Rating: 
Summary: Writing on autopilot
Review: After reading this book, I felt guilty for having purchased it, because that contributed to its best-seller status. (Oops, maybe not; the way it works now, it was a bestseller the day it hit ths stores.) But it is sad to think of all the aspiring writers who struggle to get a publisher's attention for their worthy efforts, while this strangely hollow piece waltzed its way to bestseller status. Some editor should have thrown cold water on this potboiler.
Rating:
Summary: Edge of Danger
Review: Somebody from higher places should have stopped Mr. Higgins and the publisher from putting this book on the market.
It¡¯s quite disturbing to see the absence of integrity and sense of responsibility in providing a joy of reading to the public.All along, I had fight off the growing urge of disposing this disastrous novel only because the shipping charge cost more than the book itself.
Yet, once I overcame my frustration and finished the book, I regretted not heeding to my senses. It¡¯s obvious that Mr. Higgins had no heart in writing this book, and he made no effort in showing creativity with words.
I was about to scream my head off when he kept rehashing the same phrases (e.g., browning with carswell silencer) over and over again in every single chapter!! This book made me a true anti-Higgins.
...
Rating: 
Summary: Only 2 stars?
Review: I've read a number of the reviews, and thought they were too hard. This is escapism - nothing more, and nothing less. The dialogue is trite and cliche, and the plot formulaic. But that is what makes Higgins so good. Its fun! And sure you have to suspend disbelief occassionally to make the plot work - but what's the harm with that? I enjoyed this book. It returns Higgins back to form after a number of less successful books in recent years. Even inspite of the cliches and plot formulas, there is a distinct 'grittiness' about the characters, which has been long over due.
Rating:
Summary: A [sad] product of a master
Review: This novel has got more plot holes than a mosquito net and more repetitions than financial scandals in corporate America. Did Jack Higgins think he was designing a computer game with progressive scenarios and cut scenes of tete-a-tete between the heroes and the villains between scenarios? The premise of the story was this: a union of the a Mid-Eastern tribe and a Scottish noble family produced the Rashid-Daunceys, financially rich, ambitious and aristocratic from long traditions. Family motto "I Always Return". All the male scions of the family graduated Stanhurst, with the eldest, Paul, serving in the Gulf War and Northern Ireland. Post Gulf War, they concentrated their efforts to monopolise control of the oil production in their native Bedu. Enter American-Russian consortium intent on bypassing the Rashids, involving some failed assassination attempt on Paul. An unfortunate accident also killed their mother, coincidentally involving a Russian representative of the consortium. It was from here that the plot began to become ridiculous. Granted that their Arabic blood (and Scottish as well) demanded some revenge, but Paul chose the assassination of the US president to make a warning against messing with the Bedu, never mind that the president Jake Cavalet was acknowledged as a decent guy who was not involved. The first big question was: even if they could assassinate Jake Cavalet, how would the world know it was for messing with the Bedu? And if the Bedu or the Rashids claimed the kill, what would be left of the Bedu or the Rashids after the outraged Americans were done with their vengeance? Frederick Forsyth's Day of the Jackal had the assassin carefully planning his moves, erasing his tracks and maintaining his anonymity, intending on permanent retirement in the aftermath. In contrast, Higgins' plotters talked like they accepted such deals every second Tuesday of the month. The failed attempt of Jake Cavalet (no thanks to dismal security), and capture of one of the assassins, leaked the entire plot to the president, his advisor Blake Johnson, and through a connection with Sean Dillon, the British PM and MG Ferguson of Group 4. This was where the ridiculousness was brought to a new height - they did nothing except to watch the Rashids and try to catch the Rashids at the next attempt. Had there been no surviving witnesses, the authorities might not have been able to do anything. But enough evidence was present to confirm the Rashids involvement, and instead of bringing the very expensive agencies, the US and UK leaders took the passive role. The Rashids swaggered through town with impunity after failing to kill the US president and left one of the assassins to be captured alive; this was where the book lost its credibility altogether. The rest of the book had Sean Dillon playing cat-and-mouse game with the Rashids, except that they could not agree who was to be mouse and who was to be the cat. Jack Higgins tried to make this a little different from his previous Dillon-is-the-hero book by introducing two sidekicks for him; former London gangsters; one of whom the readers were repeatedly reminded of how many times he was imprisoned, and Jack also took out policewoman Hannah Bernstein, having her wounded and confined to the hospital. However, instead of making this book fresh or different, the scenes became trite with cliche conversations and reactions from the characters. Though the locations moved across the world from UK to US to the Bedu's Hazar in the Middle East, there was nothing meaningful significance about each scene. In the end, it concluded with Paul Rashid telling his sister Kate that he wanted to continue the game with Dillon because it gave him more kick than earning another billion. The charaters in this book could hardly be less cardboard-like. The epilogue ended with Kate Rashid, still a free (and bloody rich) woman, despite being clearly and personally involved in the plots, promising vengeance on Ferguson, Dillon & Co., all in a cozy bar just like the British commenting on the weather. The hint of the sequel did not hold much promise, Jack Higgins had better realise how awful this book was before he became condemned permanently as a has-been. He ought to re-study his previous books like Cold Harbour, the Eagle had landed and A Game for Heroes to rediscover the human element which made his book so good.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a book for a thinking person
Review: Oh, man...Jack Higgins, where have you gone? Eye of the Storm, the introduction of Sean Dillon, is perhaps Higgins' best work. Starting with The President's Daughter, however, it's been all down hill.
It's sort of like when your favorite All-star ballplayer starts hitting below .250, and never snaps out of it.
I know fiction is fiction, but anyone who has even the most basic understanding of world politics will have a tough time buying into the plot.
Higgins has a history of characters whose families have dual ethnicities, as does the main antagonist in this story. But Paul Rashid's background -- half Arab, half English, and he was an SAS soldier in the Gulf War -- doesn't jive with some of the things he does in the present setting of the story. Like Rashid telling all of the Arab fringe groups to start kicking up a fuss. Arafat can't control these people, but they'll listen to some guy who fought AGAINST Arabs? Don't know about that one, Jack old boy.
The book boils down to the Rashids sending one hit squad after the next to knock off Dillon and his cronies, Dillon of course foiling the attempts and wasting the hitmen, and then Dillon and Ferguson et al bumping into the Rashids the next day in a nice restaurant and chatting about it.
Rating:
Summary: A great story.
Review: Higgins is a great storyteller. This is a great book. I liked it. A climax that was explosive.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it.
Review: I've read 5 or 6 Higgins books, and this is one of my favorites. I like Sean Dillion. I also enjoyed the Rashid Family as characters, although I was surprised how quickly and easily Dillion went through them. I thought there would be a few more left for the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment on every page
Review: I'm so glad that this was not my first Jack Higgins novel. If it were, it would also be my last.
Normally, I can forgive Higgins his cliche's and his obsessive attention to his characters' drinking habits, because his characters are fun and interesting. He puts them in great plots and pulls the reader happily through them, and you can't wait to find the next book especially if it's got Sean Dillon.
But not this one. All the characters are wooden. The action is colorless and completely unbelievable. A president guarded only by one secret service agent and a dog? A professional assassin who whacks his target on the head and then shoots someone else?
There is no sense of timing or place, only the thinnest of motivations for most characters, and no justification for many of the decisions made by characters.
This book is amateur hour. Don't bother. Read some of Higgins's earlier works instead.
Rating:
Summary: This is not the Jack Higgins I know
Review: This is by far his worst effort that I've read. He's not my favorite spy author,anyway. This book feels like it had been written to fulfill a publisher's contract or obligation that Mr. Higgins had assumed and needed to finish in a hurry. The characters are not at all fleshed out, and the story line is too contrived. I would advise not wasting time by reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Edge of Danger by Jack Higgins
Review: I was a big fan of Jack Higgins adventures until this book! I think this book reads like a poorly written condensed version of a good story - or like the outline of a book. It jumped around too abruptly with poorly written dialogue - no conversation was stretched into a normal length of exchange between people. It was difficult to keep track of all the minor characters in the book because none of them were well developed. I will proabably never read another Jack Higgins book. I am very disappointed - just like I got with Robert Ludlum in one of his later novels. I have never read another book of his either.
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