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'As long as meticulous craftsmanship and honest entertainment are valued, and as long as action, authenticity, and expertise still make up the strong framework of the good adventure/thriller, Desmond Bagley's books will surely be read.' REGINALD HILL, Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers
'Bagley is a master storyteller.' DAILY MIRROR
'A literate, exciting, knowledgeable adventure story - Desmond Bagley is incomparable.' SUNDAY MIRROR
'Unbeatable for sheer gripping excitement.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Product Description
Double action thrillers by the classic adventure writer about a notorious Russian double agent, Slade, set in Iceland and Malta.
RUNNING BLIND
The assignment begins with a simple errand - a parcel to deliver. But to Alan Stewart, standing on a deserted road in Iceland with a murdered man at his feet, it looks anything but simple. The desolate terrain is obstacle enough. But when Stewart realises he has been double-crossed and that the opposition is gaining ground, his simple mission seems impossible…
THE FREEDOM TRAP
The Scarperers, a brilliantly organised gang which gets long-term inmates out of prison, spring a notorious Russian double agent. The trail leads Owen Stannard to Malta, and to the suave killer masterminding the gang. Face to face at last with his opponents, Stannard must try to outwit both men - who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by his death…
Includes a unique bonus - A Matter of Months, a previously unpublished short story about a murder in a casino.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Desmond Bagley was my favourite adventure writer, about the best I have read. His quality was variable. His early books such as The Golden Keel, The Spoilers, and Wyatt's Hurricane are fairly ordinary. I cannot recommend his last few books such as Bahamas Crisis, Juggernaut and Windfall which to me fell below his normal high standard.. All the others, in his middle period, are either very good or excellent, with strong lead characters and exciting, interesting storylines. I always seemed to learn a little from his books. In Landslide I learned about thixotopic mud, in another I learned about Tamanrasset and the Ahaggar mountains. These two books are both very good. I remember reading these and The Vivero Letter, The Tightrope Men, The Snow Tiger, The Enemy and Flyaway all with a great deal of pleasure.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a callow 14 year old, I was introduced to the thrillers of the late great Desmond Bagley, who wrote 16 novels between 1962 and 1983 - the year of his untimely death. Running Blind was always one of my favourites, telling the typical Bagley story of an ordinary man, who becomes extraordinary when faced with a frightening new situation - in this case Scottish ex-spy Alan Stewart, who embarks upon a race against time to outwit American, British and Russian secret agents - all against the stunning backdrop of the fjords of Iceland.
The Freedom Trap is, unusually for Bagley, a novel that features at least one of the characters from one of his other books, in this case Running Blind. Not quite as gripping as that novel, it nonetheless has all the fantastic hallmarks of a Desmond Bagley thriller: Unremitting tension, cohesion, bucketfulls of intrigue, and well-drawn characters. Superb titles, awesome novels.
The Freedom Trap is, unusually for Bagley, a novel that features at least one of the characters from one of his other books, in this case Running Blind. Not quite as gripping as that novel, it nonetheless has all the fantastic hallmarks of a Desmond Bagley thriller: Unremitting tension, cohesion, bucketfulls of intrigue, and well-drawn characters. Superb titles, awesome novels.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Desmond Bagley is a terrific thriller writer. While these two books may be read independently of one another, it's worth bearing in mind that there is a link between them due to a secondary character appearing in both - so it makes sense to read them in the order in which they are printed.
The first novel here is set in the wild, bleak landscape of Iceland. It begins with a mystery (we are told in the first sentence that the narrator finds himself encumbered with a corpse) and swiftly moves onto a fast-paced chase in which just about everyone seems to be out to kill the `hero'.
The second novel, `The Freedom Trap', begins in an equally mysterious way (this time in London). Without giving away the story, suffice to say that the hero has to undertake a strange task which motivates the plot for the first half of the book at which point the author pulls the carpet from under our feet by revealing that nothing that has taken place up to that point is quite what it seems.
Bagley is a master at this kind of `sleight of hand' whereby the mystery is revealed only gradually and then suddenly we are given some new perspective which changes everything. For this reason, I often prefer the first half of one of his books to the last half.
Anyway, in brief, these are two cracking stories. I marginally prefer Running Blind though I have to say that the first half of The Freedom Trap is also excellent. The last half switches into `pure adventure' mode with less subtlety of plot but lots of chases and fights which is OK but nowhere near as gripping (to me, anyhow) as the earlier part of the novel.
The first novel here is set in the wild, bleak landscape of Iceland. It begins with a mystery (we are told in the first sentence that the narrator finds himself encumbered with a corpse) and swiftly moves onto a fast-paced chase in which just about everyone seems to be out to kill the `hero'.
The second novel, `The Freedom Trap', begins in an equally mysterious way (this time in London). Without giving away the story, suffice to say that the hero has to undertake a strange task which motivates the plot for the first half of the book at which point the author pulls the carpet from under our feet by revealing that nothing that has taken place up to that point is quite what it seems.
Bagley is a master at this kind of `sleight of hand' whereby the mystery is revealed only gradually and then suddenly we are given some new perspective which changes everything. For this reason, I often prefer the first half of one of his books to the last half.
Anyway, in brief, these are two cracking stories. I marginally prefer Running Blind though I have to say that the first half of The Freedom Trap is also excellent. The last half switches into `pure adventure' mode with less subtlety of plot but lots of chases and fights which is OK but nowhere near as gripping (to me, anyhow) as the earlier part of the novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
excellent
I thought the books would be a bit dated as they were written some years ago but in fact they were really good thrillers.
Published 13 months ago by Evy
Desmond Bagley - Running Blind and The Freedom Trap
Have looked high and low for Running Blind and was delighted to find it online. Fantastic tale, well written even though it's all a bit dated now - still as exciting as when I... Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2009 by C. Griffith
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