Alistair Stuart MacLean, the son of a Scots Minister, was brought up in the Scottish Highlands. In 1941, at the age of eighteen, he joined the Royal Navy; two and a half years spent aboard a cruiser were to give him the background for HMS Ulysses, his first novel, the outstanding documentary novel on the war at sea. He was responsible for firing torpedoes during World War II and offered his services in Mediterranean and Eastern Fleets. His novels drew heavily from his marine experiences. Once the war was over he returned home in 1946. Puppet on a Chain was first published in 1969. The New York Times called the book "one of the best in the Greene-Ambler-MacInnes tradition... the writing is as crisp as a sunny winter morning". It has the standard twisting plot, local atmospherics, and sardonic dialogue that were Maclean's trademarks as a story-teller. Maclean wrote a thriller about narcotics, Puppet on a Chain and Caravan to Vaccarès. Paul Sherman of Interpol's Narcotics Bureau flies to Amsterdam on the trail of a dope king. Sherman is in the Netherlands after receiving word about a vicious heroin smuggling ring from a friend. However, the narco-criminals will kill ruthlessly to protect its operation and even before Sherman can leave Schiphol Airport he has already witnessed the gunning down of his key contact, been knocked half-unconscious by an assassin, and tangled with local authorities… Enjoy free online English audiobook “Puppet on a Chain”, a novel by Alistair MacLean.
