Posted by TERENCE.
on 7/16/2001, 5:15 pm
Having recently had a dose of inflenza, I used this period as an excuse to re-visit my collection of Alistair MacLean novels for comfort reading. I have read all of these books many times over the years and always come back to them. The reason I am writing this, though, is basically to complain about the poverty of thought MacLean exhibited when he came to write Floodgate. Floodgate was a real dissapointment to me. It had a good premise which soon turned ridiculous and virtually beyond suspension of belief. O.K., A group of terrorists threaten to blow up a series of dykes in Holland and flood the entire country if their demands are not met. This grouping operates under the collective name of the FFF. They are ultimately foiled in their endeavours by a Detective Lieutenant Van Effen and two of his assistants - one, George, a restaurant owner and criminal in his own right (though MacLean would classify him as a "good" criminal), and another policeman, Vasco, who works as an undercover cop amongst a gang called The Krakers. Vasco works undercover with a female policewoman called Annemarie who is disguised as a kind of Dutch Hippy. It transpires that Annemarie is the daughter of a leading Dutch Industrialist. It also transpires that Van Effen has Annemarie stay with his sister Julie for her protection. Julie, for her part, has been receiving threatening letters at her flat every three months or so indicating that Van Effen will die for his part in the imprisonment of two brothers, the Annecys, criminals and torturers, an unspecified time before. It appears that these letters come from yet another two of the Annecy brothers who were never brought to justice. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that the two Agnelli brothers cohorting with the FFF are these two missing Annecys. Whilst these two Annecys would undoudtedly know who Van Effen was because of all the press coverage the imprisonment of their brothers aroused, it appears that Van Effen had no idea what either of these two surviving brothers even looked like!. And him the second in command to Colonel Van De Graaf, Amsterdan´s Chief of Police!. Had this man, above all men, not access to every available piece of information relating to every member of the Annecy household?. It appears not. Anyway, it appears that the highly organised FFF need the help of an experience bomb expert to help them with their violent campaign of intimidation and destruction. Vasco manages to have Van Effen recruited into the membership of the FFF as a Polish explosives expert. As a show of faith, the Second In Command of the Amsterdam police helps the FFF blow up part of the Royal Palace!. In fact, he places the charges himself and sets the explosion off himself!. And without even asking the FFF what the initials FFF actually stand for. (In the paperback we only find this out on page 310, 5 pages from the end of the book). In the meantime, Annemarie and Julie are kidnapped by the FFF. Seemingly unperturbed, Van Effen, George and Vasco set about deeper infiltration of the FFF, Van Effen´s disguise heightened by real facial and hand scars he has had a recognized plastic surgeon perform on him!. The depth of this man´s devotion to duty. Anyway, to continue, stolen nuclear devices soon enter the picture, apparently being used by the FFF as a bargaining device to force the Dutch Government to force the British Government to withdraw from Northern Ireland!. But not to worry, Van Effen and his two associates have matters in hand. They make themselves indispensable to the leadership of the FFF, a leadership whom the magnificent three soon have wrapped around their fingers. (In secret code, Van Effen relays his plans of operation in fluent Polish. It is a good thing for him that De Graaf is fluent in Polish also). If only the FFF had known who Van Effen was before they had hired him!. Suffice to say that, not only does he save the dykes of Holland but potentially hundreds of thousands of lives (in Holland, England and Northern Ireland). Van Effen saves the day, Annemarie and Julie are safe, the FFF destroyed.
Samuelson, leader of the FFF, is unveiled as a renegade former Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army who´s wife and two son´s were killed by or off-shoots off the IRA. Quite why, in the light of this information, Samuelson would want the withdrawl of the British Army from Northern Ireland is never really explained. If he was trying to hit back at the IRA why was he demanding the withdrawl of the Army from Ulster, the IRA´S ultimate aim. Surely his actions were merely playing into the hands of his enemies?. I could moan forever about the inconsistencies evident in this book but I won´t bother. Alistair was obviously very tired or else trying to be Robert Ludlum. A poor effort from a master of the thriller. Undaunted, I now look forward to the next book on my reading agenda - San Andreas.
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