Alistair MacLean, the son of a Scots 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 schoolmaster. The two and a half years he spent aboard a wartime cruiser were to give 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.

'Even more action-packed than its predecessors' The Times'The best MacLean since The Guns of Navarone. Gypsy caravans holding dark secrets, swarthy, murderous men, knives glinting in the moonlight. Alistair MacLean is a magnificent storyteller' Sunday Mirror'The usual blend of MacLean magic… Murder, torture and intimidation follow each other in breathless succession to an exciting finale' Yorkshire Post