About the Author

Jack Higgins was a soldier and then a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. `The Eagle Has Landed' turned him into an international bestselling author and his novels have since sold over 250 million copies and been translated into sixty languages. Many of them have also been made into successful films

Reviews

The fifth Sean Dillon adventure (the last was Angel of Death, LJ 3/1/95) finds the former terrorist involved with a group of Irish Protestant paramilitaries in 1985 as they hijack a truck carrying £100 million in gold bullion. Ten years later, Sean is working for British Intelligence when he is ordered to go after the gold again. Now he is to prevent the bullion from disrupting the peace between the Catholics and Protestants. Dillon, boss Brigadier Ferguson, and partner Hannah Bernstein must also deal with the Mafia. They ask 85-year-old Liam Devlin for help, and the IRA legend of past Higgins books is only too pleased to participate. The excitement never lags as each side double-crosses the others. Sean is too perfect, however, and the surprise ending is not a surprise. Even so, it is fun getting there. Recommended for popular collections.-Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.

`Open a Jack Higgins novel and you'll encounter a master craftsman at the peak of his powers ... first-rate tales of intrigue, suspense and full-on action.'
Sunday Express

`Higgins is a master of his craft.'
Daily Telegraph

`A thriller writer in a class of his own.'
Financial Times

`The master craftsman of good, clean adventure.'
Daily Mail

Sean Dillon, master of disguise and steady Higgins hero (Angel of Death, etc.), returns for another go against political mayhem in the author's latest action-fest. A 1985 hijacking of gold bullion, masterminded by Irish Protestant terrorist Michael Ryan, ends with the ship that's carrying the booty sinking off Ireland. Ryan and his niece Kathleen flee to America while their presumed henchman, seemingly a sailor but actually a disguised Dillon, then an IRA enforcer, ostensibly returns to sea. Ten years later, Ryan is sprung from an American medical prison by a Mafia lawyer intent on retrieving the bullion. Soon the gold is the object of desire of the mob, a retired IRA chief of staff and British Intelligence, for whom Dillon now works. The cheeky, pint-sized Dillon tends toward occasional stage Irishness, and the other characterizations aren't much deeper, but readers riveted by Higgins's mastery of plot and pace won't mind at all. Winding up with a jaunty noir bounce, this is splendid high pulp-in other words, vintage Higgins. BOMC main selection. (June) ~ FYI: Two Sean Dillon novels, On Dangerous Ground and Eye of the Storm, will air later this year on Showtime as TV movies, starring Rob Lowe as Dillon.