The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

We are serious, desperate men

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1973) is a thriller novel by Morton Freedgood. He wrote under the pen name John Godey. The novel's title comes from the train's radio call sign. When a New York City subway train leaves to start a run, its call sign is the time it left and where. Here it is Pelham Bay Park Station at 1:23 p.m.

The plot starts with a normal day on a subway. The hijacking of a subway train, the number 6 train, interrupts this. Four men armed with submachine guns detach the lead car of the train and take it and 17 hostages into a tunnel. Led by Ryder, a former mercenary, the hijackers are:- Longman, a disgruntled former motorman- Welcome, a violent former Mafia thug, and- Steever, a powerful, laconic brute.They threaten to execute the hostages unless the city pays one million dollars in ransom.While the city rushes to comply, transit police try to puzzle out the hijackers' plan. They don't realize that Longman has figured out how to bypass the "dead-man's switch". This allows the car to speed along the track by itself while the hijackers escape through an emergency exit. As they prepare to leave Ryder and Welcome begin to argue. This ends with Ryder fatally shooting Welcome. The delay allows one of the passengers, an undercover police officer who jumped off the train as it started to speed away, to shoot Steever. Longman escapes while Ryder shoots the passenger. As Ryder is about to administer a fatal head shot, he is himself shot dead by DCI Daniels of Special Operations Division. The novel ends with Longman's arrest.

All in all I liked this book. There are a handful of things that set this apart from the run-of-the-mill crime thriller. For example, it uses a third person narrative. This allows for a constant switching of viewpoints. Different characters describe the same scene. By doing this the book feels less claustrophobic. It has a scope grander than a subway car held in a tunnel. Nobody appears to be the main hero too. Each person has their own motives and agendas. The movie versions didn't do justice to this fact.

In summary, a better than expected thriller. Much better then the most recent movie version, that's for sure.