Alistair MacLean

Alistair Stuart MacLean (April 28, 1922 - February 2, 1987) was a Scottish novelist, writer of successful thrillers or adventures, the best known of which is perhaps The Guns of Navarone. He also used the pseudonym Ian Stuart.

Notes on the Books

• Force 10 from Navarone, MacLean's only sequel, picks up from where the film version leaves off, not his original novel.
• MacLean's only other use of inter-novel continuity is a police character from Puppet on a Chain reappearing in Floodgate.
• There have been reports of a "lost" MacLean novel titled Snow on the Ben, but it appears to be by a different Ian Stuart (refer ISBN 0708965032)
• MacLean's chief female characters are almost always named some variation of Mary, like Mary itself, Marie, or Maria.
• MacLean was known to plagiarize himself at times; for example, the description "huddled shapelessness of the dead" occurs in some form in several stories.
• Clive Cussler lifted (or paid homage to) Ice Station Zebra in his Raise the Titanic! and The Secret Ways in his The Mediterrean Caper.