Seawitch door Alistair MacLean

Books data Title: The seawitch
Author: Alistair MacLean

Outline In the book there\'re two sides: Lord Worth\'s side and John Cronkite\'s side. Which side the good side is and which the bad, I don\'t know. Lord Worth is a very rich oil-dealer. To earn even more money, he has built a giant oilplatform, the Seawitch. Because he receives so much oil from this platform, he can lower the oilprices, and this causes commotion at the international oilmarket. Ten other oil-dealers want to stop Lord Worth, and therefor they hire John Cronkite. Cronkite is a expert in explosives. Cronkite is going to stop Lord Worth, he receives one million dollar for that. Lord Worth hears what the ten are up to, because one of them is a spy. He hears that Cronkite has spoken to two people from Venezuela and Russia, and those two are the only ones who can attack the Seawitch from the sea. He gets a bit worried, so he gives the order to defend the Seawitch. Therefor two of Lord Worth\'s people need to break in at the American Army wapendepot, and at the Marine. Then the two daughters of Lord Worth (Melinda and Marina) are being kidnapped from his villa in Florida. His two \'private-detectives\' John Roomer and Michael Mitchell (who are also the lovers of Melinda and Marina) are trying to get them back. In the meantime a Cuban submarine, and two torpedohunters from Venezuela and Russia are heading for the Seawitch. Lord Worth goes to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and asks him to scare the submarine and torpedohunters away. The Minister admits. Meanwhile has Cronkite stolen two nuclear bombs. One of Cronkite\'s men, Durant, takes over the Seawitch, together with four other men. Melinda and Marina are there to. Later arrives Lord Worth at the Seawitch, and he is also kept prisoner. Then Mitchell and Roomer, together with a doctor, arrive, dressed up as scientists. Durant doesn\'t who they are, so he let them do their job. Roomer gets hurt at night, and must leave. Mitchell takes over the platform by himself, and kills all four men, except Durant. Cronkite knows that he lost the Seawitch, so he tries everything to get her back, he places mines, but his men are being shot. At last, Cronkite and his men kill all Lord Worth\'s reliefmen, and go to the platform as relief. There they are expecting the real relief, and not Cronkite, so Cronkite takes over the Seawitch again. He places the two nuclear bombs, and set them on half an hour. In the last scene, everybody is in one room, Marina asks to Cronkite if she can go to the toilet; she can. 15 seconds later the lights are out, and Mitchell, with his \'cat-eyes\' takes a few machineguns, and together with an other man he kills almost everybody. Then Mitchell, Marina, Lord Worth, the doctor and a few others leave the Seawitch, and from the ship they see how the Seawitch explodes, together with Cronkite and his men.

Main characters John Cronkite à He\'s well known as an explosive-expert, but he\'s actually just a criminal. In the first part you think that he\'s the \'good guy\', but gradually it\'s getting clearer that Cronkite is actually the \'bad guy\'. Cronkite is a very smart man, not afraid for a fight, but a bit inhuman.

Lord Worth à He\'s also well known, but as a very rich man, and a successful businessman. He seems to have a hart of stone, but he sure loves his two daughters. Lord Worth is a hard-boiled businessman, very smart, but has also some human-sides.

Michael Mitchell à He\'s, together with John Roomer, the neighbor of Lord Worth. He\'s in love with Marina, and at the and there getting married. He\'s very fast, strong and silent. He can kill like no one. Although he\'s very kind to Marina. He\'s actually Lord Worth\'s private-detective.

Concept of the book This is an ordinary book, from this sort there are thousands of them. I actually don\'t know why you are allowed to read them, because it isn\'t very high standing literature. The author hasn\'t got any meaning by this book, it\'s just entertainment, that\'s all.

Form of the book The book\'s written in the third person. There\'s a narrator, who tells everything, who describes every detail in the environment. By telling the story so detailed, it\'s very easy to imagine how everything looks like, and you can imagine that you\'re there, playing in the book. That\'s a very strong point.

The book\'s subdivided in several chapters. It\'s the usual thing; one chapter for Cronkite, one for Lord Worth, one for Cronkite, one for Lord Worth. So the only thing why there\'re chapters is to show that you\'re now following an other person. It isn\'t very special, but useful.

Alistair MacLean has a clear way of writing. He explains everything what isn\'t generally known. Like I said before, by describing all the details, he creates a very high atmosphere. It\'s like you see it on a televisionscreen, only than zoomed in at every detail on the screen. The only negative point is that it\'s sometimes a bit slow, the book, because he\'s describing everything, and there\'s no humor in the book.

Qualification The book\'s a detective, definitely, a bit of an adventure-novel. Alistair MacLean has a very recognizable style, and I like that style. The books of him are always very exciting, so was this one. I liked this book, but you mustn\'t read too much of them, because then they are getting boring. But I like one or two of them.