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Summary: Vintage Higgins!
Review: Many of Jack Higgins older books are back in print, including the 1969 novel, In The Hour Before Midnight.Stacey Wyatt is a young and talented mercenary. Half Italian and half American, he is the grandson of Sicily's most notorious mafia boss. When an Italian bandit kidnaps a millionaire's stepdaughter, Stacey and his three partners are hired to rescue her. Making their way into the high altitude, rugged mountain terrain, Stacey and his friends encounter dangers beyond belief. It isn't long before Stacey realizes that he has actually walked into a trap. Unknown who the real enemy is, Stacey must use his skills to come out of the backcountry alive and in one piece. Fans of Higgins more recent novels, such as the Sean Dillon series, may notice in this book that Higgins spends a greater deal of time setting up the plot before jumping into the action. Nevertheless, the story stills reads with all the twists, treachery, and other elements you've come to expect from Higgins. All in all, In The Hour Before Midnight stands a a solid, enjoyable thriller.
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Summary: An A-Team Gone Bad
Review: Stacey Wyatt had earned his living as a member of a small band of mercenaries who hired out their services. Branching out on his own as a smuggler, he was captured and imprisoned. His old pals show up to break him out for a new assignment, rescuing a kidnapped young woman. The mission takes him back into contact with his Mafia family in Sicily he has not seen for years. Then things get interesting. Stacey finds himself involved in a high stakes game where it is hard to tell who your friends are and where loyalties lie. There is double dealing from many directions. A string of bodies is left scattered about the landscape as the plot works towards a surprising conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: An A-Team Gone Bad
Review: Stacey Wyatt had earned his living as a member of a small band of mercenaries who hired out their services. Branching out on his own as a smuggler, he was captured and imprisoned. His old pals show up to break him out for a new assignment, rescuing a kidnapped young woman. The mission takes him back into contact with his Mafia family in Sicily he has not seen for years. Then things get interesting. Stacey finds himself involved in a high stakes game where it is hard to tell who your friends are and where loyalties lie. There is double dealing from many directions. A string of bodies is left scattered about the landscape as the plot works towards a surprising conclusion.
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Summary: Mafia games in Sicily
Review: This book is supposed to be an oldie and a goodie. Well, it's an oldie. Goodie? OK, it's pretty good, but not spectacular. We enter the lives of an international gang of mercenaries on a special mission to rescue a kidnapped daughter of a multi-millionaire on the island of Sicily. Soon we find out one of our heroes has mafia connections, and the story changes character. This book is a very quick read. The ending was predictable and I never figured out the significance of the title. Several times I cannot figure out what causes our hero to act the way he did.
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Summary: Mafia games in Sicily
Review: This book is supposed to be an oldie and a goodie. Well, it's an oldie. Goodie? OK, it's pretty good, but not spectacular. We enter the lives of an international gang of mercenaries on a special mission to rescue a kidnapped daughter of a multi-millionaire on the island of Sicily. Soon we find out one of our heroes has mafia connections, and the story changes character. This book is a very quick read. The ending was predictable and I never figured out the significance of the title. Several times I cannot figure out what causes our hero to act the way he did.
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Summary: Very Good Book
Review: This novel was much better than Day of Reckoning. It was great and ending was a great surprise. This book is worth getting. Enjoy reading it very much.
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Summary: Stacey Wyatt Earp?
Review: Yes, it's a little strange reading a first-person account from an individual who resembles Superman more than Wyatt Earp. Of course, since Wyatt's telling the tale in the first person, he's going to be there standing proudly at the end of the story. The only question is, what happens in the meanwhile. Truly, very little happens.
What was positive about this book was its setting: mostly in Sicily. The author does a good job of describing the geography and people of that island. I read it with an atlas nearby and looked the places up as they were cited. I've never been to Italy, much less Sicily, so this part was interesting.
Otherwise, this novel is entirely "formulaic." Good guy bests all his bad adversaries and runs off into the sunset with the pretty girl.
Do "Higgins fans" enjoy this kind of a formula? Well, I'd say they certainly must, since Higgins is as prolific as a spider monkey and apparently has a large readership.
Me, I think I would get bored reading about "vengeance is mine," saith the hero. In fact, I did get bored reading this book, but I finished it (because I'm not a "quitter," you know, "quitters never win" etc.). Is that formulaic or what?
Well, quitters may never win but they might occasionally find a more interesting book to read than this one by Jack Higgins. However, I'm not giving up on Higgins. I'm going to try another book and see how closely it follows the formula. Diximus.
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