Review: Crisis in Colombia

By James Drew

Mac the knife

The re-emergence of Eli (Mac) Murray is as reassuring as the fact that author Bryan Marlowe (pictured) whose eleventh book Crisis in Columbia is, shows little sign of growing less prolific as the years pass, giving those of us who enjoy tightly plotted, genuinely exciting page-turners much to be grateful for.

Where was I? Ah yes, the return to arms of embittered former SAS captain Mac, who has previously featured in Marlowe’s Recalled to Arms and Leaving Mercy to Heaven, and this time, there may be too much for even our rugged, ruthless hero and his similarly hard-as-nails wife Sarah Shahar to handle.

Omega Film Company, shooting in the Colombian jungle, has a big problem. Its director, actors and technicians have been taken hostage by junta overlord Diego Contrero Moretta. With the clock ticking on the tight deadline for payment or abductees start dying fast, Omega not able to raise the ransom and Moretta not known to ever show mercy, Mac and Sarah take up the call, when it comes, to put their own lives on the line once again to save the innocent hostages.

By and large, this is breathlessly exciting stuff – readers of my previous reviews of Marlowe’s work may have perhaps thought me a little unkind concerning my criticism of his dialogue, but there are no such fears this time. In establishing his range over the years, in a remarkably varied selection of subject matter, from the Mac stories to reminiscences about his own youth to an incisive look into the murky world of cowboy builders, Bryan has now proven himself more than capable of taking the reader into different worlds, and frequently getting under his readers’ skin.

As is very much the case with CinC – not unlike the time it took for Ian Fleming to establish his famous anti-hero (seriously, you don’t need me to name him for you, do you?), a character that Mac is beginning to resemble more than a little (again, only in a good way), Marlowe’s characterizations, both of his heroes and villains, are absolutely spot on, as is the extensive research that the author has obviously undertaken to ensure fluency, accuracy, and complete readability.

Regrets? Well, only that I would like to know still more about Mac’s motivations – we know where he’s come from, but where’s he going? Does Marlowe have enough left in the character for one more roll of the dice? Time will tell, I am sure, but you have Crisis in Columbia to keep you busy until then – definitely a trip worth taking.

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