The Graveyard Shift

Rating:
Summary: An average police story
Review: This is a reprint of a novel first published in 1965, but the setting seems to be slightly earlier. A pound sterling was worth considerably more than now. The story covers a one-day period and is a little too compressed in time.

The story introduces Nick Miller, a police sergeant with independent financial means. The case concerns Ben Garvald, just released from serving a sentence for a payroll robbery. There are people who don't want Ben to come home, including his ex-wife and her sister. The search for Ben results in a large amount of collateral damage as various characters seem to trip over their own feet.

Some of the plot does not seem very realistic, perhaps because monetary amounts seemed too low for the related actions, or perhaps because there is too much action in too short a time period. It is an OK read, but not one of the best mysteries among novels recently published.

Rating:
Summary: An average police story
Review: This is a reprint of a novel first published in 1965, but the setting seems to be slightly earlier. A pound sterling was worth considerably more than now. The story covers a one-day period and is a little too compressed in time.

The story introduces Nick Miller, a police sergeant with independent financial means. The case concerns Ben Garvald, just released from serving a sentence for a payroll robbery. There are people who don't want Ben to come home, including his ex-wife and her sister. The search for Ben results in a large amount of collateral damage as various characters seem to trip over their own feet.

Some of the plot does not seem very realistic, perhaps because monetary amounts seemed too low for the related actions, or perhaps because there is too much action in too short a time period. It is an OK read, but not one of the best mysteries among novels recently published.

Rating:
Summary: Ok Read
Review: This was not Jack Higgins finest hour. I have read better. The ending was the only good thing about the book. Look for other Jack Higgins novels.

Rating:
Summary: Well written and intertesting
Review: This was the first book of Jack Higgins I have ever had the pleasure to read. I spent the evening reading it and finished it in three hours.
The plot was well paced and the characters interesting, a fine book and a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Reading a master writer as he learns his craft
Review: While this is certainly not the Higgins many of us expect in his present day writings, it is still a very nice piece of work. Those who pick this book up, expecting an Eagle Has Landed or The President's Daughter, will be disappointed. This book pre-dates much of Higgins' work, but it does offer us insight into how he crafted his tales.

We see him ply the descriptions that we have to come to expect and his characters all have nuances that make them almost real. At times you can hear them talking to you. The story takes place essentially within the span of 12 hours, covering the Graveyard Shift of the Central Division of the London police. A newly assigned Sargeant is called into duty a few days early, due to a lack of personnel and a flu bug making the rounds.

His task is simple enough. Find a recently released felon and inform him that he should not go near his ex-wife, who has remarried. But the felon is intent on seeing her, and as Sargeant looks for him, the underworld of London's nightlife becomes the focus of the story. When the felon turns up dead, the Sargeant begins to put the pieces together, and the perpetrator is caught.

This is a quick read that is hard to put down, as many of Higgins' books are. It's a great book to use to introduce Higgins to a new reader. This book will remain on my shelves for years to come, and I have placed in the local public libraries here as well.

Rating:
Summary: Reading a master writer as he learns his craft
Review: While this is certainly not the Higgins many of us expect in his present day writings, it is still a very nice piece of work. Those who pick this book up, expecting an Eagle Has Landed or The President's Daughter, will be disappointed. This book pre-dates much of Higgins' work, but it does offer us insight into how he crafted his tales.

We see him ply the descriptions that we have to come to expect and his characters all have nuances that make them almost real. At times you can hear them talking to you. The story takes place essentially within the span of 12 hours, covering the Graveyard Shift of the Central Division of the London police. A newly assigned Sargeant is called into duty a few days early, due to a lack of personnel and a flu bug making the rounds.

His task is simple enough. Find a recently released felon and inform him that he should not go near his ex-wife, who has remarried. But the felon is intent on seeing her, and as Sargeant looks for him, the underworld of London's nightlife becomes the focus of the story. When the felon turns up dead, the Sargeant begins to put the pieces together, and the perpetrator is caught.

This is a quick read that is hard to put down, as many of Higgins' books are. It's a great book to use to introduce Higgins to a new reader. This book will remain on my shelves for years to come, and I have placed in the local public libraries here as well.