Day of Reckoning

Rating:
Summary: Okay ... so what?
Review: Here's the cliff notes version:

Within the first 10 pages of the book, the reader learns the good guy wants to ruin the bad guy by doing A, B, C and D. Two hundred plus pages later, the good guy has done A, B, C and D. The end.

Next book, please.

Rating:
Summary: Can't make this book sound any better
Review: I actually did not read the book, but listened to the audiocassete narrated by Frank Muller. Anyone familiar with the audiobooks industry knows that a bad narrator can make a great novel sound absolutely terrible, while a great narrator can make a terrible novel sound great. Frank Muller is a great narrator and can make magic happen with less than average stories. Unfortunately, Muller just could not make it happen with "Day of Reckoning". He could not hide the long and monotonous description of characters that Higgins portrayed, which actuallly proved to be a moot point with a lot of the scenarios anyways. This book doesn't even come close to an anticlimactic ending and in laymen's terms, this novel (isn't good).

Rating:
Summary: My first Higgins Novel
Review: I have never read or even heard of Jack Higgins. My friend gave me this book and I took a while to even open the book. Finally I decided to go for it and I was surprised. It's a quick read and has plenty of action.
The story centers around Blake Johnson and Jack Fox. Blake is a professional hit man for the President and Jack is a mafia guy. They will battle each other since Jack killed Blake's ex-wife. From that point on it moves very quickly and Blake meets up with his friends in England and in this tale they battle not only Jack but also Arab fanatics and the IRA.
My only complaint and why I gave it only 3 stars that at times things were moving way to fast. There wasn't much character development, but some reviewers have pointed out that this is a series so that explains that. I also thought it was a little unrealistic how they were able to unravel the mystery so easily but hey I wanted to have a good read not a documentary. :)
Overall, I did like it and plan on reading another Jack Higgins novel.

Rating:
Summary: Alright, so it's cliche....SO WHAT? It's exciting and fun!
Review: I really can't fault this book, and feel that other only can because they're silly nitpicking twits.

What do i look for in a book...well, ...I personally think this is one of Higgins's best books in years. Lately, he has produced a real string of absolutely stunning thrillers. Right from Drink with the Devil, and up to Midnight Runner which was published in the UK in feb, and is due to be published in the US in April. All of his most recent books have been excellent. They are fast paced, exciting, with likeable characters, interesting and intelligent plots, and good settings which span the globe.

This is no different. A recurring theme of his latest three books (Day of Reckoning, Edge of Danger, and now Midnight Runner) is revenge. This time the revenge is sought by Blake Johnson against the killers of his ex-wife, a mafia don whom she had been doing a jounrnalistic expose on. Johnson sets out to bring the don (Jack Fox) down, with the help of Sean Dillion and co. What follows is a truly exciting adventure which speeds along at high pace. The speed at which it switches from place to place is stunning, and the events unfold before you like a rollercoaster ride.

Higgins's writing is pitch-perfect. Some writers, in their quest to write well, overwrite their stories tremendously. And others, knowing the dangers of over-writing, try desperately to avoid doing so but instead they drastically oversimplify their work so it readsa like a ten year old's. Jack Higgins gets it just right. Not overwritten, but not oversimplfied either. just perfect.

A criticism of this book is his lack of characterisation of some of the major characters. Personally, i don't notice it, as i have come across them al before, and know them very well. That is a problem of series writing. You develop your characters in the early books, and as the series moves on there is very little developement left which you can do, and they run the risk of appearing 2d. However, this didn't spoil the book at all. This is an extremely high-class adventure story from a real master of modern fiction, powered by high emotion.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy it, borrow if you want to read it
Review: If this had been an early work by a writer, it would have ranked pretty decently.

However, coming from Jack Higgins, writer of The Eagle Has Landed and other exciting books, this book is a pathetic rehash of worn-out formula, reusing Sean Dillon in its umpteenth time as a nemesis operating outside legal jurisdiction.

The premise was very simple, and almost like the last several Sean Dillon's novel. The ex-wife of Blake Johnson was murdered for trying to expose Jack Fox, a new generation of Mafia don in America. Blake Johnson was a personal friend of the US President as well as the head of the Basement, a clandestine US agency which answered only to the president. Clandestine my foot, Jack Fox easily got a gambling addict of a computer don to hack into government computers and found out all about Blake and the Basement, and no warning was triggered in one of the supposedly most secure computer systems in the world of intrusion.

Deciding to strip everything away from Jack Fox before killing him, Jake learned through the assistance of British G4 - Ferguson, Sean Dillon, Hannah Bernstein & recently added temp member hacker whiz Roper - that Jack Fox needed to snag several big illegal deals in Europe & Middle East to make good the financial losses he incurred in legitimate businesses.

What followed was a series of computer arcade style of shoot, bomb and destroy mission, with Dillon & Johnson targetting every one of Jack Fox's illegal business deals outside the Mafia.

Readers would get no kick as the heroes blast their way across from New York to London to Lebanon to Ireland. The villains did absolutely nothing to counter Dillon and Johnson, except for a few minor attempts at reprisal. Not even the flash-forward in chapter one whereby Johnson was captured and brought to Hellsmouth did anything to increase the excitement.

Higgins made a pathetic attempt to add dramatic tension by Hannah Bernstein's moral delimna of her boss Ferguson and her colleague Dillon's impunity at operating outside the law, and add another female gunner to balance her. However, these fizzled to nothing than a few phrases to state she felt upset.

On the whole, there was nothing added to the recurring characters and the villain Jack Fox who was supposed to be a Desert Storm veteran played mafia like a backyard bully - and was even derided by Dillon and Roper as not lasting a minute in Belfast.

This book may suit those into the shooting arcade game culture, but nothing more.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book
Review: Not even same, same. Clearly Higgins and publishers have resorted to churning out mediocrity written by school children for pocket money under the brand name of Higgins. Obviously the best work is now behind us and like so many authors who have established themselves and then cease to respect the readers who established them (Clancy, James Patterson, John Grisham et al) we get insulted by teams of nobodies trying to write a book under a known name using stale ingredients mixed together in a drunken stupor. That's the last Higgins I read.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book
Review: The Day of Reckoning is an exemplar of a novel at its worst. Sean Dillon and his all-star cast of superhuman vigilantes hardly inspire, and infact tend to irritate.
My advice: This book is worse than the plague, so run away from it.

Rating:
Summary: How bad can a book be .....
Review: This has to be one of the worst books I have every had the displeasure of reading. First and foremost there is no character development at all. In an effort to write a book that moves along at a quick pace he pushed the story along at a pace that nothing is enjoyable. As to what characterization he created was in many cases offensive. Especially of people of Italian decent. I think Mr. Higgins has let his prejudices shine through in his work. I would suggest he do a little more homework on his subject matter if he is going to create a believable reality for his stories. This is the first book I have ever read by Higgins and I think it will be the last. Thank god I purchased this book at the bargain table.

Rating:
Summary: As always Higgins is the master.
Review: Thuis book is as all of his other books a true masterful tale of intrigue. I simply had to find out how he was going to end the book, he did not let me down. I was hooked and could not put this thriller down. another un-down-putable book. The pro is Jack Higgins. Another great job! Another winner.

Rating:
Summary: Underwhelming
Review: Unlike most of the authors that I read, with Higgins I now pass on the first-run hardcover publication and wait for the paperback version or for the hardcover to hit the "bargain book" rack. Higgins' early material is great, but, over the years, he has grown complacent. The book is only 295 pages in hardcover, with very large margins, larger-than-average type face, and several blank filler pages between chapters. I want a book that is a page turner because the story and action force the reader to blow through the book, not because the word count per page is so low (as is increasingly the case with Higgins). The storyline (revenge) is good enough to warrant two stars, but it lacks depth. Character development outside the recurring characters is minimal to non-existent. Dialog is terse and choppy. The book is not so much of a disappointment for what it is but rather for what it could have been. If Higgins keeps this up, I will not only swear off the new hardcover versions but will take a pass on the paperback/bargain book versions as well.