''Seawitch'' is a

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

written by the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

author

Alistair MacLean Alistair Stuart MacLean (; 21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987) was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. Many of his novels have been adapted to film, most notably '' The Guns of Navarone'' (1957) and '' Ice Sta ...

. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Collins in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

and later in the same year by

Doubleday Doubleday may refer to: * Doubleday (surname), including a list of people with the name Publishing imprints * Doubleday (publisher), imprint of Knopf Doubleday, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House * Doubleday Canada, imprint of Penguin Random ...

in the United States. It was written in Mexico, where MacLean would not be taxed by US authorities. The book deviates from MacLean's usual mystery/drama formula in that it is almost all action, with no mystery and no "traitor amongst them" sub-plot. The book was a best seller. The ''New York Times'' review said MacLean "stumbles badly".

Plot introduction

Lord Worth, ruthless and fabulously wealthy, has made a lot of enemies in the oil business. His new offshore

tension-leg platform __NOTOC__ A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically geotechnical engineering#Floating-moored structures, moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of crude oil, oil or natural g ...

oil rig in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, named ''Seawitch'', is one of the biggest in the world, the only one of its kind, and will put his competitors out of business. To destroy it and therefore be able to inflate the

price of oil The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC ...

at will, the competitors get together and send one man to deal with Lord Worth. The villain has a personal score to settle with Worth and kidnaps his daughters. But Lord Worth's daughters are betrothed to the protagonists, Mitchell and Roomer, two former police detectives, now private investigators. They set trying to save Worth and his daughters from certain death, as the villain intends to leave them on ''Seawitch'' when he destroys it with a stolen nuclear weapon.

References

External links

Book review at AlistairMacLean.com
1977 British novels Novels by Alistair MacLean William Collins, Sons books {{1970s-thriller-novel-stub