Breakheart Pass by Alistair MacLean

'Death Rode the Express to Breakheart Pass'. The 'master of action and suspense' delivers a thrilling Western, which was filmed starring Charles Bronson.

Winter 1873. On a desolate stretch of railroad in the western mountains, an Army relief train is transporting medical supplies and coffins to the cholera outbreak at Fort Humboldt. Colonel Claremont leads the United States Cavalry with U.S. Marshal Pearce, a reverend, a doctor, liaison officer O'Brien, Nevada Governor Fairfield, and his niece Marica, the daughter of Humboldt's commanding officer. Pearce is delivering a wanted man, John Deakin, to the fort and retrieving the violent offender Sepp Calhoun. Along with replacement troops for the already dead, they bring two cars of horses. Two officers are already missing when they embark—soon the telegraph lines will be cut, and the troop and brake cars decoupled, crashing into the valley. People begin dying or disappearing, and it becomes clear no one is who they say they are. At Fort Humboldt, the inmates have taken control, joining with the Paiute Indians. Only one man, secretly of the Federal Secret Service, knows what they are traveling towards and how to stop the interception at Breakheart Pass.

This reads like a disaster novel on rails, as each man gets picked off, and certain doom lies ahead. The pace and plot thicken quickly, and once the enemy is revealed, there is lots of fighting in blinding snow atop the train and seat-of-your-pants subterfuge, leading to an explosive finale. With no expectations going in, I was quickly hooked and recommend MacLean for well-told suspense.

This was filmed in 1975 with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland. Other Alistair MacLean novels filmed include The Guns of Navarone, Bear Island, Where Eagles Dare, and Ice Station Zebra.

1974 / Tradeback / 256 pages

My other reviews for Alistair MacLean:

River of Death

Bear Island

South by Java Head

The Last Frontier