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Blood Alley
BLOOD ALLEY
First they help Wilder escape from his Red China prison. Then they take him to their village. They have a proposition for him. The village needs a ship captain to take them out of Red China, through the Straits of Formosa—Blood Alley—and to the freedom of Hong Kong. Wilder soon discovers that he isn’t going to be captaining a ship, but a paddle-driven, wood-burning ferryboat.
The idea is too crazy. It can’t be done. The village elders are convinced otherwise. And then there’s Cathy, the English doctor’s daughter. She knows he can do it, if he can only be persuaded. And that is how Wilder finds himself captaining a decrepit ferryboat with an entire Chinese village packed inside—men, women, children, chickens, pigs and goats—sailing toward freedom with barely a hope of survival!
First they help Wilder escape from his Red China prison. Then they take him to their village. They have a proposition for him. The village needs a ship captain to take them out of Red China, through the Straits of Formosa—Blood Alley—and to the freedom of Hong Kong. Wilder soon discovers that he isn’t going to be captaining a ship, but a paddle-driven, wood-burning ferryboat.
The idea is too crazy. It can’t be done. The village elders are convinced otherwise. And then there’s Cathy, the English doctor’s daughter. She knows he can do it, if he can only be persuaded. And that is how Wilder finds himself captaining a decrepit ferryboat with an entire Chinese village packed inside—men, women, children, chickens, pigs and goats—sailing toward freedom with barely a hope of survival!
206 pages, Paperback
Published August 4, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 21, 2025
Fleischman’s “Blood Alley” was released as both a novel and a movie in 1955 with the movie starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. Despite the star-studded cast, the movie was not an overwhelming success. Set in 1955 China with the Red Communists still brutally consolidating control, “Blood Alley” is an international adventure and romance set in an exotic Far East.
As the story opens, Captain Tom Wilder is in prison, having been ignominiously captured. When an escape plan is out of nowhere presented to him, he is at first distrusting, thinking it is a form of psychological torture, but eventually takes the chance and walks out of prison, reluctantly trusting his guide who leads him to a secret hidden village of 180, who are ready to flee Communist rule, but with their whole families, their goats, their pigs, and their fortunes. But only together and at an opportune moment as the fortune teller forecasts.
What do they want with American Tom? Well, he’s an experienced skipper of oceangoing vessels. And he is going to loose his cool when he sees the boat they want him to pilot all the way to Hong Kong. An American river paddle-wheeler run on firewood because it is the only large boat that can make it up the river to the village and yet hold the whole village and it’s Noah’s Ark of animals. But Tom can’t believe this paddle wheeler will make it across open sea all the way south to British Hong Kong with the entire Chinese navy hunting for them.
There’s a British woman living in the small village with her doctor father and, to complicate matters, her father is out of town when the tine comes to leave and she doesn’t want to leave him behind, of course, there are lots of sparks between her and Tom with neither one willing to admit the romance blossoming.
Certainly, all the elements were here for a major motion picture and an exciting action-packed race for survival novel.
As the story opens, Captain Tom Wilder is in prison, having been ignominiously captured. When an escape plan is out of nowhere presented to him, he is at first distrusting, thinking it is a form of psychological torture, but eventually takes the chance and walks out of prison, reluctantly trusting his guide who leads him to a secret hidden village of 180, who are ready to flee Communist rule, but with their whole families, their goats, their pigs, and their fortunes. But only together and at an opportune moment as the fortune teller forecasts.
What do they want with American Tom? Well, he’s an experienced skipper of oceangoing vessels. And he is going to loose his cool when he sees the boat they want him to pilot all the way to Hong Kong. An American river paddle-wheeler run on firewood because it is the only large boat that can make it up the river to the village and yet hold the whole village and it’s Noah’s Ark of animals. But Tom can’t believe this paddle wheeler will make it across open sea all the way south to British Hong Kong with the entire Chinese navy hunting for them.
There’s a British woman living in the small village with her doctor father and, to complicate matters, her father is out of town when the tine comes to leave and she doesn’t want to leave him behind, of course, there are lots of sparks between her and Tom with neither one willing to admit the romance blossoming.
Certainly, all the elements were here for a major motion picture and an exciting action-packed race for survival novel.
September 21, 2022
A prolific author, Albert Sidney Fleischman wrote novels as A.S. Feischman and Sid Fleischman. Blood Alley was his eighth novel and draws from the cultural and geographic sides of his experiences in the Far East during WWII. Later in his career, Fleischman wrote primarily children’s stories. Blood Alley is unique in that he wrote both the novel and the screenplay for the Batjac film production starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall.
American Merchant Mariner, Tom Wilder, is taken prisoner by Chinese Communists after they seize his ship. He is sprung from prison through a carefully planned escape bought and paid for by the town of Chiku Shan, whose residents need a ship’s captain familiar with the waters off the coast to aid their to Hong Kong. The only ship they have access to is a wood-burning, stern wheeler, capable of a top speed of about eight knots.
The story is rich with intrigue, dangerous scrapes with discovery throughout Communist territory, and steeped in local customs and topographic detail. Although the part of the movie Tom Wilder was originally cast with Robert Mitchum, Wayne eventually got the part; and reading the book, it’s far easier to imagine Wayne as the nearly one-dimensional, macho-man Captain Wilder than Mitchum.
Stark House does fans of Gold Medal’s 1950s PBOs a real service by bringing this one back to print. It’s a thrill-packed adventure with a terrific introduction by David Lawrence Wilson, who knew the author prior to Fleischman’s death in 2010 at age 90.
Stark House provided the novel for review.
American Merchant Mariner, Tom Wilder, is taken prisoner by Chinese Communists after they seize his ship. He is sprung from prison through a carefully planned escape bought and paid for by the town of Chiku Shan, whose residents need a ship’s captain familiar with the waters off the coast to aid their to Hong Kong. The only ship they have access to is a wood-burning, stern wheeler, capable of a top speed of about eight knots.
The story is rich with intrigue, dangerous scrapes with discovery throughout Communist territory, and steeped in local customs and topographic detail. Although the part of the movie Tom Wilder was originally cast with Robert Mitchum, Wayne eventually got the part; and reading the book, it’s far easier to imagine Wayne as the nearly one-dimensional, macho-man Captain Wilder than Mitchum.
Stark House does fans of Gold Medal’s 1950s PBOs a real service by bringing this one back to print. It’s a thrill-packed adventure with a terrific introduction by David Lawrence Wilson, who knew the author prior to Fleischman’s death in 2010 at age 90.
Stark House provided the novel for review.
May 15, 2023
Se lee muy fácil, novela de aventuras sin mayores complicaciones.
Los diálogos románticos, eso sí, se han quedado un poco anticuados, sonando un poquillo cursis en la actualidad.
Los diálogos románticos, eso sí, se han quedado un poco anticuados, sonando un poquillo cursis en la actualidad.
July 8, 2024
A pulpy dime-novel that's all plot and no story. This one didn't grab me much!
July 30, 2023
Sid Fleischman published Blood Alley in 1955 so that it coincided with the release of the feature film of the same name. The novel and the book tell almost the exact same story, except towards the end, when the escape from Red China takes on a more complex and therefore satisfying action passage than is the case with the film. The story itself details the rescue of a ship captain, Tom Wilder, from a Chinese prison, where he has been rotting away for a year. A bribery scheme gets him out and put face to face with his rescuers, who turn out to be an entire Chinese village. They want something in return for saving Wilder. They want him to captain a stolen river ferry and take the entire village to Hong Kong. So he does. The adventures in preparing and undertaking the trip make for the balance of the story.
All in all, this is another good action tale from Fleischman. I was a bit impatient throughout the first half. But that was only because I have seen John Wayne's film version more than a score of times. And with book and film following the same plot so closely, it was frustrating waiting for something new. That's unfair. Because taken apart from the film, any first time reader should enjoy the Cold War atmosphere and the exotica of life in a Red Chinese village. Had I been able to get the images of Wayne and his co-star, Lauren Bacall, out of my mind, this would have been much more enjoyable.
Just a note about the film: it contains one of Wayne's most annoying performances. He came up with the idea of talking to an imaginary friend throughout he calls "Baby." He ends up sounding as crazy as he acts. Wayne may have gotten the idea from Fleischman and the book, as Fleischman also wrote the screenplay for Blood Alley. And Wayne had to have had a read through the novel as well. Towards the latter third of the book, Wilder is forever calling Cathy Grainger (played by Bacall in the movie), "Baby."
All in all, this is another good action tale from Fleischman. I was a bit impatient throughout the first half. But that was only because I have seen John Wayne's film version more than a score of times. And with book and film following the same plot so closely, it was frustrating waiting for something new. That's unfair. Because taken apart from the film, any first time reader should enjoy the Cold War atmosphere and the exotica of life in a Red Chinese village. Had I been able to get the images of Wayne and his co-star, Lauren Bacall, out of my mind, this would have been much more enjoyable.
Just a note about the film: it contains one of Wayne's most annoying performances. He came up with the idea of talking to an imaginary friend throughout he calls "Baby." He ends up sounding as crazy as he acts. Wayne may have gotten the idea from Fleischman and the book, as Fleischman also wrote the screenplay for Blood Alley. And Wayne had to have had a read through the novel as well. Towards the latter third of the book, Wilder is forever calling Cathy Grainger (played by Bacall in the movie), "Baby."
September 7, 2022
Well done story of an entire village of people escaping Red China in the 50s on a paddle-wheel ferry, led by an American sea captain who they helped escape from a communist prison. I read the book issued by Stark House Press this August; it was not listed in the other editions section.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews