Rating: 
Summary: I cant believe Id never read this great book before!
Review: As a fan of the genre, I had a happy surprise when I read this exciting page turner (in one gleeful sitting!)...if you like fanciful, detailed, phenominally researched action stories, this is about as good as it gets! Grab a copy, curl up and ENJOY!
Rating: 
Summary: Overated
Review: I have read so many positive reviews about this book and about Higgins, that I probably set my expectations up too high.
Sure, the book is good, the characters have a strong presence, and the plot is well conceived, but in summary it didn't seem more than an OK book.
Definitely not the type of book you simply can't put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing more than a good plot gone bad.
Review: I picked this book up as a choice for my summer reading list. With the most interesting plot revealed in the summary and my interest in WWII, I chose it over the others. I was disappointed.
The plot carries out relatively smoothly but with far too many changes in direction, switching point of views more often than necessary. The character's personalities are well-established, I'll give it that.
But the point when this story picked up was in the last 80 pages or so; way too late for me to still be interested. At page 275 or so, I got interested in the book more, only to be thrown for a loop when I got to the ending. That ending was one of the most disappointing I've read in a long time. The revelation at the end, which was not straight out given to you, ruined a good portion of that book for me.
Disappointing. Definitely not something I'd consider a good book.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive Higgins classic!
Review: If there are two Jack Higgins books you absolutely MUST read, then this one and also EYE OF THE STORM are top of the list! This is perhaps his best known one in the UK - in 1943, Germany plots the ultimate undercover operation where an assorted ragbag of NAzi sympathisers and German paratroopers(Kurt Steiner being the main character here) clandestinely invade England to kidnap Prime Minister Winston Churchill. One of the main protagonists is Liam Devlin, an IRA fighter who teams up with the Germans and enjoys a romance with farmhand Molly Prior throughout the story. Everything seems to go smoothly until two children almost drown and one of the Germans tries to rescue them - and the residents of Norfolk village Studley Constable(where a lot of the action takes place) soon discover what exactly is about to happen. At this pojnt, the action moves swifty and builds up to an unexpected climax. One wonders if such a thing really did happen during World War 2, on reading the closing lines in the book . . . you never know! A real page-turner, which, although written in 1975, is still a winner today.
Rating:
Summary: The #1 classic
Review: In my opinion, this is the very best Higgins book. It is the type of novel that once into it, the reader simply cannot put down, especially after the team lands in England.The premise of the story is a group of Germans that have a mission to kidnap Churchill. The leader, Kurt Steiner, a paratrooper, is a very compelling character, which makes th readers simpathize with him. On the other side is Liam Devlin, a former IRA fighter, helping the team in England. The story unfolds seamlessly, with the German team recruiting help in England of nazi simpathizers, then moving in and planning the kidnap at Churchill's country estate. As they are almost ready for the kidnapping, two children almost drown and one of the Germans tries to help them, blowing his cover. Then I should say no more, as the story becomes a thriller that the reader just cannot put down. It ends in an unexpected climax. Though early in Higgins' career, I think this remains his very best, though it does not mean his later books are bad, just that this one is really good.
Rating:
Summary: CAN'T PUT DOWN TYPE OF THRILLER
Review: In my opinion, this is the very best Higgins book. It is the type of novel that once into it, the reader simply cannot put down, especially after the team lands in England. The premise of the story is a group of Germans that have a mission to kidnap Churchill. The leader, Kurt Steiner, a paratrooper, is a very compelling character, which makes th readers simpathize with him. On the other side is Liam Devlin, a former IRA fighter, helping the team in England. The story unfolds seamlessly, with the German team recruiting help in England of nazi simpathizers, then moving in and planning the kidnap at Churchill's country estate. As they are almost ready for the kidnapping, two children almost drown and one of the Germans tries to help them, blowing his cover. Then I should say no more, as the story becomes a thriller that the reader just cannot put down. It ends in an unexpected climax. Though early in Higgins' career, I think this remains his very best, though it does not mean his later books are bad, just that this one is really good.
Rating:
Summary: Higgins' classic WWII thriller stands the test of time......
Review: It is November 1943, and the Second World War is in its fourth year. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich is fending off Allied advances in the Eastern Front and in Italy. German cities are being bombed "around the clock" by the American and British air forces. Across the English Channel, the Anglo-American forces are marshaling troops and making plans for history's greatest amphibious operation, which is tentatively scheduled for May of 1944. But even though Germany has suffered great defeats in North Africa and the vast territories of the Soviet Union, Hitler still has hopes of winning the war. Desperately seeking a significant propaganda victory and inspired by the rescue of fellow dictator Benito Mussolini by a team of German special forces, the Fuhrer (egged on by SS chief Heinrich Himmler) orders the head of Military Intelligence (Abwehr) to carry out an even more daring special forces mission: to capture British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bring him to the Reich. At first, it is an offhand remark, "a joke," as Abwehr Col. Max Radl notes, "...something the Fuhrer threw out in an angry mood on a Wednesday, to be forgotten by Friday." Soon, though, as Himmler orders a feasibility study and Radl ponders it, what seems like a fantastic notion soon starts looking as something that can, with the right men and conditions, be done. This dangerous mission is assigned to Lt. Col. Kurt Steiner, the son of a German general and his American wife, and a small group of paratroopers. Their mission: to drop into East Anglia near the town of Studley Constable, where Abwehr agent Joanna Grey and IRA operative Liam Devlin are waiting to assist in the capture of Britain's wartime leader, and snatch Churchill from the estate where he is staying while on an inspection tour. And so, in the early morning hours of November 6, 1943, as soon as Steiner's small band of paratroopers floats down onto English soil, Heinrich Himmler receives the coded message he has been waiting for with great anticipation: "The Eagle has landed." Jack Higgins' bestselling novel was published almost 30 years ago, but its taut storyline and inventive blend of fact and fiction place this World War II thriller in the ranks of the best books of the genre. His descriptions of historical characters -- such as Adolf Hitler -- and his references to actual historical events give the whole scenario verisimilitude. All the characters -- hero, anti-hero, and even villains -- are well-developed and believable. Higgins also has the creative chutzpah of injecting a first-person narrator named Jack Higgins, making the book sound like a reporter's expose of a German mission so daring that it had to be covered up by the Allies. The novel launched Higgins' career into almost instant fame, and in turn inspired a 1977 film version starring Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, and Joanna Miles. It was followed in the mid-1980s by a sequel, The Eagle Has Flown.
Rating:
Summary: Higgins' classic WWII thriller stands the test of time......
Review: It is November 1943, and the Second World War is in its fourth year. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich is fending off Allied advances in the Eastern Front and in Italy. German cities are being bombed "around the clock" by the American and British air forces. Across the English Channel, the Anglo-American forces are marshaling troops and making plans for history's greatest amphibious operation, which is tentatively scheduled for May of 1944. But even though Germany has suffered great defeats in North Africa and the vast territories of the Soviet Union, Hitler still has hopes of winning the war. Desperately seeking a significant propaganda victory and inspired by the rescue of fellow dictator Benito Mussolini by a team of German special forces, the Fuhrer (egged on by SS chief Heinrich Himmler) orders the head of Military Intelligence (Abwehr) to carry out an even more daring special forces mission: to capture British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bring him to the Reich. At first, it is an offhand remark, "a joke," as Abwehr Col. Max Radl notes, "...something the Fuhrer threw out in an angry mood on a Wednesday, to be forgotten by Friday." Soon, though, as Himmler orders a feasibility study and Radl ponders it, what seems like a fantastic notion soon starts looking as something that can, with the right men and conditions, be done. This dangerous mission is assigned to Lt. Col. Kurt Steiner, the son of a German general and his American wife, and a small group of paratroopers. Their mission: to drop into East Anglia near the town of Studley Constable, where Abwehr agent Joanna Grey and IRA operative Liam Devlin are waiting to assist in the capture of Britain's wartime leader, and snatch Churchill from the estate where he is staying while on an inspection tour. And so, in the early morning hours of November 6, 1943, as soon as Steiner's small band of paratroopers floats down onto English soil, Heinrich Himmler receives the coded message he has been waiting for with great anticipation: "The Eagle has landed." Jack Higgins' bestselling novel was published almost 30 years ago, but its taut storyline and inventive blend of fact and fiction place this World War II thriller in the ranks of the best books of the genre. His descriptions of historical characters -- such as Adolf Hitler -- and his references to actual historical events give the whole scenario verisimilitude. All the characters -- hero, anti-hero, and even villains -- are well-developed and believable. Higgins also has the creative chutzpah of injecting a first-person narrator named Jack Higgins, making the book sound like a reporter's expose of a German mission so daring that it had to be covered up by the Allies. The novel launched Higgins' career into almost instant fame, and in turn inspired a 1977 film version starring Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, and Joanna Miles. It was followed in the mid-1980s by a sequel, The Eagle Has Flown.
Rating:
Summary: The #1 classic
Review: It's been a while since I read this awesome WW 2 adventure. I still remember the story though. A crack team of German paratroopers are sent to England to kidnap or kill Prime Minister Winston Churchill. There's also an IRA gunman helping the Nazis on their mission. He gets romantically involved with an English farm girl.
The story is very well detailed. The SS scenes are probably as realistic as they get. The Germans blow their cover when they try to rescue a boy from drowning in the English village of Studley Constable. This leads to the hold-up of hostages in a church. That's when the action really begins. Like Higgins states in the book, at least 50% of this story is documented historical fact. You have to decide for yourself how much of the rest of it may have actually happenned.
If you like this book, also check out "The Dark Side of the Island," one of Jack Higgins' lesser known books. It's another great adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: The last pages are impossible to put down
Review: No doubt, this is the best book Jack Higgins has written so far! Although the story suffers under the bulk of espionage genre clich?s, like for example "no good suspense novel without a good romance", the basic idea is refreshingly original. The story is told from the perspective of the German soldiers and this is a quite daring and enthralling viewpoint. In the end you are so in touch with the story and its characters that you start to hope that the Germans will succeed in their crazy mission. The pace of the narrative is quite slow for the first hundred pages, but this gives the reader the opportunity to get really involved into the lives of the main characters. This part can easily be compared with the depth reached in a John Le Carre novel. When the climax comes nearer the pace suddenly changes quite dramatically. And believe me: once the show started, you cannot put this book down. Oh no!
|
