The Devil's Alternative

The Devil's Alternative is a novel by Frederick Forsyth first published in 1979. It was his fourth full-length fictional novel and marked a new direction in his work, setting the story several years in the future rather than in the recent past.

Plot summary

The story opens with the discovery of a castaway by an Italian sea captain. Recovering in hospital in Trabzon, Turkey, the man is visited by an Anglo-Ukrainian Bank Clerk, Andrew Drake. The castaway, Miroslav Kaminsky, is a Ukrainian nationalist who escaped from Lvov after he was betrayed to the KGB. Drake, born Andriy Drach, convinces Kaminsky that they both share the same ideal, that of striking a single blow against the Soviet Union. Kaminsky tells Drake about Lev Mishkin and David Lazareff, two Jewish Ukrainian nationalists who may be able to help him.

Meanwhile, a chain of failures at the sole plant that makes fungicide for wheat has led to the inadvertent poisoning of the Soviet Union's wheat crop. The United States is aware of this crisis and plans to sell its food to the Soviets in exchange for political and military concessions. Hardliners in the Politburo come up with a different strategy: to take the food from the West by invading Western Europe. The Politburo, led by Chairman Maxim Rudin, narrowly votes down the war plan; however, Rudin is dying of cancer and it is only a matter of time before the party in favor of war gains supremacy.

The news of the war plan comes to MI6 agent Adam Munro through a Russian woman he once loved, who works in the Kremlin offices and has access to the Politburo debates. This source, given the code name Nightingale, shakes both the British and U.S. political leadership. Munro is forced to call on Nightingale more and more, risking the near certain discovery and execution of the woman he loves.

Trivia

• The novel features many real life people with their names disguised; British Prime Minister Joan Carpenter is Margaret Thatcher (who had only recently became the PM when this novel was published); American president William "Bill" Matthews is James "Jimmy" Carter (although the fictional Matthews is finishing up his 2nd term of office in the book, while Carter was nearing the end of his 1st and only Presidential term in 1979); his Polish National Security Advisor Stanislaw Poklewski is Zbigniew Brzezinski; and Secretary of State David Lawrence is Cyrus Vance. Margaret Thatcher would later appear as herself in The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Fist of God, A Little Bit of Sunshine and Icon.