High Citadel, by Desmond Bagley

February 4, 2010 by
Filed under: bestseller, book review, Desmond Bagley, Thriller 

Desmond Bagley is an almost forgetten English master thriller writer. But his books are still very well worth reading – elegant, extremely suspenseful, good characters and smart plots. High Citadel is one of his best.

A plane is forced down in the Andes. The survivors – a pilot, two businessmen, High Citadel, by Desmond Bagleyan ex-president, his bodyguard and his niece, a school teacher, and two academics – are forced to battle altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, and a band of Communist guerillas.

And as they try to organize their effort to improve their situation, we start to find out that the people involved are not what they say they are. Each has their own past. And, in addition, it soon becomes evident that the survivors have a traitor in their midst.

They manage to get down to a mining camp. There another bad surprise awaits them. What follows is tense, tightly scripted action. The party of survivors gets holed up on one side of a gorge, trying their best to holding off attackers with limited weapons and ammunition and a homemade crossbow. Their hopes rest on a small number who have volunteered to climb the other side of the mountain looking for help.

Every character in High Citadel plays an important role. The action is very tense, and the suspense is present all the time. This is one of Bagley’s best books, well written, exciting and a great read. It is highly recommended for all thriller fans.

Links to the books by Desmond Bagley at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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