Jon Cleary once referred to this period in Alistair MacLean's writing career as when he was writing first draft movie scripts after having tried to turn himself into an alcoholic. This does feel like a novelisation of a film script - like Where Eagles Dare. It's in marked contrast to Guns of Navarone although it's a sequel - three surviving characters go on a mission to Yugoslavia, although the mission isn't as clear or ticking clock worthy... it's to draw Allied forces away from Italy.
There's less tension because we know Andreas, Mallory and Miller now, there's no way any could be bad like in Where Eagles Dare - Andreas' whole arc seems silly, leaving his new bride (they changed it from the book where he had no love interest), to go on this mission, and he's indestructible the whole time. Miller could be cut out of the whole book and Mallory is dull - there's an occasional reference to him being New Zealander but MacLean argues really he's Scottish.
The book would have been better off focusing on the support guys - Reynolds, Saunders and Groves - more because they are wild cards and they die at the end. The one moving bit is when Reynolds dies because we got to know him - we don't know anything about Groves or Saunders.
The villains are too obvious - German officer, burly Chetnik - the girl (Maria) underused. I like the blind brother who was an agent, it has good pace, and some twists and decent action. You can see it being an alright movie - the novel is better than the film but it's still not much of a novel.
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