17. South by Java Head by Alistair Maclean

Word on  the streets is that you want to read Alistair Maclean books from the first half of his career, not the second, though I am not quite sure what the dividing year is.  I should not have picked this book up but I couldn't resist an older Fontana with that gorgeous yellow.  I justified by noting it took place in Singapore after the Japanese had just invaded (an inherently interesting setting ripe for adventure) and was written in 1958.

It only begins in Singapore.  At first, there are a lot of threads, which give a good and harrowing picture of Singapore, emptied out and awaiting the arrival of the victorious Japanese in 1941.  It's a bit confusing at first, including a bit with an elite spy who reveals he has the stolen plans of the Japanese invasion of Australia and they must get to London, which seems to be the main story.  There are also a group of lost nurses, an abandoned English toddler and the British crew of a tanker full of oil who need to try and get out.  The groups eventually, through a pretty damned exciting rescue at sea, end up together on the tanker.  That is the main part of the story, this group trying to get away from the Japanese and into friendlier waters.  

The first two-thirds of the book is a lot of fun.  A ton of crazy action happens.  Maclean does sea stuff so well.  The Japanese are comically portrayed.  All their leaders speak excellent, flowery Bond-badguy English and are ruthlessly cruel but not super bright.  Even the German spy reveals himself to be morally repulsed by the Japanese penchance for evil.  The ending is also action-packed but starts to tip over into unrealistic, where the threats are so extreme (to the love interest and the little boy) that you know Maclean won't actually carry them out because the hero will have to win.  So a bit goofy at the end, but the ride there was quite entertaining.