’’All the stars are up there, Miss Hopkins. Down here there are only performers. We all do what we can. some of us are lucky in that we have acts more spectacular than others, that’s all.’’ These are the words of Bruno Wildermann, the main protagonist in this story.

I have read so many books and have invariably come across so many pieces of inspirational dialogues, that do not fail to touch your soul. But, I believe the one above is so very effective is because of the simple fact that it really is so very true.

The Circus is one of the best pieces of literary works that I have across in the field of espionage thrillers. I must admit the fact that this is the first MacLean novel I’ve read. That really might seem a bit odd, but if you’ve read my other reviews, you just might understand a bit better. I am mostly into reading classic English literature, more of the 19th and the 20th century greats. BTW, Circus came out in 1975.

MacLean is great in describing the minutest detail of the plot that runs through the story. Bruno Wildermann is one of the greatest Aerialists in the circus business. He is, what Miss Hopkins calls, the ’Star’ of the circus. His incredible response to this statement forms the opening of this review. His greatest act is flying blindfolded on the trapeze alongwith his two brothers. He plays another role, that is, of a mentalist, apparently someone who can read pieces of paper kept in sealed envelopes. But that is not what the story revolves around. The one great power that Bruno posesses is total photographic memory. He can read charts, diagrams and whatever else is readable and remember each and every inch of it at any later instant of time. this incredible power of his interests the CIA. They want to recruit him to find for them, a formula that could well anhialate the world itself, memorize it and then destroy the formula. The fact that the formula is held in an absolutely inpenetrable fortress of a building is hardly a concern. Bruno’s other prowess would take care of that !!

The book follows all the careful planning and the extremely clever execution of the plan. There is no dearth of twists in the tale, as is the characteristic af all Alistair MacLean novels, I believe. The action is good, the pace is excellent and the attention to detail is dumbfounding. A real jacker of a novel that would definitely rank really high on the all time list in its genere. I’ve read very few novels that would rank higher in the suspense category, one of them is ’The Killer Castle’, a part of ’The Three Investigators’ series, that we’e all read in school, I guess. If you can find the Killer Castle anytime, please do read it. Believe me, it really would not matter what age the novel is or was meant for. I never did and probably, you never will either, find a better suspense story than that one. The Circus is not very much a suspense novel, but it does have its share of surprises. Please do not read the last line of the novel, coz thats a pretty amusing surprise too !!