Fathom

by Marc Hammond

Vintage paperback

367 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Palestinian extremists steal an undetectable French experimental mini submarine and arm it with a stolen British nuclear weapon and aim it at Israel. The only demands they make is the total exodus of all Jews from the state of Israel within a month or they shall detonate the nuclear device in Israel.
Really well-written thriller which would also make an excellent movie. A wonderfully entertaining read right to the very end.
Highly recommended.

[Michael Drakich · Rating 3 out of 5]

International intrigue with a world-wide cast. Israel is threatened by a nuclear bomb being delivered by an undetectable miniature submarine. There are names you know, Yasser Arafat for example, in the roles they are known for, and there are characters you may or not know introduced in roles they never achieved such as Rolf Mueller as the Prime Minister of Israel. The desire of the writer to involve world players is acceptable, his overreaching on potential people reaching such posts is not. Surely, he must have known his failed predictions would place his book out of sorts. I suppose if I had read this book at its time of publication this wouldn't be such an issue, but I did not, I read it in 2015 and my knowledge of history conflicts with the story.
The simple ease with which the bad guys steal both a nuclear bomb and the new submarine is a tad hard to accept, but the efforts by different governments to deal with the problem and their questionable cooperation is enjoyable.
As in any well thought out plan, there is always the element of chance to muck things up and the author expertly inserts these moments to spice the story. Likewise, the good fortune the heroes experience unravels the writers other efforts.
I liked how the novel started, but the likelihood factors, or lack thereof, started to mount making acceptance of the story as a whole difficult. If you want to read it just for the fun, then you will enjoy this book. If, like me when reading a thriller espionage story, you take an analytical eye to it, not so much.