''The Tightrope Men'' is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

written by English author

Desmond Bagley Desmond Bagley (29 October 1923 – 12 April 1983) was an English journalist and novelist known mainly for a series of bestselling thrillers. He and fellow British writers such as Hammond Innes and Alistair MacLean set conventions for the genre: ...

, and was first published in 1973.

Plot introduction

Giles Denison's life is turned upside down when he awakes to find himself in a luxurious hotel. Denison has a reputation as an

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

, so waking up in a strange room is not too surprising, but he finds that not only is he now in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway, but that the face in the bathroom mirror is the face of another man. However he calms down a bit once he locates a scar on his leg, a scar he has had from childhood, and realizes that he had been kidnapped from his flat in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and surgically altered to resemble a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

scientist, Dr Harold Feltham Meyrick. Meyrick is a scientist and engineer with multiple military contracts, who was involved in a British operation to retrieve some scientific documents, with information which would make nuclear missiles virtually obsolete from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. After an attempt on Denison’s life (as Meyrick), he makes contact with the British authorities seeking help. He is introduced to an old spymaster named Carey, who was involved in the operation with the ‘real’ Meyrick. Compelled to adjust to his new persona (including meeting his daughter) and to play out the role assigned to him by his captors, the group embark on a dangerous escapade from Norway to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and across the border into

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

Locations Giles Denison is pursued in a car chase through the

Drammen Spiral The ''Drammen Spiral'' (Norwegian : ''Spiralen Drammen'') is a tunnel near Drammen, Norway. Tunnel characteristics The tunnel is long and in the shape of a helix, with six rising circles, in the same style as a multi-storey parking lot. Each ro ...

tunnel in Norway. A key location in the book is

Svetogorsk Svetogorsk (russian: Светого́рск) is an industrial town in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Karelian Isthmus, on the Vuoksi River. It is located from the Finnish–Russian border, from the Finnish town o ...

. This was the site of a major construction project from 1972: a paper mill constructed using Finnish builders.

External links

Crime Time review of Desmond Bagley
1973 British novels Novels by Desmond Bagley Novels set in Oslo William Collins, Sons books {{1970s-thriller-novel-stub