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The Most Dangerous Game
Bill Cary is a bush pilot living in Lapland in northern Finland, making a precarious living flying aerial survey flights looking for nickel deposits, and occasional charter cargo flights of dubious legitimacy in his beat-up old de Havilland Beaver. Towards the end of the flying season, a wealthy American hunter hires him to fly into a prohibited part of Finland near the Soviet border in order to hunt bear. Subsequently, he is assaulted by thugs when he refuses a charter contract to search for a lost Tsarist treasure, comes under suspicion from the Finnish police for smuggling when Tsarist-era gold sovereigns start turning up, and from the Finnish secret police for espionage. However, things get more serious when the wealthy American's hunter's beautiful sister turns up to search for her brother, and his fellow bush pilots start getting killed off in a series of suspicious accidents. Cary suspects that the events he is increasingly involved in may stem from an incident in his wartime past.
The Most Dangerous Game was a runner-up for the British Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award in 1964.
The Most Dangerous Game was a runner-up for the British Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award in 1964.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1964
71 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Gavin Lyall
67 books31 followersGavin was born and educated in Birmingham. For two years he served as a RAF pilot before going up to Cambridge, where he edited Varsity, the university newspaper. After working for Picture Post, the Sunday Graphic and the BBC, he began his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky, published in 1961. After four years as Air Correspondent to the Sunday Times, he resigned to write books full time. He was married to the well-known journalist Katherine Whitehorn and they lived in London with their children.
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).
All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.
In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.
Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).
All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.
In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.
Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 19, 2017
Not to be confused with the famous short story of the same title. Gavin Lyall was a British thriller writer who produced a lot of good books from the sixties through the nineties. For my money his best stuff was the Major Maxim espionage series which he wrote in the eighties, but I also really like his early thrillers in the Desmond Bagley/Hammond Innes tradition, in which a professional in some manly occupation gets ensnared in criminal mischief or an espionage plot or something along those lines. This one, from 1964, is one of those: a bush pilot flying aerial surveys for a mining company in Finland gets hired by an eccentric American big-game hunter to drop him off in the Lapland wilderness (near the Soviet border) so he can shoot a bear or two. About the same time, the biggest gangster in Lapland (OK, that's not much of a distinction, as our hero observes) sounds him out about doing a mysterious job, sundry sinister characters including a French millionaire and a stray MI6 agent are poking around, and other bush pilots are crashing sabotaged planes.
It's all related, of course, and our hero (whose alcoholism, general world-weariness and savvy with airplanes and firearms are explained by his wartime service in Finland) will, of course, sort it all out.
Good stuff if you like the genre.
It's all related, of course, and our hero (whose alcoholism, general world-weariness and savvy with airplanes and firearms are explained by his wartime service in Finland) will, of course, sort it all out.
Good stuff if you like the genre.
December 4, 2023
People ask me if I have an author who inspired my own writing - the answer is yes, and Gavin Lyall is that author. This book, one of many great books written by the late Mr Lyall, is simply brilliant. Fantastic story, entertaining and interesting character, exciting action with a humours twist always there . . everyone should read this book.
December 11, 2010
Combination aviation and espionage thriller set in Finland and published back in 1963. Engaging first person narrative and lots of well written action scenes made this a fast, entertaining read.
May 21, 2013
Entertaining and fast-paced. I read it a long time ago, yet it's among the books that still linger in your mind long after finishing it.
January 18, 2018
One of my great pleasures is reading a book I have not read in years.
This is one of the best from a very fine writer, the story of a pilot beyond his best years in the backwaters of Finland when the Soviet Union was a real menace as are the local gangsters.
The novel is of its time, a pleasant way to spend an afternoon - the novel is slim compared to today's bricks. The writing is crisp and Mr. Lyall has a nice laconic style.
Read, enjoy.
This is one of the best from a very fine writer, the story of a pilot beyond his best years in the backwaters of Finland when the Soviet Union was a real menace as are the local gangsters.
The novel is of its time, a pleasant way to spend an afternoon - the novel is slim compared to today's bricks. The writing is crisp and Mr. Lyall has a nice laconic style.
Read, enjoy.
February 8, 2016
One of my favourite books.
The central story is about a pilot who we slowly realise is also a war trained espionage agent. He gets hired by a wealthy professional hunter, supposedly for hunting.
All this during a search for buried treasure on the Russian border during the cold war.
Really good fun to read!
And quite a thought provoking in the end.
Read it many times.
The central story is about a pilot who we slowly realise is also a war trained espionage agent. He gets hired by a wealthy professional hunter, supposedly for hunting.
All this during a search for buried treasure on the Russian border during the cold war.
Really good fun to read!
And quite a thought provoking in the end.
Read it many times.
October 12, 2016
Stuart Kay This was my second read after a 30 year hiatus. Very enjoyable, stylishly written and witty. A bit implausible and a major area of plot manipulation, ...more
May 26, 2019
Good read. Good plot.
July 30, 2021
Another thriller about airline pilots caught up in affairs they really shouldn't be.
Bill Cary is flying mineral survey sorties over Lapland and short haul errands for paying customers. He isn't earning a grand crust, but he's earning. On a whim he accepts a private commission from the polite to extremes Homer, a holidaying Virginian millionaire out to shoot European black bears. In doing so Cary opens a can of worms which include smuggled gold sovereigns, the British Secret Service, Tsarist treasure, murder, a mercy flight into Soviet Russia, a beautiful bored heiress, blackmailing Russian spies, Nazi escapees and a death hunt through the snows. Bill Cary's final week of the flying season holds more excitement than the whole of his previous ten years flying buckets around the mountains of northern Sweden.
Lyall packs in plenty of suspense, daring flying, odd ball characters, sexy seductresses (two of them) and even has a fair crack at humour. The lead character's alcohol consumption is once more enough to kill a person's liver. It doesn't stop Cary flying, shooting or f###ing.
I really enjoyed this. The twists and turns of the intricate plot are cleverly crafted, the reveals are unexpected - minus the last one, which became obvious by elimination - and it all ends in a Casablanca-style conversation between Cary and the British spy Judd, where the two men bury their differences for each other's greater cause.
A very fine, swift and exciting thriller.
Bill Cary is flying mineral survey sorties over Lapland and short haul errands for paying customers. He isn't earning a grand crust, but he's earning. On a whim he accepts a private commission from the polite to extremes Homer, a holidaying Virginian millionaire out to shoot European black bears. In doing so Cary opens a can of worms which include smuggled gold sovereigns, the British Secret Service, Tsarist treasure, murder, a mercy flight into Soviet Russia, a beautiful bored heiress, blackmailing Russian spies, Nazi escapees and a death hunt through the snows. Bill Cary's final week of the flying season holds more excitement than the whole of his previous ten years flying buckets around the mountains of northern Sweden.
Lyall packs in plenty of suspense, daring flying, odd ball characters, sexy seductresses (two of them) and even has a fair crack at humour. The lead character's alcohol consumption is once more enough to kill a person's liver. It doesn't stop Cary flying, shooting or f###ing.
I really enjoyed this. The twists and turns of the intricate plot are cleverly crafted, the reveals are unexpected - minus the last one, which became obvious by elimination - and it all ends in a Casablanca-style conversation between Cary and the British spy Judd, where the two men bury their differences for each other's greater cause.
A very fine, swift and exciting thriller.
June 23, 2019
An excellent early 1960’s thriller. Lyall writes about flying in a way that would interest those readers who liked the Biggles stories as a boy and need a bit more gritty realism.
Bill Cary is an experienced cynical pilot who, when not drinking heavily, flies as a geological survey pilot across Lapland on the lookout for nickel-containing hills. Owning one of the few float planes he is also in demand for slightly illegal trips into the buffer zone between Finland and Russia.
He becomes involved transporting a wealthy American on the hunt for bear. The Virginian’s sister later comes looking for him and there’s plenty of excitement with forged sovereigns, lost treasure and sabotaged aeroplanes crash-landing.
Cary’s past eventually catches up with him and we learn why he is such an expert with planes and guns and his unique skill set allows for a tremendously tense and brilliantly described flight at gun point through enemy territory.
Bill Cary is an experienced cynical pilot who, when not drinking heavily, flies as a geological survey pilot across Lapland on the lookout for nickel-containing hills. Owning one of the few float planes he is also in demand for slightly illegal trips into the buffer zone between Finland and Russia.
He becomes involved transporting a wealthy American on the hunt for bear. The Virginian’s sister later comes looking for him and there’s plenty of excitement with forged sovereigns, lost treasure and sabotaged aeroplanes crash-landing.
Cary’s past eventually catches up with him and we learn why he is such an expert with planes and guns and his unique skill set allows for a tremendously tense and brilliantly described flight at gun point through enemy territory.
February 26, 2025
Having read Mr. Lyall’s excellent Major Maxim series focusing on a Cold War secret agent, I thought it was worth taking a look at some of his other works. This is the first in a group of ‘aviation’ thrillers, told in the first person about a bush pilot flying a battered floatplane in Finlald.
It is the early 1960s and the narrator, Bill Cary, flies surveys over Lapland in the summer, and does whatever else he can in the winter. When hired by a rich American to fly him into a restricted zone close to the Soviet border, Cary is worried but needs the money.
He is soon involved with Finnish intelligence, a dodgy criminal scheme and his wartime past. The bush pilot community is small, and when other pilots begin to die, Cary realised he needs all his flying skills to survive.
Exciting, fast paced thriller set in the Cold War. Terrific.
It is the early 1960s and the narrator, Bill Cary, flies surveys over Lapland in the summer, and does whatever else he can in the winter. When hired by a rich American to fly him into a restricted zone close to the Soviet border, Cary is worried but needs the money.
He is soon involved with Finnish intelligence, a dodgy criminal scheme and his wartime past. The bush pilot community is small, and when other pilots begin to die, Cary realised he needs all his flying skills to survive.
Exciting, fast paced thriller set in the Cold War. Terrific.
May 17, 2017
A minor thriller I picked up in a second hand book shop thinking it was the one they made into a film with Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks. it wasn't. Anyhow it's about an English pilot working in Finland. Starts out as an amusing cod Raymond Chandler style first person tale then gets a bit dull but I have to say the final third was genuinely exciting and tense.
June 29, 2019
I picked this up for the cover (not the one pictured) but decided to give it a read because it was set in Finland (and I needed some LIGHT fiction to fall asleep to) .
It didn't give much of a feel for Finland, but the airplane parts definitely felt well informed.
Giving it a third star because it got interestingly twisty at the end.
It didn't give much of a feel for Finland, but the airplane parts definitely felt well informed.
Giving it a third star because it got interestingly twisty at the end.
April 10, 2022
Picked this up thinking it was it's hugely influential namesake novella - probably not the first or last to do likewise.
It is in fact a pretty serviceable 1960's cold war thriller, with more than, I suspect, a passing debt to it's namesake, in the Jack Higgins, Eric Ambler, Frederick Forsyth style.
It is in fact a pretty serviceable 1960's cold war thriller, with more than, I suspect, a passing debt to it's namesake, in the Jack Higgins, Eric Ambler, Frederick Forsyth style.
July 30, 2017
It was interesting that Gavin Lyall had set his story to happen in the Finnish Lapland! I read this with pleasure even though the story was about espionage, treasure hunting and even about man hunting.
January 9, 2018
This is a modest and well-organized thriller. Regional setting in Lapland and the Russo-Finnish border during the Cold War are well-handled, as is the final showdown between the pro and the amateur obsessed with hunting the most dangerous game.
November 20, 2018
No intro to what the action would be as I have read a very early edition. However, the story builds slowly from the viewpoint of Bill Cary, a pilot in Finland and draws you in. Some really tense parts.
October 11, 2024
Good traditional adventure yarn. LyaGuns, planes, helecopters and a strong independent woman
Lyall was a master of the spy genre. Harry Maxim is a great hero but I rather enjoyed the air of mystery around the protagonist in this story. Highly recommended.
Lyall was a master of the spy genre. Harry Maxim is a great hero but I rather enjoyed the air of mystery around the protagonist in this story. Highly recommended.
February 10, 2020
My least favourite Gavin Lyall but still very good
August 16, 2022
A real page-turner, with so much going on I had no idea how it would all tie together at the end. As always, it's the incredible aviation knowledge and detail I really appreciate.
April 7, 2023
Exciting thriller set in cold wat Finland with some very witty dialog at times. Really detailed aviation descriptions. Has that slightly dated 60s cynicism but on the hole enjoyable.
April 28, 2024
Bear 300
The storyline was good and kept me guessing. To be,able to settle old scores were a bonus. The operations of the Firm and other like it make good reading
The storyline was good and kept me guessing. To be,able to settle old scores were a bonus. The operations of the Firm and other like it make good reading
August 4, 2024
One of Lyall's best.
July 13, 2021
Difficult to write a reveiw without spoilers so I will just say the old old pro does not disappoints with this tale which has two stories linked together .
I liked the way he sets his plot and it helps that his writing style is effortless with quite a few memorable lines.
I liked the way he sets his plot and it helps that his writing style is effortless with quite a few memorable lines.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews