Jack Higgins, Dark Justice
£72.00
Jack Higgins is the pseudonym of the prolific author of ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and many other successful thrillers. This is his only signed and limited edition with special agent Sean Dillion and contains an Appreciation by spy novelist Len Deighton.
In Stock: 3 available
Jack Higgins has sold 250 million copies with his suspense adventure yarns which he began to write in 1959. He wrote under various pseudonyms, but it was with The Eagle Has Landed (1975), latter a popular film with British star Michael Caine, that he became an international bestseller. Many of his recent books have espionage and terrorism as plot devices.
In Dark Justice (2004) the battle against international terrorism continues with renegade Russian agents teaming up with IRA members – both longing for the good old days of their respective wars. They take on a British Private army led Charles Ferguson and with him the most feared enforcer Sean Dillion. The battles range from Iraq to England to Ireland. Dillion and his fellow black ops experts battle to the death with those who seek to destroy them. Good exchanges between the characters and enough twists in the story to keep one interested and some pathos also.
This novel was published in a special binding in an edition of 85 signed and numbered copies with 15 presentation copies for private distribution. Len Deighton, an old friend of Harry Patterson (aka Higgins) provides the appreciation.
Ian Rankin, The Hanging Garden
Mark Billingham, Lifeless
Rating by Harriet Klausner, from thebestreviews on April 10, 2012 :
“During a top secret operation sanctioned by England’s Special Branch Chief General Ferguson, agent Sean Dillon killed several Provo IRA operatives. and Russian Major Greta Novikova. Russian Josef Belov, who used his multi- billion dollar company, to fund terrorism, also was killed. Special Branch thought Major Yuri Ashimov and Russian Major Greta Novikova were also killed but they survived. General Ferguson’s aide Deputy Superintendent Hannah Bernstein was critically injured.
Ashimov wants revenge and is backed by President Putin in his desire because he saw too many of his plans and operatives destroyed by the Special Branch. In the hospital where Hannah is recuperating a nurse who is a sleeper agent in the IRA is ordered to kill her. She succeeds and is then killed by her handler. After a few more attempts are made on General Ferguson’s agents they find out the two Russian agents are alive and pulling the strings of the IRA. Chasing each other half-way across the world, the adversaries vow to kill the enemy and only luck and skill will determine which side wins.
Jack Higgins never writes a dull book. His novels are always exciting so that readers can’t turn the pages quickly enough to find out what happens next. One of the author’s greatest talents is his ability to make cold blooded killing machines like Sean Dillon sympathetic to the reader. This book is one of Mr. Higgins’ best novels to date and will definitely appear on the bestseller lists”.
Harriet Klausner posted on thebestreviews.com
Rating by Len Deighton on May 18, 2012 :
Extract from the Appreciation by Len Deighton
“I remember someone telling me, “Through your writing your readers will get to know you better than your closest friends and family. If they don’t you will never be any good as a writer”. Well, there are many thousands of people who know Harry Patterson (aka Jack Higgins and James Graham), and feel close to him, by reason of his books. It is something to do with the self-exposure that writers must offer. There is an authority about Harry’s writing so that from the first page or so you know you are in the company of of a highly intelligent, sophisticated, literate guide, someone who will take seriously his obliguations to you and to some sort of moral code that, while it is difficult to pin-down, is common to all good fiction through the ages. Tony Goodwin, a skilled bookseller who became a top publisher in London and then in New York, said: “You can’t teach anyone to write dialogue”. He went on to say that if he received a book from an unknown writer it was the dialogue that mostly concerned him. “I can find plenty of skilled editors who are able to restructure an untidy book. I can get people to correct the grammer, and ones who instantly see where a new section is needed or an existing one must go. But editors who can write dialogue don’t hang around here very long. They go and write their own successful books”. It was an interesting observation and I believe it. But we have only to read one of Harry’s books to see that dialogue is not enough; there is more than that. Ronald Neme, a talented scriptwriter and great film director, said: “Each scene had to be entertaining, increase the development of the characters involved, and advance the story”. …