Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | LP Fic Higgins, J. 1995 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | FICTION HIGGINS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
They call themselves "January 30", after the date of a British massacre in Belfast. They are allied with no one, killing American diplomats and KGB agents, Arabs and Israelis, IRA gunmen and Loyalist soldiers. But they are definitely the enemies of peace--and they are plotting an assassination that will shatter an uneasy truce that reigns in Ireland. Former IRA enforcer Sean Dillon must hunt down January 30 before they kill again. Before they spark another war. Before Dillon himself falls prey to the ultimate assassin--the Angel of Death...
Author Notes
Jack Higgins is a writer and educator, born in Newcastle, England on July 17, 1929. The name is the pseudonym of Harry Patterson. He also wrote under the names of Martin Fallon, James Graham, and Hugh Marlowe during his early writing career. He attended Leeds Training College and eventually graduated from the University of London in 1962 with a B.S. degree in Sociology.
Higgins held a series of jobs, including a stint as a non-commissioned officer in the Royal House of Guards serving on the German border during the Cold War. He taught at Leeds College of Commerce and James Graham College. He has written more than 60 books including The Eagle Has Landed, Touch the Devil, Confessional, The Eagle Has Flown, and Eye of the Storm. Higgins is also the author of the Sean Dillon series. His novels have since sold over 250 million copies and been translated into fifty-five languages.
His title's The Death Trade and Rain on the Dead made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Jack Higgins is a writer and educator, born in Newcastle, England on July 17, 1929. The name is the pseudonym of Harry Patterson. He also wrote under the names of Martin Fallon, James Graham, and Hugh Marlowe during his early writing career. He attended Leeds Training College and eventually graduated from the University of London in 1962 with a B.S. degree in Sociology.
Higgins held a series of jobs, including a stint as a non-commissioned officer in the Royal House of Guards serving on the German border during the Cold War. He taught at Leeds College of Commerce and James Graham College. He has written more than 60 books including The Eagle Has Landed, Touch the Devil, Confessional, The Eagle Has Flown, and Eye of the Storm. Higgins is also the author of the Sean Dillon series. His novels have since sold over 250 million copies and been translated into fifty-five languages.
His title's The Death Trade and Rain on the Dead made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (8)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The main plot device in Higgins's new thriller has a certain comic-strip blaze to it: a female British motorcyclist in black leather who carries a Beretta pistol and kills only to create chaos. This angel of death is also Britain's greatest actress, Grace Browning, relishing her new role as assassin of political activists of every stripe, be they Arab or Israeli, Catholic or Protestant, CIA or KGB, East End gangster or American senator. Browning belongs to a group that calls itself ``January 30,'' seemingly in honor of Bloody Sunday in Belfast but actually in honor of nothing but the chaos that she and her homosexual superior, an old KGB hand who's now on Prime Minister John Major's staff, hope will usher in a worldwide Communist state. Pitted against January 30 and Browning are Brigadier Charles Ferguson of the PM's elite Group Four and his most devilish agent, returning Higgins hero Sean Dillon (On Dangerous Ground), ex-actor, ex-IRA hit man and master makeup artist. It's assassin vs. assassin, actor against actor, in this shallow and far-fetched yet exciting yarn, which needs all of Higgins's considerable expertise to stay on course as it hurtles from one nervy thrill to the next. BOMC main selection. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
In this by-the-numbers thriller, bad guy turned hero Sean Dillon becomes entangled with a mysterious and indiscriminate terrorist group known as ``January 30.'' Dillon (On Dangerous Ground, 1994, etc.), who once was an IRA hit man, is a bantam Superman as usual, casually walking into a death trap he tricks his foes into setting up just so that he can ``draw their fire.'' His superior, Brigadier Charles Ferguson, and his partner, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Bernstein, play their familiar roles (stolid and plucky, respectively). It helps that the villains of the piece are somewhat interesting. Rupert Lang, British Under Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has been a Russian spy for several years, together with his former Cambridge lover, professor Tom Curry. They and their control at GRU (the post-Soviet Russian Military Intelligence Agency) created January 30 to use as a cover-up for murders they carry out in their effort to create chaos in the West. The killers of January 30 aren't picky, and they don't leave ideological footprints. They hit Israelis and Palestinians, Protestants and Catholics, Americans and Russians. Renowned actress Grace Browning (the ``angel'' of the title) is relatively new to the group, driven there by fate and by demons resulting from a childhood tragedy. January 30 secretly saves Dillon's life in Belfast, eager to have him pursue a lead that will disrupt the machinations of the rival KGB in Beirut. Grace later kills a visiting American who is under Dillon's protection and subsequently has a second American, a prominent US senator visiting Ireland to aid in peace negotiations, in her sights, setting up a grand and melodramatic finale. Let it be known that all of Higgins's trademark weaknesses are evident throughout- -plodding prose, awkward and repetitive exposition, superficial characterization. But so what. The formula is tried and true, and it works. (Book- of-the-Month Club main selection)
Booklist Review
What if there was a terrorist group with no discernible agenda? Jews and Arabs, Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics, commies and fascists are all fair game for a group known only as January 30. Brigadier Charles Ferguson of the British prime minister's top security group is charged with determining January 30's plans, its members, and their whereabouts. With the whole world as a potential hideout, it won't be an easy task. But Ferguson's right-hand man, former terrorist Sean Dillon, is tugging on a thread that might prove valuable. He's hot on the trail of one Daniel Quinn, who's been a thorn in the side of both the British army and the IRA in Ireland. Quinn tried to sell an arsenal to an undercover Dillon and, though the deal broke down in the end, Dillon has Quinn headed for the Middle East. The novel follows the formula for most recent spy thrillers: terrorists threaten the world order by appearing to get their hands on weaponry that could unleash widespread devastation. Higgins has the formula down pat and does a better job than most at putting his own spin on it. Ferguson and Dillon function much like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin: Ferguson is the at-home brain {{...}}a la Wolfe, and Dillon is a violent, coldhearted version of Archie. Toss in elements of the Russian Mafia, leftover KGB agents, and a black-hearted actress, and one has a novel that will keep international conspiracy buffs turning pages long into the night. (Reviewed January 15, 1995)0399140425Wes Lukowsky
Library Journal Review
Sean Dillon, a former Irish terrorist turned undercover agent, and his boss, Brigadier Charles Ferguson, make their latest appearance (following On Dangerous Ground, Putnam, 1994) in a lively but rather predictable shoot-'em-up set primarily in the United Kingdom. A terrorist group, born from communism, is killing in the name of Irish nationalism. Their real purpose, however, is to foment anarchism and chaos among the major powers. Can Dillon, partner Hannah Bernstein, and Ferguson track down this band and prevent additional murder? Given the author's writing talent, it is disappointing to find the characters barely sketched and the plot clunking from one episode to the next. Unhappily, by attributing his characters' need for mayhem solely to bloody episodes witnessed in their youth, he cheapens the achievements of real people who have managed to survive Bloody Sunday and other violence. Purchase only where Higgins has a following.Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The main plot device in Higgins's new thriller has a certain comic-strip blaze to it: a female British motorcyclist in black leather who carries a Beretta pistol and kills only to create chaos. This angel of death is also Britain's greatest actress, Grace Browning, relishing her new role as assassin of political activists of every stripe, be they Arab or Israeli, Catholic or Protestant, CIA or KGB, East End gangster or American senator. Browning belongs to a group that calls itself ``January 30,'' seemingly in honor of Bloody Sunday in Belfast but actually in honor of nothing but the chaos that she and her homosexual superior, an old KGB hand who's now on Prime Minister John Major's staff, hope will usher in a worldwide Communist state. Pitted against January 30 and Browning are Brigadier Charles Ferguson of the PM's elite Group Four and his most devilish agent, returning Higgins hero Sean Dillon (On Dangerous Ground), ex-actor, ex-IRA hit man and master makeup artist. It's assassin vs. assassin, actor against actor, in this shallow and far-fetched yet exciting yarn, which needs all of Higgins's considerable expertise to stay on course as it hurtles from one nervy thrill to the next. BOMC main selection. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
In this by-the-numbers thriller, bad guy turned hero Sean Dillon becomes entangled with a mysterious and indiscriminate terrorist group known as ``January 30.'' Dillon (On Dangerous Ground, 1994, etc.), who once was an IRA hit man, is a bantam Superman as usual, casually walking into a death trap he tricks his foes into setting up just so that he can ``draw their fire.'' His superior, Brigadier Charles Ferguson, and his partner, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Bernstein, play their familiar roles (stolid and plucky, respectively). It helps that the villains of the piece are somewhat interesting. Rupert Lang, British Under Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has been a Russian spy for several years, together with his former Cambridge lover, professor Tom Curry. They and their control at GRU (the post-Soviet Russian Military Intelligence Agency) created January 30 to use as a cover-up for murders they carry out in their effort to create chaos in the West. The killers of January 30 aren't picky, and they don't leave ideological footprints. They hit Israelis and Palestinians, Protestants and Catholics, Americans and Russians. Renowned actress Grace Browning (the ``angel'' of the title) is relatively new to the group, driven there by fate and by demons resulting from a childhood tragedy. January 30 secretly saves Dillon's life in Belfast, eager to have him pursue a lead that will disrupt the machinations of the rival KGB in Beirut. Grace later kills a visiting American who is under Dillon's protection and subsequently has a second American, a prominent US senator visiting Ireland to aid in peace negotiations, in her sights, setting up a grand and melodramatic finale. Let it be known that all of Higgins's trademark weaknesses are evident throughout- -plodding prose, awkward and repetitive exposition, superficial characterization. But so what. The formula is tried and true, and it works. (Book- of-the-Month Club main selection)
Booklist Review
What if there was a terrorist group with no discernible agenda? Jews and Arabs, Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics, commies and fascists are all fair game for a group known only as January 30. Brigadier Charles Ferguson of the British prime minister's top security group is charged with determining January 30's plans, its members, and their whereabouts. With the whole world as a potential hideout, it won't be an easy task. But Ferguson's right-hand man, former terrorist Sean Dillon, is tugging on a thread that might prove valuable. He's hot on the trail of one Daniel Quinn, who's been a thorn in the side of both the British army and the IRA in Ireland. Quinn tried to sell an arsenal to an undercover Dillon and, though the deal broke down in the end, Dillon has Quinn headed for the Middle East. The novel follows the formula for most recent spy thrillers: terrorists threaten the world order by appearing to get their hands on weaponry that could unleash widespread devastation. Higgins has the formula down pat and does a better job than most at putting his own spin on it. Ferguson and Dillon function much like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin: Ferguson is the at-home brain {{...}}a la Wolfe, and Dillon is a violent, coldhearted version of Archie. Toss in elements of the Russian Mafia, leftover KGB agents, and a black-hearted actress, and one has a novel that will keep international conspiracy buffs turning pages long into the night. (Reviewed January 15, 1995)0399140425Wes Lukowsky
Library Journal Review
Sean Dillon, a former Irish terrorist turned undercover agent, and his boss, Brigadier Charles Ferguson, make their latest appearance (following On Dangerous Ground, Putnam, 1994) in a lively but rather predictable shoot-'em-up set primarily in the United Kingdom. A terrorist group, born from communism, is killing in the name of Irish nationalism. Their real purpose, however, is to foment anarchism and chaos among the major powers. Can Dillon, partner Hannah Bernstein, and Ferguson track down this band and prevent additional murder? Given the author's writing talent, it is disappointing to find the characters barely sketched and the plot clunking from one episode to the next. Unhappily, by attributing his characters' need for mayhem solely to bloody episodes witnessed in their youth, he cheapens the achievements of real people who have managed to survive Bloody Sunday and other violence. Purchase only where Higgins has a following.Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.