The Way to Dusty Death

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"There's more than one way to a dusty death, Mary."

The Way to Dusty Death is a novel by Alistair Maclean.

Johnny Harlow is a popular Grand Prix Racer who has just crashed during a race. His best friend was killed, and his sponsor's daughter crippled, and it looked like negligence on Harlow's part. In despair, Harlow descends into drinking his sorrows away as the whole world sees him as nothing more than a drunk murderer.

For a drunk Broken Ace, Harlow seems to be in complete control as he breaks into garages, steals documents and investigates the Grand Prix, all the while using his charm to get past his still remaining fans. Whoever sabotaged his car killed his best friend and crippled his girlfriend. Johnny is out for revenge. But the gangsters aren't going to let him get it that easily.

Was made into a film.

Tropes used in The Way to Dusty Death include:

• The Ace: Harlow.
• Amateur Sleuth Mary's brother, as well as Harlow himself.
• Anti-Hero: Johnny isn't above using some underhanded means.
• Broken Ace: Subverted, it's all an act, although the public view him as this.
• Car Fu: Johnny uses this to knock the villains car off a cliff.
• Chekhov's Skill: Johnny can recognize who is driving a car by the technique used, thanks to his experience as a Grand Prix racer, and can maneuver a car expertly, to the point where he pushes another car off a cliff.
• Cool Car
• Drives Like Crazy: Justified, as Harlow is a race car driver so is used to high speeds and erratic-looking driving. Doesn't stop his two passengers praying all the while and calling him insane.
• Drowning My Sorrows
• Drugs Are Bad
• Femme Fatale: 'Florence Nightingale' an unnamed woman who works for The Mafia and manages to sneak past police, with her good looks, in order to poison a prisoner.
• Genre Savvy
• Hero with Bad Publicity:
• It's Personal: They killed his best friend and crippled his girlfriend, and made him look like the bad guy. He is pissed, although you wouldn't know it.
• Love Interest: Mary Macalpine.
• The Mafia: Behind the race rigging, drug trafficking and murder.
• Police Are Useless: Played straight, then Subverted.
• The Quiet One
• The Rival: Nicholo Tracchia.
• The Stoic: Even when driving his car around a cliff, where the slightest mistake could send him plummeting off, Harlow looks calm and focused.
• Spanner in the Works: Harlow can't be bribed or made corrupt, so The Mafia try to have him killed.
• Screw The Rules I'm Doing What's Right: Most of what Harlow does is breaking the law. Although he's working with a senior inspector from Scotland Yard and Interpol.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness