is in Sweden, whereas it is actually in Finland, on the Swedish border. A fictitious town called Lower Hampton (in Norfolk, where the botulinus toxin is released) is shortly after referred to as Little Hampton. And finally, at one point, Cavell questions a man in a doorway who "leaned a shoulder against the lintel." But since a lintel is the overhead support ABOVE a doorway, I'm not sure how any person could physically lean against it! I can only assume that the author meant "doorjamb" here. But these are mere quibbles; some minor boo-boos that should have been caught by MacLean's editor. The bottom line is that the book is a smashing success, and some kind of pure entertainment. "The Satan Bug," by the way, was initially released under MacLean's pseudonym of Ian Stuart, just to see if one of his books would sell successfully under another byline. It did, of course, but with a thriller like this, that should hardly come as a surprise....
In the book, the reader makes the acquaintance of Pierre Cavell, the former head of security at the Mordon (I love that name, with its almost subliminal suggestion of death!) Microbiological Research Establishment, and now working as a private detective. Cavell is handed the case of his life when Mordon's current security chief is found murdered on-site, one of its head scientists disappears...and eight vials containing deadly botulinus toxin AND the so-called Satan Bug (a strain of the polio virus that has been made a million times more deadly, a single spoonful of which could shortly wipe out all life on Earth!) are discovered to be missing! When one of the botulinus vials is released over a section of Norfolk, killing hundreds of animals and people, Cavell realizes that this cunning but maniacal thief certainly does mean business indeed. And as the clock ticks down to an attack on the heart of London, matters grow even more dire for Cavell, as his beautiful bride of just two months is abducted by the madman....
"The Satan Bug," for its first 2/3, comes off almost like a cross between Jacques Futrelle and Agatha Christie, with Cavell evincing the sharp ratiocination abilities of The Thinking Machine and Hercule Poirot; in its final third, the novel dishes out some tremendous chase and action sequences. Cavell, during this case, must sift through the alibis of a good two dozen or so Mordon suspects, and every character, it seems, has something to hide. It is the sort of book in which no one can be trusted; where virtually everyone is playacting or double-dealing for his or her own end...even the "good guys." Cavell goes through some fairly physically grueling treatment during the course of his 48-hour investigation, and it is no small wonder that he emerges both alive at the book's end and that he is able to figure out the culprit in this very complexly plotted affair. Like so many of MacLean's other action leads, Cavell impresses the reader with both his mental agility AND his ability to carry on against near insuperable odds. The book features much in the way of surprises (Cavell's exact relationship with his boss, The General, did surely catch me off guard!), and as far as the reader's ability to figure out the identity of the culprit...well, my advice would be to not even try; just sit back and marvel as Cavell blunders and divines his way closer to the truth. The novel also features any number of stunning set pieces, such as when one of the Mordon scientists, Dr. Gregori, tells us in some detail what the Satan Bug is capable of; a nasty fight that Cavell has with the madman's mute henchman, Henriques, on a high fire escape and then amongst the interior roof girders of an enormous railway building; and the absolutely thrilling sequence in which Cavell, close to physical collapse and sporting several broken ribs, must duke it out with the killer in a bucking helicopter high above London. (The film also featured a helicopter climax, but in a completely different context.) I found the book absolutely riveting, both the detective section and the thrilling denouement, and feel that it should greatly please just about any reader.
Having said that, I must also report that "The Satan Bug" is not a perfect book, and that MacLean can justly be accused of having made a few flubs during the course of his complicated story. Most egregiously, a character named Tom Hartnell on page 75 (I refer here to the classic Fawcett Gold Medal edition of the mid-'60s; the book is currently available in a nice-looking Sterling edition) is called Roger Hartnell by page 128! MacLean tells us that the city of Tornio is in Sweden, whereas it is actually in Finland, on the Swedish border. A fictitious town called Lower Hampton (in Norfolk, where the botulinus toxin is released) is shortly after referred to as Little Hampton. And finally, at one point, Cavell questions a man in a doorway who "leaned a shoulder against the lintel." But since a lintel is the overhead support ABOVE a doorway, I'm not sure how any person could physically lean against it! I can only assume that the author meant "doorjamb" here. But these are mere quibbles; some minor boo-boos that should have been caught by MacLean's editor. The bottom line is that the book is a smashing success, and some kind of pure entertainment. "The Satan Bug," by the way, was initially released under MacLean's pseudonym of Ian Stuart, just to see if one of his books would sell successfully under another byline. It did, of course, but with a thriller like this, that should hardly come as a surprise....
January 14, 2020
3.0 ⭐
A serviceable thriller from MacLean, one of his earlier books and one of the better ones. A tough guy investigator/security agent has to recover stolen vials of bio warfare bugs that could wipe out all life, etc., etc. Seems old hat now, because we've seen it so many times, since.This book was written in 1962 and pioneered the concept of bioterrorism in popular culture. It wasn't the first ever novel along those lines but was the first bestseller and was (loosely) turned into a movie of the same name a few years later.
The novel's a kind of hybrid, part detective story with a James Bond finish. It lacks Fleming's stylishness, however, going for a gritter, updated, Bulldog Drummond or Mickey Spillane approach. A lot of whiskey is consumed. While it's dated in its references and language and attitudes it holds up well enough as a beach book type diversion. Many awkward similes. It's a 'Dad' book.
A serviceable thriller from MacLean, one of his earlier books and one of the better ones. A tough guy investigator/security agent has to recover stolen vials of bio warfare bugs that could wipe out all life, etc., etc. Seems old hat now, because we've seen it so many times, since.This book was written in 1962 and pioneered the concept of bioterrorism in popular culture. It wasn't the first ever novel along those lines but was the first bestseller and was (loosely) turned into a movie of the same name a few years later.
The novel's a kind of hybrid, part detective story with a James Bond finish. It lacks Fleming's stylishness, however, going for a gritter, updated, Bulldog Drummond or Mickey Spillane approach. A lot of whiskey is consumed. While it's dated in its references and language and attitudes it holds up well enough as a beach book type diversion. Many awkward similes. It's a 'Dad' book.
December 2, 2015
Top class thriller. Alistair Maclean was the master of suspense and thrill. I had almost forgotten this book, but after reviewing The Golden Rendezvous and The Last Frontier, I thought I would look up the list of Alistair Maclean books and lo and behold, I found this book - which I had completely forgotten.
I was young when I read this book, I mean a young teenager. I was a voracious reader of fiction. But this book gripped me and I read it from start to finish filled with excitement and suspense. I don't have to see a Maclean movie - his books stir the imagination in a way that is impossible to describe. You can actually SEE things happening. Such a vivid writer.
I was young when I read this book, I mean a young teenager. I was a voracious reader of fiction. But this book gripped me and I read it from start to finish filled with excitement and suspense. I don't have to see a Maclean movie - his books stir the imagination in a way that is impossible to describe. You can actually SEE things happening. Such a vivid writer.
May 9, 2014
In the book, the reader makes the acquaintance of Pierre Cavell, the former head of security at the Mordon (I love that name, with its almost subliminal suggestion of death!) Microbiological Research Establishment, and now working as a private detective. Cavell is handed the case of his life when Mordon's current security chief is found murdered on-site, one of its head scientists disappears...and eight vials containing deadly botulinus toxin AND the so-called Satan Bug (a strain of the polio virus that has been made a million times more deadly, a single spoonful of which could shortly wipe out all life on Earth!) are discovered to be missing! And as the clock ticks down to an attack on the heart of London, matters grow even more dire for Cavell, as his beautiful bride of just two months is abducted by the madman....
“The Satan Bug," for its first 2/3, with Cavell evincing the sharp ratiocination abilities of The Thinking Machine. In its final third, the novel dishes out some tremendous chase and action sequences. Cavell, during this case, must sift through the alibis of a good two dozen or so Mordon suspects, and every character, it seems, has something to hide. It is the sort of book in which no one can be trusted; where virtually everyone is playacting or double-dealing for his or her own end...even the "good guys."
Cavell goes through some fairly physically grueling treatment during the course of his 48-hour investigation, and it is no small wonder that he emerges both alive at the book's end and that he is able to figure out the culprit in this very complexly plotted affair.
Cavell impresses the reader with both his mental agility AND his ability to carry on against near insuperable odds. The book features much in the way of surprises (Cavell's exact relationship with his boss, The General, did surely catch me off guard!), and as far as the reader's ability to figure out the identity of the culprit.
Having said that, I must also report that "The Satan Bug" is not a perfect book, and that MacLean can justly be accused of having made a few flubs during the course of his complicated story. Most egregiously, a character named Tom Hartnell on page 75 is called Roger Hartnell by page 128! MacLean tells us that the city of Tornio is in Sweden, whereas it is actually in Finland, on the Swedish border.
The bottom line is that the book is a smashing success, and some kind of pure entertainment. "The Satan Bug," by the way, was initially released under MacLean's pseudonym of Ian Stuart, just to see if one of his books would sell successfully under another byline. It did, of course, but with a thriller like this, that should hardly come as a surprise.
“The Satan Bug," for its first 2/3, with Cavell evincing the sharp ratiocination abilities of The Thinking Machine. In its final third, the novel dishes out some tremendous chase and action sequences. Cavell, during this case, must sift through the alibis of a good two dozen or so Mordon suspects, and every character, it seems, has something to hide. It is the sort of book in which no one can be trusted; where virtually everyone is playacting or double-dealing for his or her own end...even the "good guys."
Cavell goes through some fairly physically grueling treatment during the course of his 48-hour investigation, and it is no small wonder that he emerges both alive at the book's end and that he is able to figure out the culprit in this very complexly plotted affair.
Cavell impresses the reader with both his mental agility AND his ability to carry on against near insuperable odds. The book features much in the way of surprises (Cavell's exact relationship with his boss, The General, did surely catch me off guard!), and as far as the reader's ability to figure out the identity of the culprit.
Having said that, I must also report that "The Satan Bug" is not a perfect book, and that MacLean can justly be accused of having made a few flubs during the course of his complicated story. Most egregiously, a character named Tom Hartnell on page 75 is called Roger Hartnell by page 128! MacLean tells us that the city of Tornio is in Sweden, whereas it is actually in Finland, on the Swedish border.
The bottom line is that the book is a smashing success, and some kind of pure entertainment. "The Satan Bug," by the way, was initially released under MacLean's pseudonym of Ian Stuart, just to see if one of his books would sell successfully under another byline. It did, of course, but with a thriller like this, that should hardly come as a surprise.
April 22, 2015
This is the first novel that I have read by Alistar MacLean. My previous exposure to him was the movie, "Ice Station Zebra," which is one of my favorites. My father has a pile of these books that he hasn't read in some time, so I borrowed a couple (this one and Bear Island).
"The Satan Bug" is a great mix of adventure, espionage, and mystery. Pierre Clavell, half-French/half-English, served with the British Army during World War II, joined the police and rose to Inspector, and then worked as the head of security at Mordon Labs, a high security scientific facility that secretly specialized in the development of deadly germ toxins. Fired from this last job, Clavell is trying to make it as a private detective, but there are no takers - until one day the mysterious Henry Martin shows up with a proposition for him. Despite the high security at Mordon, someone has managed to murder Clavell's replacement as security head and the director, Dr Baxter, has mysteriously vanished. Later they discover that deadly botulinus (botulism) and the even deadlier "Satan Bug" have been stolen. The "Satan Bug" has the power to kill a million people very quickly - and someone is threatening to use it.
There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot. Just when you think you know what's going on, it gets turned around and you realize you were wrong. I was surprised by how much detection goes on because I was expecting more of an adventure book. Since I am a mystery fanatic, this is one of the reasons I enjoyed "The Satan Bug" so much. The book is fast-paced and only 256 pages long, so it's a quick read. It took me longer because I was working overtime and didn't have as much free time for reading. A pet peeve of mine is overly long mysteries or thrillers. A lot of the time, they're just padding. "The Satan Bug" is not.
A very enjoyable read.
"The Satan Bug" is a great mix of adventure, espionage, and mystery. Pierre Clavell, half-French/half-English, served with the British Army during World War II, joined the police and rose to Inspector, and then worked as the head of security at Mordon Labs, a high security scientific facility that secretly specialized in the development of deadly germ toxins. Fired from this last job, Clavell is trying to make it as a private detective, but there are no takers - until one day the mysterious Henry Martin shows up with a proposition for him. Despite the high security at Mordon, someone has managed to murder Clavell's replacement as security head and the director, Dr Baxter, has mysteriously vanished. Later they discover that deadly botulinus (botulism) and the even deadlier "Satan Bug" have been stolen. The "Satan Bug" has the power to kill a million people very quickly - and someone is threatening to use it.
There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot. Just when you think you know what's going on, it gets turned around and you realize you were wrong. I was surprised by how much detection goes on because I was expecting more of an adventure book. Since I am a mystery fanatic, this is one of the reasons I enjoyed "The Satan Bug" so much. The book is fast-paced and only 256 pages long, so it's a quick read. It took me longer because I was working overtime and didn't have as much free time for reading. A pet peeve of mine is overly long mysteries or thrillers. A lot of the time, they're just padding. "The Satan Bug" is not.
A very enjoyable read.
February 16, 2020
Okay so it's not one of Mr. MacLean's stronger novels, but it works. It works. Yes it's what would now be known as a "mashup" with all the attending flaws of those books. It crosses into different genres. Detective, mystery, espionage and thriller and as a result is a bit muddled at times. I've read that with this novel (which MacLean originally wrote under the pen-name Ian Stuart) he was trying to see if he could write a hard-boiled detective novel. For whatever reason he decided to write under an alias.
Approximately a third of the way through the book Alistair MacLean emerges and the book steers back into his territory.Espionage, double-crosses (also triple), red herrings and thrills and chills. It's not a bad novel. Like I said earlier it works. Take it to the beach. Take it to the pool so you have something to do when the kids are splashing around. It will burn the time. What more can you ask for from this type of novel? I've read it a couple times now. Oh ,and I hope I'm not giving anything away here, but the bad guys don't get away with it, the damsel is rescued and the world is saved.
Made into a movie by Hollywood in 1965. The story is moved to the desert of Southern California, but is fairly faithful to the source material otherwise. The movie was directed by the always dependable John Sturges who would follow-up with the movie adaptation of Ice Station Zebra in 1968. It's worth a look.
Approximately a third of the way through the book Alistair MacLean emerges and the book steers back into his territory.Espionage, double-crosses (also triple), red herrings and thrills and chills. It's not a bad novel. Like I said earlier it works. Take it to the beach. Take it to the pool so you have something to do when the kids are splashing around. It will burn the time. What more can you ask for from this type of novel? I've read it a couple times now. Oh ,and I hope I'm not giving anything away here, but the bad guys don't get away with it, the damsel is rescued and the world is saved.
Made into a movie by Hollywood in 1965. The story is moved to the desert of Southern California, but is fairly faithful to the source material otherwise. The movie was directed by the always dependable John Sturges who would follow-up with the movie adaptation of Ice Station Zebra in 1968. It's worth a look.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
June 21, 2007The movie stops half-way thru the book; read the book & find out why Alister Maclean's books were made into movies.
August 27, 2017
Interesting to see that biological weapons were as much of a threat 50 years ago as they are today. SPOILER ALERT: The actual "Satan Bug" is largely a MacGuffin here for what is basically a whodunit with a little action at the end, rather than an espionage or political thriller. This is also the second MacLean book I know of where the defeated bad guy chooses the "honorable" path and kills himself by jumping out of a plane rather than face trial - not sure if this is some quaint British code of honor from that period.
This book is still from MacLean's "good period," before he started going downhill after Force 10. I've now somehow read most of them the past year or so, but this should be it for a while - no more from Mom and none at the library except a few of his final works which were generally pretty bad. Still have never read HMS Ulysses or South by Java Head, and would like to sometime - but they're not available in Singapore so will have to wait until we get back to Virginia someday.
BTW, like so many of MacLean's books, this was turned into a movie - but one of his "lesser works" starring mainly TV actors (George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis) rather than the true movie stars that worked on the better adaptations, such as "Guns of Navarone," "Where Eagles Dare" and "Ice Station Zebra." That said, an interesting bit of trivia is that the "Satan Bug" script was co-written by James Clavell, before he made it big as an author with Shogun and Tai-Pan.
This book is still from MacLean's "good period," before he started going downhill after Force 10. I've now somehow read most of them the past year or so, but this should be it for a while - no more from Mom and none at the library except a few of his final works which were generally pretty bad. Still have never read HMS Ulysses or South by Java Head, and would like to sometime - but they're not available in Singapore so will have to wait until we get back to Virginia someday.
BTW, like so many of MacLean's books, this was turned into a movie - but one of his "lesser works" starring mainly TV actors (George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis) rather than the true movie stars that worked on the better adaptations, such as "Guns of Navarone," "Where Eagles Dare" and "Ice Station Zebra." That said, an interesting bit of trivia is that the "Satan Bug" script was co-written by James Clavell, before he made it big as an author with Shogun and Tai-Pan.
July 15, 2018
The second of two novels MacLean originally published under the pseudonym Ian Stuart - the other one being ‘The Dark Crusader’- ‘The Satan Bug’ boasts a particularly lurid title and an equally lurid premise: a break-in and a double murder at a top secret government facility dedicated to chemical warfare research sees the institute’s former security director, the grizzled, sarcastic and brutally efficient Pierre Cavell, drawn back into the fold. Published pseudonymously it might have been, but this is pure MacLean: the hero as dark horse, the traitor in the midst, hidden agendas, duplicitous dealings, and more twists and turns than a very twisty thing that’s just graduated with honours from the twisty-turny university. Stylistically, it starts off almost as a police procedural before leaping into thriller territory. By the last quarter, the big action set pieces that MacLean is famous for are being tossed out left, right and centre. The sudden lurch from procedural to action thriller is a bit jarring and unsubtle, but that’s my only real criticism. Otherwise, this is one hell of a pacy read.
June 28, 2020
"The Satan Bug" is a historical thriller about bioterrorism. Mordon Research Centre is a secret and well-guarded research lab. However, one night behind its secured walls, a scientist found dead. At first, they were not sure was it murder or suicide until they found out a deadly virus had disappeared. Cavell Investigations caught the case due to the owner's connection to the facility. The readers of The Satan Bug will continue to follow Cavell Investigations to find out what happens.
"The Satan Bug" is another fantastic book by Alistair MacLean. I like the way Alistair MacLean portrayed his characters and the way they interact with each other. The Satan Bug was well written and researched by Alistair Maclean. Alistair MacLean did an excellent job of describing the settings of The Satan Bug.
The readers of The Satan Bug will learn about the problem people have who can not handle authority. Also, the readers of The Satan Bug will start to understand the using poisons to kill someone is a painful way to die for the person that you poisoned.
I recommend this book.
I recommend this book.
"The Satan Bug" is another fantastic book by Alistair MacLean. I like the way Alistair MacLean portrayed his characters and the way they interact with each other. The Satan Bug was well written and researched by Alistair Maclean. Alistair MacLean did an excellent job of describing the settings of The Satan Bug.
The readers of The Satan Bug will learn about the problem people have who can not handle authority. Also, the readers of The Satan Bug will start to understand the using poisons to kill someone is a painful way to die for the person that you poisoned.
I recommend this book.
I recommend this book.
October 10, 2022
The Satan Bug was first published in Great Britain in 1962 under the name Ian Stuart because the author had just found himself an agent and wanted to make a point to his publishers. If they didn't like his new books, perhaps another publisher might. In the end, Collins couldn't let him go and the Ian Stuart books were swiftly reprinted under the author's real name of Alistair MacLean.
You might know Alistair MacLean from one or more of the many films that were made of his books. He even sold some film rights before the books were written. In a way, those films do him a huge disservice. They made him rich but they spoilt his style and they have few of the qualities that can be found in his books.
MacLean first came to the notice of his publisher, Collins, when Marjorie Chapman, who had worked for them in Glasgow wept over her breakfast on reading his prize-winning story, The Dileas, in the Glasgow Herald on a Saturday morning in March, 1954. Her husband, Ian, who worked in the Bible department, sought him out and invited him to write a novel. MacLean eventually did. HMS Ulysses was banged out on a typewriter in a bare room in Clarkston, Glasgow in eight weeks in 1954 and became one of the most successful British novels of all time.
The Satan Bug is a very different novel but it is nevertheless characteristic of MacLean at his best, though not quite his very best. It's an exciting story, in part a whodunnit and in part a thrilling adventure with MacLean's hallmark misdirections and sudden twists. Creativity leaks off every page. He has so many ideas he has trouble keeping them all within the bounds of a single novel. You have no time to dismiss his expositions as absurd because they are constantly being displaced as the story develops and the perspective shifts.
MacLean's speciality is to keep you glued to the edge of your seat, turning pages hypnotically, unaware that you are even reading because your mind is incapable of dealing with thoughts, physical sensations, hunger, cold, or even pain until you have found out what happens next.
Many writers have copied but few have equalled his style. He has done all the groundwork. His plots, techniques, tricks and ploys are all there plain as day. He has shown everyone the way. And still no-one can immerse you in a story quite like Alistair MacLean.
What accounts for this elusive magic? How does he do it?
The fact that his stories have been turned into relatively dull films even when he wrote the screenplay himself provides part of the answer. His is a very literary skill. It is the words he uses that weave the magic.
He is prone to exaggeration. But this is his magic dust. He brings the sensations of his protagonists so vividly to life that you can't help but feel you are there, in their skin, straining every sinew, fighting for your life -- and fighting for it with one hand.
Towards the end of the novel, the unmasked villain is in a helicopter above London, threatening to spill a deadly virus over the capital. A private investigator, Pierre Cavell, is up there with him, along with his wife, Mary, who was taken hostage. Having won possession of the precious vial, Cavell, who narrates the story, is in no position to relax, for is he is standing close to the open door of the helicopter and Scarlatti, the villain, has no intention of letting the vial go so easily.
"He was silent now, his face the face of a madman, and he was going to kill me. He caught me by the throat, shoved me violently backwards. I thrust my left foot behind to gain enough purchase on the side of the cabin to thrust him off and Mary screamed. My foot met no resistance, there was nothing behind me, only the open door. Instantly I flung wide both arms and stiffened my back and shoulders. Both forearms smashed with cruel force against the raised metal edges of the doorway and the upper edge was like a guillotine against the back of my neck. Momentarily the world was a red haze shot through with blinding flashes of light and then it cleared. Mary, sitting in the doorway seat just beside us, was staring at me with terror-stricken eyes, green and enormous in the dead-white face. And Scarlatti still had me by the throat. His face was inches from mine."
In the Second World War MacLean had been a Lead Torpedo Operator on a ship escorting Arctic convoys to Murmansk. But it was in Malta in 1944 that he witnessed a terrifying incident and was injured when a shell backfired. Two men were hurled against a bulkhead and the backs of their heads were crushed to a pulp. MacLean never spoke of it but his family believed he was flung through an open door during this incident and so survived.
When you learn of such details you can see that, although it looks like he is writing the most shameless melodrama, he is in fact, in a very deep sense, writing from experience.
No-one else can write action stories quite like him because they have never experienced first hand that red haze shot through with blinding flashes of light.
MacLean can't write women characters. All his women are sexist stereotypes. His heroes' romantic moments make you cringe. He was a poor judge of women in real life and it shows.
There is some evidence that he could be cruel and violent, especially when drunk, which he was often, it is said, after he became a millionaire. I don't know about that. I feel for him. He said he hated writing and was not particularly proud of what he wrote. "One day," he used to say, "I'll write a good book."
What you can't see in the passage that I've quoted is MacLean's sharp sense of humour. It is there in all his best books. And it is there in The Satan Bug, but you'll have to read it for yourself to find how MacLean's wit saves Pierre Cavell from a long fall through that open door in the helicopter above the Bank of England.
I haven't really said what I think of The Satan Bug yet. What I wanted to say was that MacLean was an engineer and it shows in the precision of his writing. One of his strengths is describing scenery, locations, buildings and physical sensations. If you read any of his books published between 1954 and 1971 there is scarcely a page, scarcely even a paragraph when he is not reminding you of the intense physical sensations his characters are feeling.
That's the real reason I couldn't put this book down.
You might know Alistair MacLean from one or more of the many films that were made of his books. He even sold some film rights before the books were written. In a way, those films do him a huge disservice. They made him rich but they spoilt his style and they have few of the qualities that can be found in his books.
MacLean first came to the notice of his publisher, Collins, when Marjorie Chapman, who had worked for them in Glasgow wept over her breakfast on reading his prize-winning story, The Dileas, in the Glasgow Herald on a Saturday morning in March, 1954. Her husband, Ian, who worked in the Bible department, sought him out and invited him to write a novel. MacLean eventually did. HMS Ulysses was banged out on a typewriter in a bare room in Clarkston, Glasgow in eight weeks in 1954 and became one of the most successful British novels of all time.
The Satan Bug is a very different novel but it is nevertheless characteristic of MacLean at his best, though not quite his very best. It's an exciting story, in part a whodunnit and in part a thrilling adventure with MacLean's hallmark misdirections and sudden twists. Creativity leaks off every page. He has so many ideas he has trouble keeping them all within the bounds of a single novel. You have no time to dismiss his expositions as absurd because they are constantly being displaced as the story develops and the perspective shifts.
MacLean's speciality is to keep you glued to the edge of your seat, turning pages hypnotically, unaware that you are even reading because your mind is incapable of dealing with thoughts, physical sensations, hunger, cold, or even pain until you have found out what happens next.
Many writers have copied but few have equalled his style. He has done all the groundwork. His plots, techniques, tricks and ploys are all there plain as day. He has shown everyone the way. And still no-one can immerse you in a story quite like Alistair MacLean.
What accounts for this elusive magic? How does he do it?
The fact that his stories have been turned into relatively dull films even when he wrote the screenplay himself provides part of the answer. His is a very literary skill. It is the words he uses that weave the magic.
He is prone to exaggeration. But this is his magic dust. He brings the sensations of his protagonists so vividly to life that you can't help but feel you are there, in their skin, straining every sinew, fighting for your life -- and fighting for it with one hand.
Towards the end of the novel, the unmasked villain is in a helicopter above London, threatening to spill a deadly virus over the capital. A private investigator, Pierre Cavell, is up there with him, along with his wife, Mary, who was taken hostage. Having won possession of the precious vial, Cavell, who narrates the story, is in no position to relax, for is he is standing close to the open door of the helicopter and Scarlatti, the villain, has no intention of letting the vial go so easily.
"He was silent now, his face the face of a madman, and he was going to kill me. He caught me by the throat, shoved me violently backwards. I thrust my left foot behind to gain enough purchase on the side of the cabin to thrust him off and Mary screamed. My foot met no resistance, there was nothing behind me, only the open door. Instantly I flung wide both arms and stiffened my back and shoulders. Both forearms smashed with cruel force against the raised metal edges of the doorway and the upper edge was like a guillotine against the back of my neck. Momentarily the world was a red haze shot through with blinding flashes of light and then it cleared. Mary, sitting in the doorway seat just beside us, was staring at me with terror-stricken eyes, green and enormous in the dead-white face. And Scarlatti still had me by the throat. His face was inches from mine."
In the Second World War MacLean had been a Lead Torpedo Operator on a ship escorting Arctic convoys to Murmansk. But it was in Malta in 1944 that he witnessed a terrifying incident and was injured when a shell backfired. Two men were hurled against a bulkhead and the backs of their heads were crushed to a pulp. MacLean never spoke of it but his family believed he was flung through an open door during this incident and so survived.
When you learn of such details you can see that, although it looks like he is writing the most shameless melodrama, he is in fact, in a very deep sense, writing from experience.
No-one else can write action stories quite like him because they have never experienced first hand that red haze shot through with blinding flashes of light.
MacLean can't write women characters. All his women are sexist stereotypes. His heroes' romantic moments make you cringe. He was a poor judge of women in real life and it shows.
There is some evidence that he could be cruel and violent, especially when drunk, which he was often, it is said, after he became a millionaire. I don't know about that. I feel for him. He said he hated writing and was not particularly proud of what he wrote. "One day," he used to say, "I'll write a good book."
What you can't see in the passage that I've quoted is MacLean's sharp sense of humour. It is there in all his best books. And it is there in The Satan Bug, but you'll have to read it for yourself to find how MacLean's wit saves Pierre Cavell from a long fall through that open door in the helicopter above the Bank of England.
I haven't really said what I think of The Satan Bug yet. What I wanted to say was that MacLean was an engineer and it shows in the precision of his writing. One of his strengths is describing scenery, locations, buildings and physical sensations. If you read any of his books published between 1954 and 1971 there is scarcely a page, scarcely even a paragraph when he is not reminding you of the intense physical sensations his characters are feeling.
That's the real reason I couldn't put this book down.
March 30, 2012
Not his best work but a fun and easy read. The ending or final act, from the second plot point, is a study in how to write a ripping good ending. The hero figures something out but the villain out wits him. The hero gets an edge; the villain is better. That repeats at least 20 times until the hero finally gets the edge. Excellent.
March 24, 2020
Great mystery thriller with nonstop action and suspenseful plot twists. Alistair Maclean was a master storyteller.
But most of all don't miss the film version (1965) loosely based on this novel by Mr Maclean (with a very good screenplay by James Clavell & Edward Anhalt).
Directed with great skill by John Sturges ("Bad Day at Black Rock", "Gunfight at O.K. Corral" and many more), with a wonderful cast (Richard Basehart, Annie Francis, Dana Andrews, John Anderson, Ed Asner, George Maharis, among others), a nice cinematography (by Robert Surtees) and a perfect music score by the late great Jerry Goldsmith.
"The Satan Bug" is one of those rare examples of an excellent book and an even better film adaptation.
But most of all don't miss the film version (1965) loosely based on this novel by Mr Maclean (with a very good screenplay by James Clavell & Edward Anhalt).
Directed with great skill by John Sturges ("Bad Day at Black Rock", "Gunfight at O.K. Corral" and many more), with a wonderful cast (Richard Basehart, Annie Francis, Dana Andrews, John Anderson, Ed Asner, George Maharis, among others), a nice cinematography (by Robert Surtees) and a perfect music score by the late great Jerry Goldsmith.
"The Satan Bug" is one of those rare examples of an excellent book and an even better film adaptation.
April 10, 2025
I liked the book but it was a little bit of a slog. There's a lot over description and philosophizing from the hero, Cavell. There are two paragraphs when a simple sentence would've sufficed. Cavell bickers too much with the main police detective and unnecessarily at times. There's one scene where they have to throw cider over the toxin to neutralize it. The bickering and over explaining when there's only seconds to save the situation was silly. Enjoyable book but clunky.
August 22, 2017
For a 'near classic' I was expecting more. Alistair Maclean's tale of espionage, kidnapping, a couple of deadly 'bugs' in colour-coded flasks and a secret laboratory facility did keep me reading to the very end but there was too much that was unbelievable. The confusion between virus, bacteria and toxin was annoying - the words were used interchangeably (OK, google wasn't around when this was written but they had encyclopaedias... perhaps Maclean thought his readers would not know or care). Also, all biologists know that 'bugs' are insects and would only ever call a micro-organism a 'bug' for a joke.
The bad guy's rise to a position of prominence was totally ridiculous - he would have been spotted as a fraud within hours. The book is probably just a product of its time though. All the men had aggressive, petulant, belligerent or truculent attitudes which became annoying and monotonous after a while. There were only around 3-4 female characters, all with minor roles.
The bad guy's rise to a position of prominence was totally ridiculous - he would have been spotted as a fraud within hours. The book is probably just a product of its time though. All the men had aggressive, petulant, belligerent or truculent attitudes which became annoying and monotonous after a while. There were only around 3-4 female characters, all with minor roles.
March 15, 2017
Private investigator Pierre Cavell is called in to solve the mystery of who robbed the Mordon Microbiological Research Center, a government research lab in England which develops synthetic viruses. The thieves took a deadly virus codenamed the Satan Bug, and it's up to Cavell to find them and recover the virus before it's unleashed.
Up 'till this book, I'd only been familiar with author Alistair MacLean's World War II-themed works such as The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. The Satan Bug was a very pleasant surprise. While it's a little slow to get going, once MacLean gets Cavell to Mordon things really pick up and almost never let up. There's lots of tension, twists and turns, and the revelation of who the evil mastermind is was quite a surprise!
Up 'till this book, I'd only been familiar with author Alistair MacLean's World War II-themed works such as The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. The Satan Bug was a very pleasant surprise. While it's a little slow to get going, once MacLean gets Cavell to Mordon things really pick up and almost never let up. There's lots of tension, twists and turns, and the revelation of who the evil mastermind is was quite a surprise!
June 13, 2017
Pretty much by the numbers Alistair MacLean suspense except this time the loner hero is a married loner.
But don't worry, Mary doesn't actually have a character. She's super pretty, helpful and serves primarily as a hostage. She was played in the 1965 movie by Anne Francis, who made a lengthy career out of screaming when grabbed by the bad guy / monster / whatever. She squeezed tapings of "Satan Bug" in between three episodes of the "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" and "Brainstorm" (plot synopsis: "Scientist Jim Grayam saves his boss' wife from suicide but falls in-love with her and plots to kill her husband by pretending to be criminally insane."). I'm not sure she could have remembered which role was which.
Cliche ridden and kind of dull but not horrible. A low point for MacLean.
But don't worry, Mary doesn't actually have a character. She's super pretty, helpful and serves primarily as a hostage. She was played in the 1965 movie by Anne Francis, who made a lengthy career out of screaming when grabbed by the bad guy / monster / whatever. She squeezed tapings of "Satan Bug" in between three episodes of the "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" and "Brainstorm" (plot synopsis: "Scientist Jim Grayam saves his boss' wife from suicide but falls in-love with her and plots to kill her husband by pretending to be criminally insane."). I'm not sure she could have remembered which role was which.
Cliche ridden and kind of dull but not horrible. A low point for MacLean.
November 15, 2019
As always, there are several layers and multiple red herrings in a plot that largely revolves around the theft of virus samples produced for microbiological warfare. The story starts at the office of Pierre Cavell, shown as a private investigator who it later turns out is a covert agent working for several years under the 'General'. As in his stories I've read so far, the tempo picks up right from the start and there's not a moment where it drops speed.
The bad guys in the story are the worst I've seen yet from among his books and reeking of pure evil. I'm rating it with 3 starts because of the somewhat convoluted climax. I felt it a tad too complicated and perhaps unnecessarily elongated for my liking.
The bad guys in the story are the worst I've seen yet from among his books and reeking of pure evil. I'm rating it with 3 starts because of the somewhat convoluted climax. I felt it a tad too complicated and perhaps unnecessarily elongated for my liking.
January 18, 2013
I believe this book was originally released under a pseudonym, Ian Stuart. I only read it for the first time a year or two back. I thought it was good, but not one of MacLean's best. Since then, I have discovered a few reviews and it seems that The Satan Bug is highly-regarded in MacLean circles.
Released in 1962, the novel is about the theft of an indestructible virus that presents a threat to mankind. The only way to stop it is with a typically cynical MacLean hero, Cavell!
Good fun nowadays, but probably quite pertinent back in '62.
Released in 1962, the novel is about the theft of an indestructible virus that presents a threat to mankind. The only way to stop it is with a typically cynical MacLean hero, Cavell!
Good fun nowadays, but probably quite pertinent back in '62.
August 6, 2010
Someone has stolen an extremely dangerous toxin from a secret lab in England. If it gets into the wrong hands, millions of people could die! See, that's why I don't write spy novels. I make them sound cheesy. But this book isn't cheesy. It's by master spy novelist Alistair MacLean, one of my faves from the sixties. I'll probably go on a MacLean reading jag so everything will sound the same for awhile. Sorry.
May 26, 2012
I read this years ago and reread it recently after channel-surfing into the 1965 film starring George Maharis and Anne Francis. The movie is entertaining, but Alistair MacClean’s book is far more visceral and fast-paced. Maybe transplanting the plot from the cold, wet UK to sunny Southern California is part of the problem. In any event, read the book if you like a good thriller.
Originally published in 1962 under the pseudonym of Ian Stuart.
Originally published in 1962 under the pseudonym of Ian Stuart.
July 30, 2017
Not as much fun as 'The Guns of Navarone', which I read a couple of months ago, but still an entertaining read. This is really more of a detective story than an adventure, with the hero trying to track down a stolen super virus. It's a little pedestrian at times, with much of the action confined to rural England, but the thrilling climax makes up for it. Even that doesn't quite live up to the promise of the title though.
June 9, 2018
I was a huge fan of MacLean as a kid and teenager. He, along with Jack London and Robert A. Heinlein, were my favorite authors back then.
I wasn't sure what rereading these as an adult would be like. I'm probably not as forgiving for MacLean's verbosity as I was as a kid. And there's certainly some dated gender attitudes. But overall, I'm happy to say that it was still a fun and gripping read.
I wasn't sure what rereading these as an adult would be like. I'm probably not as forgiving for MacLean's verbosity as I was as a kid. And there's certainly some dated gender attitudes. But overall, I'm happy to say that it was still a fun and gripping read.
July 6, 2009
First MacLean book I ever read, when I was ill with some bad childhood thing, like Scarlet Dengue or similar horrible sounding ailment. I liked to pretend that the reason I was sick was because somebody sprayed me with the Satan Bug!! Great stuff. Very exciting, for prepubescents, and utterly devoid of questionable content such as ideology or sex.
September 1, 2017
I always forget just how quickly his best works escalate, and The Satan Bug is no exception. I loved this the first time I read it, and I've read it easily seven or eight times since: Alastair MacLean was one of my favourite authors when I was young, and this is one of his best, particularly of the non-war instalments.
August 30, 2012
I came across this while searching the old book hoard of my uncle. I was a child back then. It was a torn edition but I adored it and read it in record time as it was one of the first novels I had read. Thus, it went a long way in making thrillers and suspense esp. those dealing with bio-terrorism my favorite genre. I love this book especially for this reason.
March 26, 2014
Left me very under impressesd. Perhaps it belongs in a different era.
February 15, 2024
The second Alistair MacLean novel written under his short-lived pseudonym Ian Stuart features a typically hard-boiled, physically scarred and too intelligent for his own suppositions hero chasing a stolen vial of a deadly biological weapon. The basic premise is very good, touching as it does on Ian Fleming’s similar notions for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. You wonder, in fact, if Fleming hadn’t read it, pinched and refined the plot ideas for his own 1963 opus.
Here the British medical research establishment at Mordon hides a top secret military facility that perfects articles for chemical, biological and germ warfare. Mordon is a fictional rehash of the very real Porton Down. A group of flawed scientists working in Mordon’s Lab A have developed a lethal concentrated strain of an airborne pathogen – cryptically referred to as the Satan Bug – and a cache of the apocalyptic weapon has been stolen. The police, under the direction of a secret service head known as the General, recruit Pierre Cavell, who [handily] was once the security chief at Mordon. Cavell turns out to be remarkably capable of investigation, interrogation and, when it counts, intimidation and violence. He’s as blunt and distasteful a hero as you can get. MacLean even has the man sport a vicious facial scar, so he’s as unattractive as he is unpleasant. Cavell has just twenty four hours to uncover the culprit and return the viruses. Things do not quite go according to plan, despite Cavell having the knack of foresight and insight into his antagonist’s movements. This useful skill becomes so prevalent it becomes virtually unbelievable.
So, let’s discuss what is good about the novel. The biological weapons angle is great. So are the final two chapters which pound along with some of the drama and intensity I recognise in MacLean’s best work. The title.
There.
Now the bad.
MacLean employs a first person narrator and as a storyteller Cavell is the dullest hero you could possibly encounter. He lacks even a modicum of florid language among his tremendously longwinded explanations and descriptions. The exercise is just too long and dull, all those talks by firesides in cottages, drives to and from London or Paris, in depth detail about security measures, a whole gamut of clues we neither learn of [from Cavell] or are party to [because Cavell as a narrator and Maclean as writer doesn’t tell us]. Worse is the constant relating of information via Cavell’s mouthpiece and his seemingly bottomless supply of important personal details regarding his suspects. I became less interested in the mystery of the break-in than the mystery of how Cavell could piece together the convoluted events and complicated personalities from such small and scanty clues. A clod of earth? A left handed pair of shears? A missing dot above the ‘I’ on a letter head? The identity and history of the villain? The list of Cavell’s revelations is long and, for the first time, MacLean offers a chapter during which his hero summaries all the solutions and where they take us in a monologue of excruciating tedium.
What rankles is that all the incidents Cavell TELLS US about are excellent scenarios and would have been far better revealed had MacLean deemed to SHOW US. The Satan Bug is overloaded with dialogue, much of it covering the same ground, and while dialogue moves narratives forward, in a thriller it can also drag proceedings to a standstill through lack of animation. That is what happens here. By the time MacLean shakes off his shackles for the exciting climax, I was worn out by Cavell’s almost non-stop heavy handed chatter. I am a fast reader, but I spent a whole week digesting this slow moving drama.
Sadly, not only has MacLean pumped his novel full of dozens of red herrings which need both revealing, then debunking, before the actual prescribed events unfold – a tiresome repetitive technique which is exhausting to this reader – but he doesn’t even have the strength of his convictions and alters the villain’s motivations at the last moment. Any thoughts I had that the bad Dr Gregori was an insane multinational terrorist competing with Blofeld and SPECTRE to be the world’s greatest and most dastardly super-nemesis were sadly dashed. He’s just a mobster, this time with a chemistry degree. How disappointing is that?
They made a film of this, and I sense the cinematic potential, but the novel is only partway worthwhile and that part comes too late to make me consider The Satan Bug anything but a failure. Like his other Ian Stuart novel The Dark Crusader, MacLean seems to want his hero to inhabit a world familiar to us from James Bond; in fact the two adventures seem to pre-empt the Bond movies in their fantastical elements and certainly compete well against Fleming’s latter-day world endangering schemes. Unfortunately, neither book is succinct enough to challenge The Master, chiefly because MacLean’s method of utilising a first person narrator to both inform and disguise, often without corroborative witnessed evidence, makes the stories and the heroes unbelievable. While readers enjoy surprises, they also enjoy first-hand details and too often MacLean prefers second-hand reportage. I don’t want to read a ‘report’ of the goings on at Mordon, I want to read about what happened and the people it happened to and how, from the break-in, to the murders, the kidnappings, the bribery, the investigations, the chase, the fight, the denouement. This one-note, one-voice style of storytelling just doesn’t work.
Here the British medical research establishment at Mordon hides a top secret military facility that perfects articles for chemical, biological and germ warfare. Mordon is a fictional rehash of the very real Porton Down. A group of flawed scientists working in Mordon’s Lab A have developed a lethal concentrated strain of an airborne pathogen – cryptically referred to as the Satan Bug – and a cache of the apocalyptic weapon has been stolen. The police, under the direction of a secret service head known as the General, recruit Pierre Cavell, who [handily] was once the security chief at Mordon. Cavell turns out to be remarkably capable of investigation, interrogation and, when it counts, intimidation and violence. He’s as blunt and distasteful a hero as you can get. MacLean even has the man sport a vicious facial scar, so he’s as unattractive as he is unpleasant. Cavell has just twenty four hours to uncover the culprit and return the viruses. Things do not quite go according to plan, despite Cavell having the knack of foresight and insight into his antagonist’s movements. This useful skill becomes so prevalent it becomes virtually unbelievable.
So, let’s discuss what is good about the novel. The biological weapons angle is great. So are the final two chapters which pound along with some of the drama and intensity I recognise in MacLean’s best work. The title.
There.
Now the bad.
MacLean employs a first person narrator and as a storyteller Cavell is the dullest hero you could possibly encounter. He lacks even a modicum of florid language among his tremendously longwinded explanations and descriptions. The exercise is just too long and dull, all those talks by firesides in cottages, drives to and from London or Paris, in depth detail about security measures, a whole gamut of clues we neither learn of [from Cavell] or are party to [because Cavell as a narrator and Maclean as writer doesn’t tell us]. Worse is the constant relating of information via Cavell’s mouthpiece and his seemingly bottomless supply of important personal details regarding his suspects. I became less interested in the mystery of the break-in than the mystery of how Cavell could piece together the convoluted events and complicated personalities from such small and scanty clues. A clod of earth? A left handed pair of shears? A missing dot above the ‘I’ on a letter head? The identity and history of the villain? The list of Cavell’s revelations is long and, for the first time, MacLean offers a chapter during which his hero summaries all the solutions and where they take us in a monologue of excruciating tedium.
What rankles is that all the incidents Cavell TELLS US about are excellent scenarios and would have been far better revealed had MacLean deemed to SHOW US. The Satan Bug is overloaded with dialogue, much of it covering the same ground, and while dialogue moves narratives forward, in a thriller it can also drag proceedings to a standstill through lack of animation. That is what happens here. By the time MacLean shakes off his shackles for the exciting climax, I was worn out by Cavell’s almost non-stop heavy handed chatter. I am a fast reader, but I spent a whole week digesting this slow moving drama.
Sadly, not only has MacLean pumped his novel full of dozens of red herrings which need both revealing, then debunking, before the actual prescribed events unfold – a tiresome repetitive technique which is exhausting to this reader – but he doesn’t even have the strength of his convictions and alters the villain’s motivations at the last moment. Any thoughts I had that the bad Dr Gregori was an insane multinational terrorist competing with Blofeld and SPECTRE to be the world’s greatest and most dastardly super-nemesis were sadly dashed. He’s just a mobster, this time with a chemistry degree. How disappointing is that?
They made a film of this, and I sense the cinematic potential, but the novel is only partway worthwhile and that part comes too late to make me consider The Satan Bug anything but a failure. Like his other Ian Stuart novel The Dark Crusader, MacLean seems to want his hero to inhabit a world familiar to us from James Bond; in fact the two adventures seem to pre-empt the Bond movies in their fantastical elements and certainly compete well against Fleming’s latter-day world endangering schemes. Unfortunately, neither book is succinct enough to challenge The Master, chiefly because MacLean’s method of utilising a first person narrator to both inform and disguise, often without corroborative witnessed evidence, makes the stories and the heroes unbelievable. While readers enjoy surprises, they also enjoy first-hand details and too often MacLean prefers second-hand reportage. I don’t want to read a ‘report’ of the goings on at Mordon, I want to read about what happened and the people it happened to and how, from the break-in, to the murders, the kidnappings, the bribery, the investigations, the chase, the fight, the denouement. This one-note, one-voice style of storytelling just doesn’t work.
July 2, 2022
I read this book when I was in high school, just now remembered to add it to my Goodreads list.
I wasn't expecting much from the book at the time, but it became one of my all-time favorites. I've read it a few times over the years, it still holds up. Alistair MacLean is a good action/thriller writer, plus many of his books have been made into movies (including The Satan Bug).
I wasn't expecting much from the book at the time, but it became one of my all-time favorites. I've read it a few times over the years, it still holds up. Alistair MacLean is a good action/thriller writer, plus many of his books have been made into movies (including The Satan Bug).
October 9, 2018
not MacLean's best by a long way. Flat, uninspiring, uninteresting......frankly boring
Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews