Rating: 
Summary: Another winner for Higgins!
Review: Jack Higgins has woven a cast of characters that are daring and very real in this dangerous world. He has created a separate hit squad on either side of the Atlantic to deal with baddies - and one of the best characters he has in Sean Dillon, formerly of the IRA and now working for the government. He is a killing machine. Yet it is tearing him apart. He is a shark that must keep moving or else he'll die, and he knows it and must go on.
This book gives more info on the Rashid family and how Baron Von Berger made his wealth in part of the Rashids and part of his secret possession of Hitler's diary that implicates the current American President Cazalet's father during world war peace negotiations. The good guys go after the bad company to retreive the diary and stop Von Berger & co.
This series of books is excellent and keeps its quality. I urge those who have not followed from the beginning to indulge and get the paperbacks and follow up these excellent characters. Imaging Sean Penn as Sean Dillon...not pretty, but gets the job effectively done...
Rating: 
Summary: The Beagle Has Landed (or, Higgins delivers a dog)
Review: Jack Higgins is just spinning his wheels in this boring "thriller" that recycles his usual cast of characters with very little new interest (and is anyone else besides me getting tired of them?). The "McGuffin" in this book is so weak that one wonders why this crack team of international tough guys even cares about it. Everyone walks through the paces without much reflection or embellishment. I agree with another poster that "SOLO" and "EAGLE" are top-form Higgins and should be where new readers start.
The audio version with Patrick Macnee takes it down a notch. I loved P.M. in The Avengers, and he has a great voice, but as a book reader he goes WAY over the top emotionally. Every line of dialog is read with undue intensity, like in a corny stage melodrama, and his Italian accent is so bad that I laughed every time he used it.
Rating:
Summary: Sean Dillon: "Lit Lite"
Review: Let's face it, this book is not great literature nor, I suspect, does the author intend it to be. I really think Mr. Higgins just wants to present his loyal readers with an action-packed, page-turning read every so many months, and he has accomplished that once again with this book. It's quite easy to read, and I polished it off in one sitting over about four hours. The usual group of good guys is present, with Sean Dillon given the opportunity to show what, for lack of a better term, is his "soft side" when he reacts to the murder of an elderly woman. There's the usual mayhem, with Dillon and Company prevailing in the end. Sure the plot is fairly predictable, the characters occasionally merely stick figures, but you don't read this type of book and expect to get "War and Peace"! Open it, start turning the pages, and hang on for the expected wide and wooly ride!
Rating: 
Summary: A sparse direct thriller
Review: Once again Sean Dillon must come to the rescue. After the deaths of his adversaries, the Rashid family, Dillon now faces Baron von Berger and his illegitimate son, Marco Rossi, who have remaining interest in the Rashid fortune. Von Berger wants revenge and will stop at nothing. He has in his possession the actual diary of Adolph Hitler that can potentially wreak havoc on the leadership of the free world and threatens to use it. Dillon must stop him while trying to save himself.
Jack Higgins continues to write spare direct novels that get right to the point. In one quick sentence he announces the death of a main character- no emotion- no build up. With thriller writers today writing bulky tomes, it would seem to be almost refreshing to read a shorter work. However, Higgins may go a bit too far. A word of caution- the book picks up on MIDNIGHT RUNNER and if the reader hasn't read at least that far back, they may be a bit confused as to what is happening. However, Jack Higgins remains an icon and a noted practitioner of the art of the thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: "Nazis . . . I really hate those guys."
Review: One of the deadpan lines delivered by the heroic Indiana Jones in one of the 1930-1940 successful series, reminds me of the question how bad could a book be that continues to punish the Evil empire?Jack Higgins never lets us down. We always know what's coming. The quips between Hannah Bernstein and Sean Dillon; the wisdom and experience of Charles Ferguson; the accolades from the President and the Prime Minister. We've seen it all before and we love it! It's hard to give it a 5 star rating because there's nothing new. Here we have Baron von Berger, having survived certain death in the bunker, presently living the good life as an industrialist with access to Hitler's billions. He eventually becomes involved with Kate Rashid, the sister of Mid Eastern oil barons (the Rashid Brothers) and von Berger's empire becomes exponentially larger. His long lost son, Marco Rossi, returns to him and the two plot vengeance on General Fergusen and Sean, as a result of the latters' involvement in the killing of the Rashid brothers and possibly of the death of sister Kate. Mr. Higgins writes an enjoyable story. A fast read. He won't stretch you like Dennis Lehane or John LeCarre or Elizabeth George. A fun read. If you want more, this is probably not the place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty bad, if I'm honest, but enjoyable!
Review: Our story begins at the funeral of Kate Rashid, the villainess of Higgins's last thriller, whom undercover enforcer Sean Dillon managed to kill before she wrought her vengeance upon him for killing her three beloved brothers. Dillon and his companions watch on, increasingly uneasy at the presence of Baron Max von Berger, a multi-millionaire friend of the Rashid's, who has now interhited their old empire in the Hazar that is worth billions. Now, von Berger himself wants revenge, and it is a matter of honour. Kate Rashid once saved his life, and she was a very dear friend. He is determined to exact justice on those who conspired to destroy the Rashid's and their empire: Dillon, his friend in the government General Charles Ferguson, and their colleague, White House insider Blake Johnson. But, unknown to them, Berger has a secret weapon. In the waning days of WWII Hitler entrusted von Berger, his close aide, with his diary detailing the final six months of the war, and a meeting he had with President Roosevelt which could have stopped the war before it started. Bad Company is another of Higgins's increasingly by-the-numbers, cliched, formulaid thrillers that just reuse aspects from his other books (boats blown-up, planes crashed, assassinations, etc), but it is a primse example. A one character says of the events in the book, "It's like a bad novel", and that is exactly what they are. They are the evnets of a bad novel. however, they are also the envets of an entertaining story, and this is exactly what this is. A great story, a nice adventure. It's fast, thrilling, enjoyable, nothing more. nothing less. If you are looking for great writing, don't come here. If you're looking for a plot that wont fall apart under close scrutiny, also don't come here. If you're simply looking for a quick, easy read that's a bit James Pattersonesque in style, then do come here. There's only one little problem, really: Dillon is flat and cardboard. Higgins has reduced him merely to proper nouns and pronouns, and as a result the reader tends to prefer the villains, who are more colourful, and that leads to dissappointment come the finale (which is a tad rushed), in which, of course, the heroes unfailingly win. Still, Bad Company is light and easy reading, and it's relatively easy to overlook that almost everything within has been lifted from various other Jack Higgins books. This is about as close to literature as a TV guide, but, then, it doesn't intend to be.
Rating:
Summary: A kindergarten's police and thief
Review: Recent Higgins' books have become like a children's game of police-and-thief. Higgins used to produce great thrillers set in WW2 & the Cold War. He also produced some from a more common man's POV, such as Graveyard Shift. Readers could actually feel the flesh and blood of the characters, or enjoy the plot development with unexpected twists. No more. Ever since he hooked up Sean Dillon, the quality of the writing steadily went down. Readers do not feel the characters were going through any real danger, whether it be diving, flying, parachuting, sailing or driving. The villains were mostly UK or US war veterans turned bad, and failed to impress. The worse was it appeared to be a game played in the children's playground - police & thief. The good guys know where the bad guys are, and the bad guys know where the good guys are. Ask the hacker, and bingo, you have your foes' complete historical dossier, his itinerary, not to mention the blueprint of his house, his boat and his plane. The good guys and the bad guys never failed to meet in a trendy London club or restaurant just to say to each other "I'm gonna get you." At the end of the day, the good guy and the bad guy just pull their guns at each other and the good guy walked away because he was just a little faster. Recurring cast got to live for another book. This is not the same type of the book produced under the author's name that made its mark such as "The Eagle has landed", "Cold Harbor" and "A Game for Heroes".
Rating:
Summary: Oh, My!
Review: Screwcaps on wine bottles - actually not invented until about the late 1960s, I think. But that (and a lot of other weird stuff) pales when you compare it to Sara, the secretary of the Führer. A snowball in hell would have had a lengthy life compared to a Sara in Hitler's bunker; bear in mind that one of the most dignity-killing acts under the German Racial Laws was that every Jew had to use a Jewish first name -- Sara was one of those names, as was Moses for men. A little research by the author would have shown that Hitler, at that stage in life, was a foaming-at-the-mouth paranoiac (maybe for good reasons), and his gentle conversation with the "SS pilot" who renders a forbidden salute to the Supreme Commander of the Reich's military....well, what can I say! Oy, Gevalt, mein Führer!
Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: See storyline above. First of all I don't remember Jack Higgins previous novels being this bad. Okay, the plot had potential and the action was there, but this book seemed like it was very rushed. The characters didn't seem there usual self (Dillon being stopped by a tractor in the road? No other explanation?). Please. The brevity of the book and the rushed style (very little depth) made for a very disappointing read. Not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Bad book, no plot
Review: The book doesn't have much plot.
It starts great but ends with cheap street fight.
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