'WHICHEVER OPTION I CHOSE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE'. Review on Devil's Alternative, The - Frederick Forsyth

Hi Friends,

This was my first Frederick Forsyth (hereinafter referred as FF) novel and I must say – FF rocks. I have read quite a few thriller novels but this one beats most of them. The story, characters, plot and speed of novel is too good to resist.

The Story and Characters

The story is based in the Cold war times – because the writer is of cold war era and the novel was written in cold war times. The story is centered on the usual cold war conflicts between USSR and USA but this time it’s not about reaching the moon first or making more ICBMs or winning more medals in the Olympics. This time it’s about grains.

USSR President and Secretary-General of Communist Party of Russia – Maxim Rudin, is facing a great problem – a problem the solution to which if not found out in time will create such an uproar in USSR that it will be difficult for even the KGB to control it. USSR is facing the greatest shortage of grains in its history. The estimated shortage of around 55 million tons of grains is not just a shortage for the great communist country – it will create a famine. Even the slaughtering of cattle to feed meat to the masses will not compensate for the shortage of grains and the USSR is in no position to fill the enormous gap of 55 million tons.

USA President William Matthews knows about this problem that the USSR is facing and both Maxim Rudin & he know that the only possible solution for the USSR is to either face the famine or purchase the grains from USA which also happens to be the only country on earth which has a surplus of more that 60 million tons. And both of them know that USA will not just sell the grains to USSR – rather they will ask for severe concessions from USSR. So, it’s not just your routine grain deal between two giants. What we have here is a possibility of an international treaty between two gains which will stop the arms race and will increase peace in the world.

UK Prime Minister Joan Carpenter is also in the middle of it. As a trusted ally of the USA, UK has always helped them in any way it can. The British SIS has an agent in the Moscow – Adam Monroe. He has an asset there which is deep inside the Politburo and reports every thing to Adam. When this asset gives a confidential ‘minutes’ of a Politburo meeting to Adam the leaderships of the UK and USA suffers collective chest pains. The trouble is that a very important ‘Treaty of Dublin’ is being negotiated between the USA and USSR. The treaty is of extreme importance to the whole of the West. But inside the Kremlin things are not so pleasant because a lot of people inside the Politburo are against the treaty. These ‘people’ want to overthrow Maxim Rudin and exercise their own alternative – War against the Europe, capturing it, using their grain to feed hungry Russians and spreading the Marxist-Leninist regime. What these ‘people’ headed by Yefram Vishnayev fail to understand is that the consequence of it will be WW III. So, for securing world peace, saving the USSR from a famine, and securing a very important treaty for the mankind – Maxim Rudin must remain in power. What Adam Munroe learns from his asset is that Rudin is about to fall from and Yefram will come into power, which means no ‘Treaty of Dublin’ and WW III.

In the meantime Ukrainian nationalists hijack a supertanker called ‘Freya’ in the high seas carrying 1,000,000 tons of crude oil from Abu Dhabi. They capture this supertanker and demand the release of two colleagues from a West Berlin jail. Suddenly, William Matthews gets a call from Maxim Rudin telling him to put pressure of Berlin not to release those two people otherwise there will be no treaty. What Rudin does not tells Matthews is that in case those two are released and sent to Israel – as demanded by hijackers’ – Maxim Rudin will fall and fall hard. The result will be no treaty and WW III.

Now if the West wants to save itself from a war and wants to secure a treaty so important in the history of mankind as never has been done it must ensure that West Berlin does not releases those two prisoners as demanded by hijackers. If they are released Yefram Vishnayev will come to power, scrap the negotiations and attack on Europe – people will die.

If they are not released, Maxim Rudin will remain in power, West will get its treaty, world peace restored but the hijackers will blow 1,000,000 tons of crude oil right in the middle of 5 coastal states one of them being UK and the ecological disaster will be of such a scale that – people will die.

Now President Matthews is faced with the problem of choosing one of these two options – The Devil’s Alternative – as President Matthews says himself – ‘which ever option I chose, people will die.’

The Pace of story

The pace of story is great. There are no loose spots, all ends tied beautifully. There are no less the 5-6 stories proceeding simultaneously still you don’t get confused understanding what is what. Some of the episodes don’t make any sense in the beginning and you seem to skip or skim them but finally everything mingles nicely and all roads meet in one. The anxiety rises with each episode – while the Europe is bound by the demands of the hijackers the rest of West is exploring options to somehow save the treaty and also the supertanker ‘Freya’ and the 30 seamen aboard. The final 80 pages of the novel are really un-put-down-able. And finally the solution that Adam Monroe comes up with is not revealed to you until the end.

The author, after giving a great climax, gives an epilogue and sums up the story nicely. The story no doubt has a great climax but the epilogue gives you even bigger kick. Because, there is something in that epilogue that makes to smile and understand why some things in the story while not appearing illogical – were certainly weird.

Final Comments

This is my first FF novel so I don’t know much about the writing style of this author but one thing I can sure comment on is that the language is reader friendly. There are no big sentences and overly difficult words in there. This is a novel for entertainment. It can be read on a weekend, will make a great read for a long journey. It is certainly not one of those must-read novels but next time you are looking for a good book to for a relaxing weekend pick this one up. It is worth the money and effort.

Happy Reading,

Khagesh Gautam