THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER LEE PHILIPS, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
EVERY YEAR or two about this time, Jack Higgins delivers from his idyllic residence on the Channel Island of Jersey (once occupied by the Nazis, it was) a new novel of suspense for willing consumption by his faithful audience. Higgins is one of the genre's most prolific authors, with at least two dozen books to his credit, many of which are still available in paperback. There may even be more Higgins novels (or James Graham novels, or Harry Patterson novels, owing to pseudonyms) now lying dormant on various back lists awaiting rediscovery: ``Sheba,'' first published in England in 1963 as ``Seven Pillars to Hell'' was reissued just last year.
I am an unabashed Higgins fan. I have read enough of his books to have developed personal affinities for his tough-guy protagonists and tortured dark heroes, like the poet-philosopher and sometime Irish Republican Army man Liam Devlin, the German assassin and patriot-commando Kurt Steiner and the philosopher-actor and latter-day terrorist-for-hire Sean Dillon. There are also, in the Higgins canon, many of the most effortlessly drawn supporting characters that have ever passed through a Judas gate and into a place of shadows.
``Angel of Death'' (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 311 pp., $23.95) marks the return of Brigadier Charles Ferguson, head of the British prime minister's elite personal army, Group Four, and task master for some of Britain's most dangerous men. It appears that the indiscriminately murderous terrorist group January 30, whose politics are assassination for its own sake, has tried British Prime Minister John Major's patience once too often. Dealing with January 30 will take special skills, and as the Prime Minister himself observes, the best tactic is to ``set a thief to catch a thief.''
Enter Sean Dillon who, thanks to one of Ferguson's previous ``black jobs,'' owes allegiance to Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street.
Higgins backtracks two decades to illustrate the curious evolution of January 30, a group whose members, like all of the best Higgins characters, live in the gray area between virtue and villainy. Soon January 30 has recruited a new assassin whose killer instincts and training with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art rival Sean Dillon's own. Add to that that she saves Dillon's life during one of his Group Four operations, and you have the typical Higginsian clash of motives that guarantees a crackling good read.
After January 30's efficient disposal of several seedy characters from both sides of the tracks, the final conflict arises when a U.S. senator (he's as Irish as the Kennedys, he is) receives a request from none other than Bill Clinton and John Major to broker a fragile peace between Ireland's loyalist and Republican factions. The result is a thrilling confrontation between the philosopher-actor Sean Dillon and the actress-assassin. . . well, you get the picture.
Jack Higgins has been writing page-turners for more than 30 years now, and with ``Angel of Death'' he comes through with yet another top-drawer thriller, with settings international and background just shy of the headlines.
So there it is, old son. You never disappoint. Let's be having you again next year. MEMO: Christopher Lee Philips is a free-lance writer in Washington, D.C. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Jack Higgins brings back Brigadier Charles Ferguson in ``Angel of
Death.''
by CNB