Alistair MacLean, whose novels “The Polar Convoy” and “The Guns of Navarone Island” brought him fame as a master of military detective fiction, created more than a dozen works set in peacetime. In the detective novel “When the Bells Toll at Eight” (1966), a hunt begins for gold bars that turned out to be aboard a sunken ship.
“Once the ‘Peacemaker’ bullet, say, has gone through your leg, you won’t hide in a shelter where you can light a cigarette with one hand, and then neatly plant a bullet between your rival’s eyes. When the ‘Peacemaker’ bullet goes through your leg, you’ll collapse unconscious, and even if you survive the arterial bleeding and the shock, you’ll never be able to walk without crutches—because surgeons will unanimously decide to amputate your leg. That’s why I stood there, not moving…”