Alistair MacLean is one of the most highly regarded authors of action thrillers that Britain has ever produced. Born in 1922 to the son of a Scottish Minister, English was in fact his second language after Scottish Gaelic. Joining the Royal Navy in 1941 his war time exploits in the Arctic, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, gave him the background that served him well in his later writings. Following his release from the Royal Navy in 1946, he studied and graduated with an English degree from Glasgow University, which he then used to gain a post as a teacher.
It was his student days that saw the first elements of his future writing career, as he gained an additional income by writing short stories. The publisher, Collins, asked MacLean to write a novel for them, and as a result in 1955 he produced HMS Ulysses. There then followed a writing career lasting 31 years, consisting of 28 novels, 1 collection of short stories and 3 non-fiction works. MacLean was also known to use the pseudonym of Ian Stuart.
All of MacLean's best work were based upon the first hand knowledge and experience that MacLean had. Keystones of his work was the attention to detail and the tension that MacLean managed to instow in his writing. Equally they all followed the same formula of a hero fighting against overwhelming odds, with little distraction from female characters.
-HMS Ulysses (1955) 4 star; WW2 adventure set on Royal Navy cruiser on Arctic convoy duty.
-Guns of Navarone (1957) 5 star; WW2 adventure set on a Greek island and a sabotage attempt on the German guns.
http://www.ciao.co.uk/The_Guns_Of_Navarone_Alistair_MacLean__Review_ 5719891
-South by Java Head (1957) 3 star; WW2 adventure of a ship escaping the fall of Singapore.
-Last Frontier (aka the Secret Ways) (1959) 5 star; Cold War thriller of attempt to retrieve scientist frcommunist Hungary.
-Night Without End (1959) 4 star; Thriller about crashed airliner in the Arctic wastelands.
-Fear is the Key (1960) 4 star; Novel of missing treasure, oil and blackmail.
-Dark Crusader (aka the Black Shrike) (1961) 3 star; Cold War thriller of missing scientists in the Pacific.
-Golden Rendezvous (1962) 4 star; Thriller set onboard a tramp steamer in the Caribbean.
-Satan Bug (1962) 3 star; Thriller set in Britain of germ warfare and blackmail.
-Ice Station Zebra (1963) 4 star; Cold War thriller of spies and submarines set in the Arctic.
-When Eight Bells Toll (1966) 5 star; Thriller set in amongst the Scottish islands and stolen gold bullion.
http://www.ciao.co.uk/When_Eight_Bells_Toll_Alistair_MacLean__Rev iew_5712174
-Where Eagles Dare (1967) 5 star; WW2 adventure of rescue attempt from impregnable fortress.
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Where_Eagles_Dare_Alistair_MacLean__Review _5720132
-Force 10 from Navarone (1968) 4 star; WW2 sequel of sabotage in the Balkans.
-Puppet on a Chain (1969) 4 star; Thriller set in Holland of drug smuggling and murder.
-Caravan to Vaccares (1970) 5 star; Cold War adventureset in France of gyspies and murder.
-Bear Island (1971) 4 star; Post WW2 adventure of a movie crew sailing into the Arctic.
-Way to Dusty Death (1973) 3 star; Thriller set in world of Formula 1, accidents and intrigue abound.
-Breakheart Pass (1974) 4 star; MacLean writes a western.
-Circus (1975) 4 star; Cold War thriller of a circus tour of East Germany.
-Golden Gate (1976) 3 star; Novel about the kidnap of the President in San Francisco.
-Seawitch (1977) 3 star; Novel about kidnapping and oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
-Goodbye California (1978) 3 star; Novel of blackmail and the possibility of a man made earthquake
-Athabasca (1980) 4 star; Arctic adventure of blackmail, murder and oil.
-River of Death (1981) 3 star; Tale of Nazis living in the Amazon
-Partisans (1982) 4 star; WW2 adventure in the Balkans, fight between Partisans and Cheniks.
-Floodgate (1983) 3 star; Dutch adventure of Irish terrorism
-San Andreas (1984) 5 star; WW2 adventure of a hospital ship being chased by the German forces through the Arctic ocean.
-Lonely Sea (1985) 4 star; Collection of short seafaring stories
-Santorini (1985) 3 star; Cold War thriller of ticking bombs in the Aegean.
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Santorini_Alistair_MacLean__Review_5720033

Non-Fiction works
-All about Lawrence of Arabia (1962) not read;
-MacLean introduces Scotland (1972) not read;
-Captain Cook (1972) not read;

It is often said that his work declined following the work he undertook in the 1950s and early 1960s, with this often being blamed in his alcoholism. This is not particularly fair and I would say that Partisans and San Andreas are two of his better works, written though as they were in the 1980's. These two though reverted back to his areas of knowledge of sailing and the Second World War rather than rather than stories of kidnapping and blackmail.