The Keys of Hell

Rating:
Summary: Confusion
Review: The reason I titled this review "Confusion" was due to the fact that I am perplexed about how whenever I read a book from a new author, it is one of his lesser accomplishments. I know Jack Higgins is a great and successful author, but I am going to say I did not enjoy this book. It wasn't written poorly, but due to its paper-thin storyline, I wasn't impressed. The story is just a giant flashback. It begins with a group of Italians reviewing Paul Chavasse's file, and they are impressed by one of his missions. Higgins' then stretches this thin plot through 250 pages. Personally, I would've rather read the summary in Chavasse's file than have read "The Keys of Hell."

Rating:
Summary: Confusion
Review: The reason I titled this review "Confusion" was due to the fact that I am perplexed about how whenever I read a book from a new author, it is one of his lesser accomplishments. I know Jack Higgins is a great and successful author, but I am going to say I did not enjoy this book. It wasn't written poorly, but due to its paper-thin storyline, I wasn't impressed. The story is just a giant flashback. It begins with a group of Italians reviewing Paul Chavasse's file, and they are impressed by one of his missions. Higgins' then stretches this thin plot through 250 pages. Personally, I would've rather read the summary in Chavasse's file than have read "The Keys of Hell."

Rating:
Summary: The Keys to Nowhere
Review: There's an Albanian proverb that is quoted in the beginning of this book that says that there are no keys to hell, that the doors are open to all men. Well, someone here left the doors open all right, but left the lights out. Don't get me wrong, Jack Higgins is one of the grand old men of suspense. Anyone who has ever read "The Eagle Has Landed" or some of his other novels under the Harry Patterson monicker ("The Valhalla Exchange" comes to mind) knows whereof what I speak. But here, Sir Jack seems to be just writing on automatic pilot.

The premise is there: The search for a legendary religious icon, the Madonna of Scutari. It's just that Higgins never completely drives home the point as to why agent provacateur Paul Chavasse would want to pursue this quest. Is it because the girl he almost put the moves on at a party is involved or does he actually care about religious resurrgence in Albania? Remember, when he's not saving Brittania, this guy also deals with Mafia dons.

Higgins, still the master at characterization and action (hence the two stars), does leave part of his thought process on the perverbial floor. While in the fog, Chavasse has the drop put on him by a couple of the bad guys. He's told to stand very still while he is checked for weapons and then he is instructed to "walk straight ahead and don't look round". As he is told by his captor that it would "desolate" him to kill him, it's only then that Chavasse realizes that his captor is speaking Albanian. Only then, Paul?