Bruno Wildermann of the Wrinfield Circus is the world's greatest trapeze artist, a clairvoyant with near-supernatural powers and an implacable enemy of the East German regime that arrested his family and murdered his wife. The CIA needs such a man for an impossible raid on the impregnable Lubylan Fortress where his family is held, to remove a dangerous weapons formula from a heavily guarded laboratory under cover of a traveling circus tour, Bruno prepares to return to his homeland. But before the journey even begins a murderer strikes twice. Somewhere in the circus there is a communist agent with orders to stop Bruno at any cost.
Background
In October 1973 it was announced Alistair Maclean was researching the novel, which would form the basis of a film calked Circus to be made the following year by Irving Allen for 20th Century Fox in collaboration with the Ringling Circus. Allen had previously made The Big Circus (1959) but said Circus would be different, being shot in 70mm and 3D with a budget of $6 million. Maclean was researching the novel by travelling with the circys.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
