by Ben Boulden
Jack
Higgins is a familiar name to most readers. His thrillers have routinely
appeared on international bestseller lists since his breakout novel, The
Eagle Has Landed, was published in 1975. A book that has been printed more
than 50 million times. But Jack Higgins, whose real name is Harry Patterson,
wrote 35 novels before The Eagle Has Landed made him a household
name, and many of those early novels, especially those published between East
of Desolation (the first book with the name Jack Higgins attached)
in 1968 and The Run to Morning in 1974, are quite good. At their best, a
Jack Higgins novel is linear, well-plotted, exciting, and with a style that is
lyrical, and characters that are wonderfully romantic. At their worst, they are
bland and lifeless. Higgins’ weakest novels, on average, are those published
after 1990, which is about the same time his character Sean Dillon appeared on
the scene. Many, but certainly not all, of the Sean Dillon books are weighted
by interchangeable plots, characters that are more caricature than realistic,
and a stark style that, at its worst, sinks into dullness.
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