All most a poetic book, the story reflects the romanticism of a sandy desert. An engrossing story captures the imagination of the reader and sends him/her right into the wild, slow, serene yet harsh desert. Fast paced action starts from the first page in London spreads quickly to Sahara in search of a pre WW2 airplane with a hope of lost glory and comes back to London for the O'Henrian climax. The characters of the story are alive and easy to relate to and linger for a long time. One of the best and a must read. The best Bagley that I have read.

Desmond Bagley comes up with yet another excellent and informative novel about an unhinged man going to the Sahara to find his father's plane. He worships his father yet wishes that he is dead so that his name remains clean. The security consultant of his company finds his disappearance from London fishy and investigates. An attack on him makes him even more determined to find Paul Billson, the missing man. Then Max Stafford, the security consultant follows Billson's trail all over north Africa with the help of a local Luke Bryne. The search becomes more and more dangerous as someone is hell bent on preventing the discovery of the plane. Finally the exciting finish in London where Max nails down the villain. A wonderful book as thrilling as it is informative. One of the best books I have read, and definitely a collector's item.

One of the very best books I've read!
"Flyaway" retraces the course of a pilot who disappeared while on a race over the Sahara Desert in the '30s. It's nearly 50 years later, and documents are found that suggest the disappearance might not have been accidental, and the family wants to find out the truth.
Bagley creates yet another reluctant hero eventually finds the missing pilot's airplane beautifully preserved in the dry desert air - and the unwanted attention of those who wish the disappearance to remain a mystery. All this after a captivating journey along desert caravan routes and some time-travel between "then" and "now."
It's a great story, well written .. what more can I say?

Written some time ago now, I read this in my teens after my Dad handed it to me and said 'I couldn't put it down, read this'. Being a good son, I did as he asked. I'm glad I did.

A plan crashes high in the Andes, high enough that oxygen is a problem. People are dead and injured. People are _not_ who they say they are. Everyone has a past. Gathering people together, our intrepid hero gets the survivors down to a mining camp, where they discover the bridge is out. Conveniently, a convoy is on the other side. Shame they're there to kill a member of the party, and everyone else to avoid witnesses. What follows is one of the tensest, tightly scripted series of action sequences ever. Holed up on one side of the gorge, holding off the determined bridge builders with limited weapons and ammunition, including a homemade crossbow, built from materials snafled from the abandoned mining camp, the party get whittled away by disease, hunger and attrition. Their hopes rest on a small number who have voluntered to climb the other side of the mountain looking for help.

Buy this book.

I read High Citadel about 17 years ago, but I remember it well because it was soo good. A plane crashes high in the Andes, but that's just the start of the action as the shaken survivors must resist attack, by improved means. Suspicion of a traitor in their midst grows. The story continues at a tremendous pace. This was the first Bagley book I read. In the next 3 years, I read all of them.

Back in the 1960s and even 1970s, Desmond Bagley was easily one of the best thriller writers around. As a rule, his books tend to be short and to the point, filled with action and marked with innovative ideas. Landslide is one of my personal favorites which I suddenly stumbled upon after many years. Set in a "company town" in north America, this is a story of dominant business families and cowed townspeople which awakes when a stranger named Boyd arrives in town (Yes, you might almost say this is a classic Western novel!!). Recovering from a bad car accident and attendant amnesia, Boyd happens on the town by chance, then stays on as dim memory flickers make him realize he has been a part of it before - to what extent, his memory cannot say. In true "Western" fashion of course, the crimes are solved and he gets the beautiful girl as well. The story itself is very well told with Boyd as the narrator and the climactic collapse of the dam is every bit startling as it is educative. Great way to fill a holiday!

Some of the best books written by Bagley are based on a scientific phenomena.. This is one of them, based on a Landslide.

Few Americans can write with the style of the great Brittish writers. Bagley's writing is among the best I have ever encountered. This is no small praise due to the fact that I am a librarian. This novel has a plot that actually twists and characters that actually develop without too much unnecessary detail. The use of geographical description and fluid plot development keep the pages turning. A great read from an author who unfortunately is lesser known.

From the start of this book I felt as though I could have been standing there watching it happen. It seemed to me that the author must have had great knowledge of the regions where this takes place because he payed much attentiopn to detail, not only geographical, but also historical. I find this very important in any story. The suspense of this novel is so great that throughout it all I couldn't wait to go on and I did not want it to end. This book definately ranks at the top of my list.

It's a very good book it starts a little slow but then it gets very exiting and entretainig. I think the ending was very good, I couldn't have predicted what happend there, this is a book I really recomend and it's not even too long so if you like suspense and accion this is your book.

I hadn't heard of Desmond Bagley when I came across this book. What had attracted me to this book was a comment by a critic that this book puts Bagley into Alistair Maclean's category. Personally I think this book far exceeds anything that Maclean ever wrote. An amazing plot that stays with you forever !

If you like detective fiction, spy fiction, or simply action thrillers, Desmond Bagley is an author you should definitely discover. His plots are as plausible as that in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", but he manages to keep them moving at a much brisker pace, with a great deal more action. His characters are very believable, and although he doesn't go out of his way to write obvious dialect, one can still hear the subtle differences in language between an American, a British man, a white South African, a Sikh, and an educated black Kenyan. A South African himself, Bagley seems very knowledgable of Africa, but he also seems comfortable when his plots take the action to Britain, or even to the United States. He is the author of about a dozen books; all are at least good, and this is one of his better efforts.

..there are 2 types of books that Desmond Bagley wrote. One being utter trash (Flyaway etc) and the other being some of the best thrillers you can read. This one belongs to the latter.

This is one of the most original plot that you can come across. Also, it is based in an unusual location

When I was a kid (many years ago now), I read this book. I still see Desmond Bagley as the natural successor to Alistair Maclean. If Maclean had zero percent sex in his books (where there is a female character as in 'The Golden Rendezvous', she hates the hero), Desmond Bagley gets to maybe 2 percent - he does have some alluring female characters. But it is all sooo British. This book is an excellent read, with the hero and the reader uncertain as to what is going on as the plot slowly unfolds.

Back in the 1960s and even 1970s, Desmond Bagley was easily one of the best thriller writers around. As a rule, his books tend to be short and to the point, filled with action and marked with innovative ideas. Running Blind is one of my personal favorites (actually I think it is his best work) which I suddenly stumbled upon after many years. Allan Stewart, a retired intelligence agent is suddenly forced against his will to re-join the game just to complete one final assignment. Almost immediately, he finds himself in a maze of bluffs and double-bluffs. By a mix of good fortune and rusty skills, he escapes a trap and in doing so, stumbles almost by accident on the scary possibility that a top official in British intelligence may actually be a Russian mole (remember, this is a Cold War story). Of course, he now has to settle this question one way or the other. What follows is a terrific roller coaster of a story as Stewart (accompanied by his girlfriend), the mole, the Russians (including his opposite number thirsting for revenge after Stewart had long ago shot him in a very sensitive area!), and stray CIA agents engage in a fascinating pursuit over the Icelandic landscape, culminating in a shootout at the baddies hideout that is almost "western" in nature. A very good novel indeed.

I read this book many years ago I remember it being great. A very fast paced action thriller. For those of you who may be interested the BBC did make a TV series based on this book. But it was a long time ago, (maybe early eighties or even late seventies I'm not sure). May be available at BBC.co.uk?

I picked up Desmond Bagley after I last read him in school and had a hazy recollection that I had liked him then.
Reading him again just reminded me that my judgement had been corrrect.
This is fairly predictable yarn about a group of people who go after a stash of gold hidden during the war in rural Italy. They encounter various shady and not so shady characters on the way and how they eventually return home forms the crux of the tale.
With Desmond B. little can be expected in terms of character build up and psychological insights but it can be forgiven at the altar of a pacy read. After the main protoganist's wife (presumably beloved as their relationship is barely touched upon) is killed (rather conveniently) in a car accident, he enjoins a group of two to go and try to get the treasure.
He does meet up with a romantic interest but that i shandled with kid gloves. There is hardly any chemistry and though the book is in first person, the insights are restricted to the effects of planning. Of the cast a brutish Coertze is the one who comes closest to gaining our sympathy as his character at least shows some hint of a mystery.
Although you would still want to race to the end and find out how it all went.
Go ahead, pick it up but don't expect to come out of the experience a beter man.