(Click
on the book to buy High
Citadel from
Amazon.co.uk)
High Citadel,
This
story takes up the South American coup-d'etat idea and puts
the main protagonists in an aeroplane doomed to crash-land
on some inhospitable mountain plateau high in the Andes.
The event is not just a bit of bad luck for all involved
but also an attempt to kill off an important political
leader.
Tim O'Hara is the hapless pilot of the plane, innocent
except of being desperate for the charter that ends in his
battle for survival.
The mountains are ferociously cold and the air so thin that
just walking is an olympian effort. While one group of
survivors attempts to cross the peaks via a deadly,
snow-covered pass, the other must stall the armed group of
communist soldiers working to kill them all once they've
managed to cross a strategicly placed river in torrent.
Luckily this isn't so easy and the remaining passengers,
and the plane's pilot, have time to put into action several
ingenious ideas to prolong their survival until help
arrives.
There are despicable and admirable characters on both
sides, and the level of tension that builds as the story
unfolds will keep you reading until the explosive
climax.