Sloan Wilson Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Publishers Weekly

Critical Essay by Publishers Weekly

Following up on the success of "Ice Brothers," Sloan Wilson goes down to the sea again to launch a most commendable thriller ["The Greatest Crime"], a tale of drug-running gone awry. Meet Andy Anderson, a reformed alcoholic, a Harvard grad, an itinerant captain and a man in his late 50s who is deeply in love…. A $500-million shipment of cocaine can reach the U.S. from Columbia if assorted pros, from Andy to trigger men to benign government officials, all pull together…. Thus the voyage to Long Island becomes a cliff-hanger: Can Andy and his cohorts abort the cruise? Will the Coast Guard arrive in time? Will backers retaliate? Like an orchestrator, Wilson succeeds in exploiting each of these disquieting notes right to the end.

A review of "The Greatest Crime," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 218, No. 21, November 21, 1980, p. 47.