Sean Dillon in action (Dark Justice - Jack Higgins)

Member Name: CPTDANIELS

Product:	Dark Justice - Jack Higgins
Date:	24/02/09 (331 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting, fast paced novel

Disadvantages: Predictable

Background:

I have seen and avoided Jack Higgins books for years. A friend of mine who's really into military and war books always swears by them, but I thought that I wouldn't like them. But I thought I should finally take the plunge and see what they are all about at the very least so we can argue the point.


About the author

Jack Higgins was born in Belfast in 1929. He has written over 50 novels, and as well as writing under his own name he uses the following pseudonyms Martin Fallow, Hugh Marlowe and James Graham for his work. Under Higgins he has written 15 novels including this one featuring Sean Dillon as his main character.


About the book

An audacious attempt to assassinate the President of the United States is thwarted by the Secret Service tipped of by British Intelligence. The would be killer last words before killing himself are 'Beware the wrath of Allah'.

The Americans share this information with Sean Dillon working for British Intelligence to try and find out about this organisation and the men behind it and supporting it. In the course of the investigation Dillon comes into contact with Russian billionaire Josef Bellov, who made his money helping Saddam Hussain in the early 1990's.

They discover Bellov is supporting and encouraging Al-Qaeda, recruiting Muslims for training camps. One of his key recruiters in England is Dr Ali Selim and British Intelligence must find him and put him in a face house to find out more about this organisation. While Bellov and his team must also find their missing man and either silence him or stop anyone else extracting the truth from him.


My thoughts on the book

As this was my first ever read of a Jack Higgins novel I really didn't know what to expect and had nothing to compare it against. All I knew reading the introduction was this was going to be an action book involving terrorism of some kind and it sounded quite intriging if this short summary was anything to go by.

I thought it was an exciting adventure and quite an enjoyable read. And my initial thoughts were correct that it involved the military involved in the war against global terrorism. A subject I find interesting, which always helps, but as the same time one I do not always undertsand the aims or objectives of those involved.

I found the book really easy to read with good use of signposting by the author so I always knew what was going on and who was on who's side. I think the author could have made it a little longer as I found I had read it in no time without feeling really stimulated or that I had learnt an awful lot from this experience.

The story itself was simple enough to understand, but for me lacked any real cutting edge or major twists. And it was so obvious the outcome and result from early on in the book. I thought the author could have used a little more creativity or made or sub plot or two to keep the reader thinking, wondering and questioning.

Higgins's writing has a simple and straight forward elegance that I found refreshing if slightly dull. He described each setting well enough but it all seemed a little to simple with result being all too easy to achieve for the action hero.

For me the characters were what made the book more enjoyable. I instantly found I could relate to the rugged Sean Dillon but surprisingly maybe though Higgins well scripted and designed other lead characters, I also could relate to the opposing sides characters and viewpoint because the author had explained their ideas well enough and made the characters human.

What I did find bizarre however was the way each side knew not only the other side's key players but had worked with them or against them in previous war environments. And that these people met up and would taunt the other in the public arena. I realise I know nothing about this but it just seemed unlikely to me.

The book was exciting throughout with plenty of action encounters to make the book flow and fly by. With a gripping if somewhat short final chapter. I kept expecting there to be a sting in the tail. As it all seemed a bit too predictable and easy for Dillon.
I think had it all been more complex and hard work, I would have found it more exciting and stimulating as it was I knew the hero would pull through at the end of the day.

I found no real humour or for that matter mystery about the book. It was action all the way with some suspense thrown in for good measure.

One surprise for me, when I came to look for information about Jack Higgins I could not find an official web site in his name. All I could find were plenty of web sites selling his books but nothing really official telling the reader about him. For a man who had sold in excess of 250 million copies worldwide I found that rather disappointing.


Conclusion

I would only recommend this book to a fan of Sean Dillon or even Jack Higgins. For me while exciting and full of action scenes the book had a too simplistic story and far too obvious conclusion. I do not expect to read another Higgins book in the short term, but if anyone could recommend a different or better one I would certainly consider it.


Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 336
Price: from £0.45 on Amazon
ISBN: 0-00-712721-9
Year:2004

Thanks for reading

This review was also published on Ciao under my user name last year.

@CPTDANIELS February 2009

Summary: Action packed adventure.