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Landslide
Geologist Bob Boyd, who works in British Columbia timber country, has no memory of his past following a terrible accident, which only he survived. Hired by the powerful Matterson Corporation to survey land before they build a great new dam, he begins to uncover the shaky foundations of the Matterson family and becomes a fly in their ointment. Matters are complicated when he falls in love with Claire Trinavant, the last link to a forgotten family whose name strikes a mysteriously resonant chord.
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
18 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Desmond Bagley
129 books165 followersDesmond Bagley was a British journalist and novelist principally known for a series of best-selling thrillers. Along with fellow British writers such as Hammond Innes and Alistair MacLean, Bagley established the basic conventions of the genre: a tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary hero pitted against villains determined to sow destruction and chaos in order to advance their agenda.
Bagley was born at Kendal, Cumbria (then Westmorland), England, the son of John and Hannah Bagley. His family moved to the resort town of Blackpool in the summer of 1935, when Bagley was twelve. Leaving school not long after the relocation, Bagley worked as a printer's assistant and factory worker, and during World War II he worked in the aircraft industry. Bagley suffered from a speech impediment (stuttering) all of his life, which initially exempted him from military conscription.
He left England in 1947 for Africa and worked his way overland, crossing the Sahara Desert and briefly settling in Kampala, Uganda, where he contracted malaria. By 1951, he had settled in South Africa, working in the gold mining industry and asbestos industry in Durban, Natal, before becoming a freelance writer for local newspapers and magazines.
His first published short story appeared in the English magazine Argosy in 1957, and his first novel, The Golden Keel in 1962. In the interval, he was a film critic for Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg from 1958–1962. Also during this period, he met local bookstore owner Joan Margaret Brown and they were married in 1960.
The success of The Golden Keel led Bagley to turn full time to novel writing by the mid-1960s. He published a total of sixteen thrillers, all craftsmanlike and nearly all best-sellers. Typical of British thriller writers of the era, he rarely used recurring characters whose adventures unfolded over multiple books. Max Stafford, the security consultant featured in Flyaway and Windfall, is a notable exception. Also typically, his work has received little attention from filmmakers, yielding only a few, unremarkable adaptations. Exceptions were The Freedom Trap (1971), released in 1973 as The Mackintosh Man by Warner Brothers, starring Paul Newman and Dominique Sanda; and Running Blind which was adapted for television by the BBC in 1979.
Bagley and his wife left South Africa for Italy in 1960, and then England in 1965. They settled in Totnes, Devon from 1965–1976, then lived in Guernsey in the Channel Islands from 1976-1983.
Bagley also published short stories. When not traveling to research the exotic backgrounds for his novels, Bagley spent his time sailing and motor-boating. He loved classical music and films, military history, and played war games.
Desmond Bagley died of complications resulting from a stroke at a hospital in Southampton. He was fifty-nine. His last two novels Night of Error and Juggernaut were published posthumously after completion by his wife. His works have been translated into over 20 languages.
Bagley was born at Kendal, Cumbria (then Westmorland), England, the son of John and Hannah Bagley. His family moved to the resort town of Blackpool in the summer of 1935, when Bagley was twelve. Leaving school not long after the relocation, Bagley worked as a printer's assistant and factory worker, and during World War II he worked in the aircraft industry. Bagley suffered from a speech impediment (stuttering) all of his life, which initially exempted him from military conscription.
He left England in 1947 for Africa and worked his way overland, crossing the Sahara Desert and briefly settling in Kampala, Uganda, where he contracted malaria. By 1951, he had settled in South Africa, working in the gold mining industry and asbestos industry in Durban, Natal, before becoming a freelance writer for local newspapers and magazines.
His first published short story appeared in the English magazine Argosy in 1957, and his first novel, The Golden Keel in 1962. In the interval, he was a film critic for Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg from 1958–1962. Also during this period, he met local bookstore owner Joan Margaret Brown and they were married in 1960.
The success of The Golden Keel led Bagley to turn full time to novel writing by the mid-1960s. He published a total of sixteen thrillers, all craftsmanlike and nearly all best-sellers. Typical of British thriller writers of the era, he rarely used recurring characters whose adventures unfolded over multiple books. Max Stafford, the security consultant featured in Flyaway and Windfall, is a notable exception. Also typically, his work has received little attention from filmmakers, yielding only a few, unremarkable adaptations. Exceptions were The Freedom Trap (1971), released in 1973 as The Mackintosh Man by Warner Brothers, starring Paul Newman and Dominique Sanda; and Running Blind which was adapted for television by the BBC in 1979.
Bagley and his wife left South Africa for Italy in 1960, and then England in 1965. They settled in Totnes, Devon from 1965–1976, then lived in Guernsey in the Channel Islands from 1976-1983.
Bagley also published short stories. When not traveling to research the exotic backgrounds for his novels, Bagley spent his time sailing and motor-boating. He loved classical music and films, military history, and played war games.
Desmond Bagley died of complications resulting from a stroke at a hospital in Southampton. He was fifty-nine. His last two novels Night of Error and Juggernaut were published posthumously after completion by his wife. His works have been translated into over 20 languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
June 4, 2021
I didn't like the 'hero' of this book, but the whole piece is well written and was easy to read during the very start of the pandemic in 2020.
There seems to be an obvious answer to the quandary introduced about two thirds of the way through the book.
It's great for a thriller to be set in the vast landscapes of western Canada and that was a welcome change.
There seems to be an obvious answer to the quandary introduced about two thirds of the way through the book.
It's great for a thriller to be set in the vast landscapes of western Canada and that was a welcome change.
November 30, 2017
I give it 2 stars for the fact it included geology, but everything else needed some serious help. I know it's an action adventure with thrills all over, but there were just parts that were too unbelievable. The guy is so burnt up in a car wreck that he has skin grafts from his arms on his face and is literally unrecognisable but is still able to grow a full beard? That plastic surgeon really was amazing. SPOILER....
He runs across the top of a landslide, grabs hold of something with one hand, hangs on to another person with another and then manages to stay put as a dam bursts and a giant wave washes over him? Ah, no.
A woman is locked in a cellar for five days with no water or food and she is pretty much able to jump around and hug the hero and fully recover in a matter of hours after a drink and some cold cuts? No water, 5 days. That's 120 hours. Even if she drank her own pee and licked the damp walls, that's some serious organ shut down right there.
The author could also do with honing their craft. The writing was adverb city. Nearly every bit of speech was I, he, she said something-ly. I got sick of reading it. It made dialogue stilted and pulled me out of the story.
I felt the story would have read a lot better of it had been made tighter. There's probably a good 50 pages that could be cut without much loss, especially considering by the end we still don't really know what went on any more than had been guessed at half way through. That kind of spoilled any reveals and a sort of near death bed confession seemed an easy way out to hurry up the ending.
Read this book if you just want to not think for a while, but it might make you mad. I probably won't read any more by this author.
He runs across the top of a landslide, grabs hold of something with one hand, hangs on to another person with another and then manages to stay put as a dam bursts and a giant wave washes over him? Ah, no.
A woman is locked in a cellar for five days with no water or food and she is pretty much able to jump around and hug the hero and fully recover in a matter of hours after a drink and some cold cuts? No water, 5 days. That's 120 hours. Even if she drank her own pee and licked the damp walls, that's some serious organ shut down right there.
The author could also do with honing their craft. The writing was adverb city. Nearly every bit of speech was I, he, she said something-ly. I got sick of reading it. It made dialogue stilted and pulled me out of the story.
I felt the story would have read a lot better of it had been made tighter. There's probably a good 50 pages that could be cut without much loss, especially considering by the end we still don't really know what went on any more than had been guessed at half way through. That kind of spoilled any reveals and a sort of near death bed confession seemed an easy way out to hurry up the ending.
Read this book if you just want to not think for a while, but it might make you mad. I probably won't read any more by this author.
March 7, 2020
After three high-octane thrillers in which the big action set pieces are evenly distributed through the narrative, Bagley switched gears with ‘Landslide’. It’s a slow-burn novel, moving through psychology, questions of identity, long-buried family secrets and small-town melodrama before exploding into the kind of thrilleramics that Bagley did better than virtually anyone else of the time. In a novel just shy of 300 pages, the first action scene doesn’t come till around the 100 page mark. As opposed to, say, ‘High Citadel’ where the action starts on the fifth page and doesn’t stop till the last one. Still, ‘Landslide’ is a gripping read and when Bagley *does* cut loose with the good stuff, particularly a sustained manhunt, the results are up there with the best of his writing.
September 5, 2022
3.5 stars, but I don't consider this one of his best.
October 5, 2018
When I was a lad, Desmond Bagley novels were keenly awaited.
You can see why, if you're a certain age. Sadly time has caught up with
Desmond Bagley novels, But without Desmond Bagley novels I Wouldn't
be sitting here writing this.
Like all other Bagley novels, this is well researched, imagine the research involved
in a book prior to the internet! Yes, he can be over descriptive at times a good half page, for instance, is given up to describing the different types of whisky! (hic). The background to the plot is the construction of a new dam in the forest of British Columbia. The Author as always has researched this
And we are left with a novel that partially tackled in 1967, the growing problem of climate change.
Think a 1980s American soap opera meets a 1970s Disaster movie & you won't go far wrong.
You can see why, if you're a certain age. Sadly time has caught up with
Desmond Bagley novels, But without Desmond Bagley novels I Wouldn't
be sitting here writing this.
Like all other Bagley novels, this is well researched, imagine the research involved
in a book prior to the internet! Yes, he can be over descriptive at times a good half page, for instance, is given up to describing the different types of whisky! (hic). The background to the plot is the construction of a new dam in the forest of British Columbia. The Author as always has researched this
And we are left with a novel that partially tackled in 1967, the growing problem of climate change.
Think a 1980s American soap opera meets a 1970s Disaster movie & you won't go far wrong.
September 8, 2010
Very nice thriller linked to a scientific phenomena. Desmond Bagley had the ability to link events related to nature (hurricane, landslide etc) to a thrilling plot involving crime, sabotage etc. But nothing beats Landslide.
April 11, 2012
What happens if the builder of a Dam does not read the geological report properly before embarking on construction? It is a landslide that results if there is quick clay in the land on which the dam is to be built.
Bagley brings out these points beautifully in this book.
Interesting reading.
Bagley brings out these points beautifully in this book.
Interesting reading.
May 9, 2020
Geological inspired murdermystery. Love it!
Landslide was my first Desmond Bagley novel picked from my granddads shelf. I read it in my high school years and it probably inspired me to study earth science a few years later
Landslide was my first Desmond Bagley novel picked from my granddads shelf. I read it in my high school years and it probably inspired me to study earth science a few years later
June 30, 2022
Many of the characters feel a bit flat, and the main arc is too predictable. The setting is phenomenal, though, and the build-up towards the ending had me on tenterhooks. All in all an enjoyable read.
August 6, 2013
One of those "ripping yarns" that Bagley was known for. Good setting and suspense well maintained
September 16, 2019
I am really enjoying reading my late father’s Desmond Bagley novels and this is another good read. Exciting, pacey, lots of thrills and well written.
August 30, 2023
Great fun. Needs a good wine to go with the cheese though.
October 28, 2025
Reading this back-to-back with Bagley's High Citadel it's definitely a step down from that book, both in terms of thrills and in terms of writing. While High Citadel had its moments of sexism, it had good clear characters that included women given important roles to play. Here, however, no one is particularly strongly drawn and women are either angels or harlots, and on top of that men should be MEN.
Certainly it feels like Bagley must have written this straight from spending a long time on cheap noir detective novels because this has all the hallmarks of such stuff: a hero who doesn't know who he is, investigating his own past and dealing with the viper's nest that uncovers, and who is tested to the limits of his almost limitless ability to deal with adversity.
Throughout the book our hero's machismo is flung in our faces, how he knows about living outdoors in rugged style, not even favouring a tent, how he's a big man, so big at one stage he picks up a guy who attacks him and flings him at another guy as if chucking a rock around. And meanwhile, a guy who he has to threaten with a knife in order to get away from danger is described as 'not much of a man' because he does what he's told. On top of that we even have the old cliché raise its head of evil/insane women being the root of the bad things that happen.
Obviously the geology part of this book has been well researched plus the camping and outdoors stuff. However, I'm not sure that plastic surgery in 1967 had the ability to bring back facial hair in any normal way and given there's no implication that his hands were burned (no one ever mentions it at all) it seems likely he still has fingerprints so presumably the question of his identity could be solved quickly via criminal records?
Anyway, overall this one ticks along fine but it never really draws you in. Our hero seems too heroic to ever seem in any real danger and no one else really makes much impression for you to care about them either.
Certainly it feels like Bagley must have written this straight from spending a long time on cheap noir detective novels because this has all the hallmarks of such stuff: a hero who doesn't know who he is, investigating his own past and dealing with the viper's nest that uncovers, and who is tested to the limits of his almost limitless ability to deal with adversity.
Throughout the book our hero's machismo is flung in our faces, how he knows about living outdoors in rugged style, not even favouring a tent, how he's a big man, so big at one stage he picks up a guy who attacks him and flings him at another guy as if chucking a rock around. And meanwhile, a guy who he has to threaten with a knife in order to get away from danger is described as 'not much of a man' because he does what he's told. On top of that we even have the old cliché raise its head of evil/insane women being the root of the bad things that happen.
Obviously the geology part of this book has been well researched plus the camping and outdoors stuff. However, I'm not sure that plastic surgery in 1967 had the ability to bring back facial hair in any normal way and given there's no implication that his hands were burned (no one ever mentions it at all) it seems likely he still has fingerprints so presumably the question of his identity could be solved quickly via criminal records?
Anyway, overall this one ticks along fine but it never really draws you in. Our hero seems too heroic to ever seem in any real danger and no one else really makes much impression for you to care about them either.
October 4, 2019
An excellent plot. A geologist fighting amnesia and tries to find his roots, uncovering a massive landslide possibility in a dam area he had surveyed professionally in Eastern Canada. Significant inter-plays of the many unfortunate things he uncovers while digging for his past and the trust deficit that this causes among the people he has to convince about the impending catastrophe.
There.. I did a much better job than Bagley in presenting this book.
Such a bafflingly flippant and listless storytelling, from someone who is so good at it, is rare. Such redundant prose, points being explained again and again by various characters to one another (oh.. never mind the reader..), childish pranks and adolescent machismo during a gripping climax.. hell, I never felt so insulted reading a novel. The author tries very hard to bore the reader and one has to literally fight back the author's diversionary tactics to turn the pages to the unfolding calamity.
One must read it to better understand Bagley's way of writing a novel. Start well, mess-up quarter way through, sink to abysmal depths by the middle, make it extremely difficult for one to reach three-quarters and somehow have the reader bumble through to the triumphant end.
Alas, the author is no more, to find out what the hell he had in mind.
There.. I did a much better job than Bagley in presenting this book.
Such a bafflingly flippant and listless storytelling, from someone who is so good at it, is rare. Such redundant prose, points being explained again and again by various characters to one another (oh.. never mind the reader..), childish pranks and adolescent machismo during a gripping climax.. hell, I never felt so insulted reading a novel. The author tries very hard to bore the reader and one has to literally fight back the author's diversionary tactics to turn the pages to the unfolding calamity.
One must read it to better understand Bagley's way of writing a novel. Start well, mess-up quarter way through, sink to abysmal depths by the middle, make it extremely difficult for one to reach three-quarters and somehow have the reader bumble through to the triumphant end.
Alas, the author is no more, to find out what the hell he had in mind.
June 25, 2025
“When the earth moves beneath your feet, it’s not always nature—it’s sometimes the truth breaking loose.”
Landslide is a taut industrial thriller with a geological twist. The protagonist, Bob Boyd, a geologist with a mysterious past, is pulled into a whirlpool of corporate sabotage, identity puzzles, and literal landslides in the rugged Canadian Rockies. Bagley blends hard science with high tension—making you care about mineral rights and rock strata as much as murder and memory.
The twist here isn’t just under the ground—it’s inside Boyd himself. The plot crackles with psychological suspense as he uncovers not just the secrets of the land, but of his own stolen identity. Bagley’s skill lies in making a seemingly dry subject matter erupt with danger, and Landslide is proof he can turn tectonic plates into plot points.
I got my copy at the 2008 Kolkata Book Fair, during that glorious Bagley haul. This one stood out for its quieter menace—the kind that doesn’t sprint but simmers. I remember reading it on a long train ride to Bolpur, the vibration of the tracks matching the tremors in the story. Geological fiction? Nah—geological adrenaline.
Landslide is a taut industrial thriller with a geological twist. The protagonist, Bob Boyd, a geologist with a mysterious past, is pulled into a whirlpool of corporate sabotage, identity puzzles, and literal landslides in the rugged Canadian Rockies. Bagley blends hard science with high tension—making you care about mineral rights and rock strata as much as murder and memory.
The twist here isn’t just under the ground—it’s inside Boyd himself. The plot crackles with psychological suspense as he uncovers not just the secrets of the land, but of his own stolen identity. Bagley’s skill lies in making a seemingly dry subject matter erupt with danger, and Landslide is proof he can turn tectonic plates into plot points.
I got my copy at the 2008 Kolkata Book Fair, during that glorious Bagley haul. This one stood out for its quieter menace—the kind that doesn’t sprint but simmers. I remember reading it on a long train ride to Bolpur, the vibration of the tracks matching the tremors in the story. Geological fiction? Nah—geological adrenaline.
August 23, 2022
wow, what a story; had me really interested to find out at the end how events turned out.... Bagley is an old school writer using 'sophisticated words' - in some cases I have to keep my old dictionary handy! This is set in BC, Canada in forests and rivers and a lot of intrigue! "Why am I in water? Where am I? Who am I? What has happened to me?" Hospital, serious burns, memory loss - this is a mind journey for a man called Bob Boyd who has the interests of a geologist. It's been a number of years until he comes to work a contract for a big Corporation and suddenly the past comes to haunt him! Why is one powerful man trying to destroy him and why has this town square's name opened up a door in his memory... gosh, I don't want to say any thing more and this is a drama ready to be read. This is not my usual fav genre but I am certainly looking forward to another book in Bagley's arsenal of stories!!
July 16, 2022
I'm not really fond of stories that involve amnesia and plastic surgery, I never fully buy into that sort of stuff, but once past that, in this case, little hurdle, Landslide proves to be a well plotted and aptly paced novel that at some point has everybody doubting the protagonist's true identity. The guy himself, the people around him, everybody against him and even the reader; nobody knows for sure. The shady Mattersons (such delicious bullies) and shaky ground (you can take that literally) add tension and so you have a mystery-thriller that's always on the move with an exciting, action packed finale in the Canadian wilderness to top things off. Yeah, I had a good time with this one.
March 24, 2025
When this paperback was picked out randomly from my massive list of books I must admit I was slightly disappointed. The paperback copy had a particularly bland cover and the intro on the back didn't inspire. I have often felt like this when it's time to read another Desmond Bagley and I don't know why because his books almost always end up better than you think they are going to be. Landslide starts off fairly slowly and I did wonder where it was going but once it clicks into gear the action and suspense never let up. The main character is sardonic yet likeable and the villains are suitably, well villanous. There is nothing ground breaking here but there doesn't need to be, its just a rollicking good read with a cracking finish.
November 19, 2021
Good characterization and a reminder of what we can do to our environment. The price of 5/-. 25p in new money, the brown-edged pages and the sensible haircuts of the men bespeak an age where fictional characters never said the f-word, smoked indoors, scowled, walked about with clenched fists and were generally tough. Check out Lucy Atherton, certainly not one of your mellow and charming Jane Austin character. Her lank hair, 30-something age and mini skirt and boots and her sometimes sultry sometimes murderous inclinations make her a character at once three and one dimensional with not much in between.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 24, 2024
I picked this up from a little free library with little expectations. I liked it but it wasn't anything spectacular. One of the questions never gets answered, but the conclusion was satisfying enough to my liking.
August 17, 2019
Read in Norwegian.
3 pluss to 3 1/2
3 pluss to 3 1/2
June 29, 2021
Great story
Bagley at h is best.Even the ending leaves you with lots of things you would like to know. Now I need to read it again!
Bagley at h is best.Even the ending leaves you with lots of things you would like to know. Now I need to read it again!
September 2, 2021
Very more-ish!
August 26, 2022
wow what a surprise, enjoyed this book, a nice change for me
October 15, 2022
I'm a fan of the genre and the author, but this is not one of his best, to be honest. Has some excellent isolated episodes which need better connecting material - or maybe, to be in different books.
April 9, 2023
Really good. Great details.
November 4, 2023
One of my all-time favourite books.
July 1, 2025
Another great blast from the past. I think I was 16 when I first read this. Yes, it's a little dated, but it holds up well. And I never forgot what thixotropic clay was!!!
July 9, 2025
Great read - keeps you turning the pages and I learned a bit about Geology :)
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March 10, 2017Äijämeininkiä 1960-luvun lopulta. Päähenkilö on menettänyt muistinsa, mutta on sen verran nokkela kaveri ja kehittänyt onnettomuuden jälkeen erinomaiset erätaidot, joilla voi pärjätä erämaassa vaikka kintereillä on lauma verenhimoisia metsästäjiä. Tämän yhden kirjan perusteella on vaikea tehdä johtopäätöksiä Bagleyn kirjoitustyylistä, mutta veikkaisin sen olevan joka kirjassa samanlainen. Seuraavana vuorossa on Islannin peli, se on varmaan samantyylinen kuin tämä Maanvyöry eli takuuvarmaa vanhan ajan seikkailuviihdettä on tarjolla.
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