Goodbye California

By Alistair MacLean

Book Overview

Reissue of the classic tale of terrorism, where a criminal fanatic is hell-bent on blasting San Francisco into the ocean, from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.

'Earthquake country, ' said the Professor. 'San Francisco is geologically and seismologically a city that waits to die. Los Angeles is ringed by earthquake centres - seven massive quakes so far. We have no idea where the next, the monster, will hit...'

...until a criminal fanatic kidnaps a nuclear scientist and builds his own atomic bombs. If exploded on California's fault lines they could trigger off the mightiest earthquake of them all - killing half its population and dumping the entire city of San Francisco into the sea.

Goodbye California...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0008337470
• ISBN13: 9780008337476
• Release Date: December 2020
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

MacLean a prophet? This one may qualify him.

For me, reading MacLean is like a visit with an old friend. I look forward to reading his books, and this was a prime example. Some of his books are great at being mysteries, leaving you wondering who the bad guys are, and who the good guy really is. This book does not qualify. You quickly learn who the good guys are, and you learn who the bad guys are. This book deals with the threat of nuclear weapons setting off a massive earthquake. MacLean did plenty of research concerning the geological status of California, and he shares it in a preface. Another thing I found interesting, though. This book was written in the late '70's, before I heard a lot about Islamic Terrorists. MacLean dealt with that before its time. This is one book that reading the blurb took away from the story, which I regret. One reviewer called this a low-point. I'm not sure I agree: I found this superior to later novels like "Partisans" and "Floodgate." I'm at the point, though, that I'd rather read a poor MacLean novel than not read a MacLean novel.

simple effective storyline

Bombs planted in the San Andreas fault. Only one man can prevent a new western coastline from forming.

A thousand thrill before the last page.

Action packed and a good suspense story I enjoyed. Did not find it boring as previous writer stated. A story about a threat to California and how it might fall into the ocean, except for the fortitude of one man...our hero Det Sgt Ryder.

An excellent detective/drama

MacLean really does this story up brown. All of the characters come to life and are eminently believable. The information that alarms them should certainly alarm us (if true, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it were). Tension builds steadily and quite satisfactorily until the denouement. The main character's unshakeable integrity and implacability had me cheering for him every step of the way. Get a bag of pretzels, a good reading light, and read this book!