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    Puppet on a Chain
    Puppet on a Chain
    Puppet on a Chain
    Audiobook8 hours

    Puppet on a Chain

    Written by Alistair MacLean

    Narrated by Jonathan Oliver

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the acclaimed master of action and suspense. The all time classic.

    Paul Sherman of Interpol's Narcotics Bureau flies to Amsterdam on the trail of a dope king.

    With enormous skill the atmosphere is built up: Amsterdam with its canals and high houses; stolid police; psychopaths; women in distress and above all – murder.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 2, 2017
    ISBN9780008269388
    Author

    Alistair MacLean

    Alistair MacLean, the son of a minister, was brought up in the Scottish Highlands. In 1941 he joined the Royal Navy. After the war he read English at Glasgow University and became a teacher. Two and a half years spent aboard a wartime cruiser gave him the background for HMS Ulysses, his remarkably successful first novel, published in 1955. He is now recognized as one of the outstanding popular writers of the 20th century, the author of 29 worldwide bestsellers, many of which have been filmed.

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    Reviews for Puppet on a Chain

    3.5/5

    159 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I do hope "Puppet on a Chain" is not Alistair MacLean's best book. I opened it a few days ago with great expectations, having heard some glowing comments about MacLean's novels, never having read any of them before. Those expectations remained high for a few chapters.About the time MacLean's hero, Interpol agent Paul Sherman, gets beaten up within an inch of his life for about the third time in three days, I began to have doubts. How can anyone take such punishment repeatedly, yet keep going as if nothing has happened? What's more, how can anyone deliberately keep getting himself into such situations? Even Sherman himself doubts his own competence, as when he hides a second gun on his person because he expects, correctly, his primary gun will be taken from him. Then he hides the key to his handcuffs because he expects them to end up on his own wrists.Sherman is in Amsterdam trying to track down the head of an international drug-smuggling ring. He operates alone, except for two young and beautiful female assistants whose main function seems to be to give him someone to protect and/or rescue periodically. He goes into highly dangerous situations, expecting the worst, not just without backup but without even telling anyone else where he is going. Nor does he think to share his suspicions in case he doesn't make it back alive.Published in 1969, "Puppet on a Chain" appears under the influence of the James Bond movies of that period. MacLean's villains, like those in the movies, choose not to simply put a bullet into their adversary's head. Rather they concoct elaborate means of slow execution that allow the hero an opportunity for escape, usually more because of amazing good luck than anything else.Maxwell Smart, who was anything but smart, always got his man. Paul Sherman gets his, too, but this wasn't supposed to be a comedy.
    • 4/5
      I particularly enjoyed the description of Amsterdam which provided a good back drop for the tale
    • 4/5
      It was good to read this book. Puppet on a Chain, after almost 50 years. As Alister MacClean was a favourite Author way back when.
    • 3/5
      "Puppet on a Chain" is another MacLean spy novel set in the 50's. I did like that it had the morals of the era and a lack of swearing. That's as far as it went. Mjr. Sherman is an ass. I don't know how anyone could work for him or how he got prompted in the first place. Lots of gruesome murders to read about and a drug culture you would expect in Amsterdam.
    • 3/5
      Three stars or four? Three or four? How about three and a half?This Alistair MacLean book is an odd one. It's darker than his other books, and even creepy. It's about Paul Sherman, a British Interpol agent, in Amsterdam looking for the source of drug trafficking into Britain. Aided by the Dutch police and by two good looking female assistants, he's almost immediately thrown into the thick of things when the person he was coming to meet is gunned down at the airport in his sight. After that, he's followed to and from his hotel throughout the novel. It was amusing to see "cannabis" as the source of so much evil in this book, considering pot is now legal in several states. However, the main drug Sherman is after is heroin. And he finds it in the strangest of locations. One of my complaints about the book is, after years on the case -- from afar -- and after the Dutch have done nothing, in one to two days, Sherman finds the drugs, the source, the dealers, everything. It's not very believable. In fact, the implausibility of the story is something I just don’t like about the novel. Sherman is constantly having his gun taken from him by the bad guys, who never kill him, thus giving him the opportunity to escape. He's above the law, breaking numerous laws himself as he tries to find out what he's after. The person we think to be the main dealer, Reverend Goodbody, has a whole town under his spell and willing to commit murder for him. Really? Then there's the life-like female puppets hanging from a chain on top of a warehouse. It's too much to take. Additionally, Sherman isn't very likeable. He lies constantly. He's a sexist pig. (This book was written in the 1960s....) After treating his female assistants like annoying children the whole way through the book, at the very end, he all of a sudden wants to marry one of them. Say what? He's so condescending. Prig. I wanted to like him. I wanted to be on his side. The bad guys were so bad, that I had to be on his side, but I think I secretly wanted him to die too. Terrible of me, I know.This book is not the author's worst, but it's far from his best -- very far. It is fast paced and entertaining, yes, but just not very believable, and that knocks it down a star for me. The sexism knocks it down another star. Three stars. Very cautiously recommended.
    • 4/5
      Exciting 1969 thriller about an Interpol agent seeking drug dealers in Amsterdam. The story begins with a murder in Schipol airport in Amsterdam and does not stop for a moment. The story incorporates numerous rather haunting images from the Netherlands (which I have not often encountered in fiction), which add chills. Recommended.