Customer Reviews

Dark Justice

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

All of these customer reviews are right on point. Let me say that I'm a huge Higgins fan, especially "Solo" and of course the Ferguson/Dillon volumes. I have all of his books displayed on my bookshelf back home, and whenever I'm home for the holidays i always take out Thunder Point and reread the first act - it's brilliant.

Which is why I'm so disappointed with Dark Justice! I read it in two days and have spent just as long trying to decide if the book even had a plot. Without giving anything away to those unfortunate enough waste their money on this book, there's a teaser on the jacket cover that doesn't materialize - and with the "climax" being so short and underdeveloped i'm pretty sure i didn't miss anything. the only person who "fell" was Mr. Higgins off my pedestal.

Shame on the esteemed author. He has a devoted legion of fans, myself included, and he's now mailing it in something terrible. I've seen cheesecakes with recipes that were more interesting - the First Act Dillon barfight, the revenge-motivating Second Act injury to a key character, and the Third Act convincing of Harry Salter that Billy can go on one more mission with Dillon - one can only hope that Higgins will run out of cliched castles in which to stage his "climaxes," but i'm starting to get the sense that we've seen it all before.

Needless to say, i returned the book to Borders - it has no place on my bookshelf! wildebeist@aol.com

The plot is basic, involving trips to Iraq, London and Ireland.

The book is full of 2-dimensional characters that you don't care for. The dialog is lacklustre; the "action" is simplistic and by-the-numbers. Even the grand finale is over in a few pages.

Dillon runs around the world saving everybody except the US president. There's nothing "thrilling" about this story at all.

I wouldn't have believed it was a Jack Higgins book if it didn't have the name on the front cover.

Don't waste your money.

I continue to plow through Jack Higgins titles at a fairly brisk pace. His novels of intrigue and espionage are like an open bag of potato chips; you just can't eat one! With "Dark Justice," Higgins addresses the post-9/11 world of anti-terrorism - both in the U.S. and in the U.K. In each nation, the response to heightened threats of terrorism has been to create a shadow counter-terrorism team - one reporting soley to the U.S. President, the other reporting to the Prime Minister.

The plot ingredients for "Dark Justice" include a former IRA terrorist who now works for the Prime Minister in combatting terror, a Russian oil mogol who is a friend of Putin, a failed assassination attempt on the American President, and internal conflict within the Prime Minister's shadow team about the moral dilemma of operating "above the law" in order to have a fighting chance to thwart the terrorists.

As always, Higgins adds his own special blend of spices - well-drawn characters and unanticipated plot twists that makes this "bag of potato chips" delicious, crunchy and satisfying.

Al

Dark Justice just isn't up to par with Jack Higgins' other books. The storyline seems to be there and it really has potential, but it seems that the dialogue is a little too contrived and many times you can tell what is going to happen later in the story just by what he puts in the plot 50 pages beforehand.

This is a good read if you don't have much else to do but I can't recommend this as a "must-read" book.

Whenever I want an exciting, fast read I turn to Jack Higgins. All the old crew is here, especially Dillon. I like this a lot, but I get the feeling all the main characters are getting a little long in the tooth! They sound as if "nothing gets better, no matter how much we try". This book dealt with the dark side of Islam and was much too real for me.

Yes, it was exciting and if only the bad guys were stopped as quickly and efficiently as Sean Dillon made it feel. He is one superdude. Ususally authors take hundered of pages to conclude a book. Higgins took 23 pages!

But I love the guy anyway. I couldnt put the book down and managed to suspend today's reality for a short time.

This is a story with great potential which unfortunately was published while the story was barely developed past the stage of a good outline. Perhaps the author is tired of the series but doesn't want to forgo the lucrative financial rewards still possible from a series that has a legion of devoted readers. Maybe the publisher had too tight a deadline or the editor was asleep. Or more likely, the goal was an action filled adventure that had the potential to be optioned as another formulaic thriller destined for the enjoyment of theater audiences or made into a TV movie.

In any event, after a breathtaking start involving the attempted assassination of the President of the United States, the novel utilizes a totally straightforward plot more in the manner of an investigative procedural (involving the highest level British government intelligence operatives) than a story of clandestine intrigue. More disappointingly, because the story is told in the third person and alternates between the thoughts and actions of the government operatives and their opponents (a powerful Russian oilman and the shadowy network which he controls), almost all the action is foreshadowed and the only tension involves who will survive and the price which they will pay.

Long time readers of Higgins' books will recognize the operatives at the center of this story - General Charles Ferguson, the head of the British Prime Minister's "private Army" and his associates, Major Roper, Superintendent Hannah Bernstein, and most importantly former top IRA operative Sean Dillon. Their primary opponents are Josef Belov, a former KGB agent and now a multibilionaire assisted by his top lieutenant Yuri Ashimov and his recruit GRU operative Greta Novikova. The usual game of chess ensues as British intelligence tries to crack the organization which Belov has assembled while Ashimov attempts to minimize the damage to his game plan caused by the discovery of the presidential assassination plot.

There is little character development, and much of the dialog is of a quite summary nature and somewhat unrealistic. The topic of Muslim fanaticism is touched upon but simply as a plot device, and Hannah's concern about the use of extralegal methods to combat terrorism are only cursorily referenced. The topic of the significantly different nature of a war conducted by terrorists rather the traditional nation-state conflicts of the past (including the cold war) and the necessity for new rules of the game is continually asserted by Ferguson and Dillon, but a philosophical examination of the issue is never pursued. Thus, I was frequently frustrated as the tantalizing threads of a morally complex story were continually shortcirciuted by abrupt yet only cursorily described bursts of action. Finally, Greta's act of incredible ambivalence at a crucial point in the story was left unresolved by the conclusion.

While there is sufficient backstory inluded for new readers to understand the context of this novel, there are many better Jack Higgins books to read. DARK JUSTICE will only appeal to his most devoted readers. The face off between Sean and his old IRA comrades is only a few pages long, and the implied political implications of the involvement of Russian operatives are never developed. To paraphrase Sean's answer to Billy Salter (who plays a crucial role in this story), if you believe that this is "the best of all possible " books by Jack Higgins, then "you'll believe anything". So, we are left with a story that can be summarized in Sean's words near the end of the book - "I'm tired. I've been at war with the world for years and it's a darker world than when I started." This is a story about that dark world and the rough DARK JUSTICE which perhaps is the best that can be achieved. Unfortunately it only superficially examines the impact on the souls of those involved, and concentrates instead on the determination of who will die and who will survive and the price that they must pay. A lot of sound and fury, but it is not clear what it signifies.

Tucker Andersen

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The main problem with this novel is that if you're a Higgins fan then you've read it before.

It's a lacklustre half hearted re hash of the Rashid novel, "Edge of danger", also "Midnight Runner", and a few others. It even has the main baddie buying the Rashid's assets and property as if he is forewarning the reader of what to expect. It has the same meeting of the bad guy's at a formal function. The same frank exchange of what each knows about the other. The same bad guy's where one believes Dillion can't be as bad as they say, with ridiculous implausible underestimation of him, whilst another pays him homage to impress the reader by re-hashing his previous exploits via the "file" on him. The same recruitment of old IRA comrades of Dillion's who suitably hero worship him, but will try to kill him for the sake of the "game". Even the anti climatic ending is in a country manor/ castle, with Dillon and Billy Slater parachuting in at low level, on the rush, going against greater odds who are waiting for him at the manor.

However what is very noticeably different about this novel, is that although it feels like just a re-write of a previous novel, it lacks Mr Higgins normal drama, suspense and action packed thrills. Its as though Mr Higgins was bored with it too and rushed it without thought or effort. It lacks Dillions normal flair, there are no instances where Dillion amazes you, or stuns you with his gentle romantic demeanour, bursting into deadly action of epic proportions. Despite being a Dillion book there are only two action scenes involving him, so under played, lacking in suspense, drama or significant action that you wonder why Mr Higgins even bothered to include them. The second of them is the end show down, which is the worst part of the book. Its ridiculously easy, it ends in a few pages of none action, and the potential showdown of deadly proportions that you anticipate doesn't happen. In one paragraph the ultimate bad guy, the one you expect to give Dillion a run for his money say's lets leg it (one man dead only) then in one sentence he's made it from the manor, across the fields and onto a boat that Dillion simply blows up. As a reader you feel cheated.

The only thing you remember about this book is Mr Higgins stressing over and over that terrorist's post 9/11 should be disposed of by any means. That England and America should do absolutely whatever it takes to bring them down and suspend all rights laws or moral considerations in order to do so at any cost. One wonders if this is truly a Dillion fictional Novel, or if its Mr Higgins platform to shout his opinions regarding Terrorism and anti-terrorism at the powers that be and the world at large. Certainly he makes no effort to provide a thrilling ride of suspense and drama, whilst stresses again and again from various viewpoints his beliefs in regards to how anti-terrorism should be fought. He even throws in the token nod to the moral considerations of removing human rights and laws from the equation in the form of Hannah Berstein's conscience, stressing her position on law via her position as superintendent for special branch and morals via her grandfather the Rabbi. But straight away Mr Higgins stresses that its her feelings or emotions that cry out for due process, the law and human rights and her intellect telling her that it should be ignored to do what must be done. He even has a priest from the church of England giving her moral advise that due process of the law needs to be suspended to fight terrorism. (Ignoring the fact that she's jewish) I'm not saying I'm against this view point, but if Mr Higgins felt so strongly that he needed to write a novel to air his views he could have at least spent as much time and effort on the novel itself. At least that way may be more people would read it.

I feel compelled to say that I'm a die hard Jack Higgins fan and owner of all his Novels to date. Normally Mr Higgins provides flair, drama, suspense and thrills by the bucket loads, so I hope new readers don't judge him by this book alone.

If you've not read a Jack Higgins novel before, then this is an okay novel by the standards of other novelists, but if you have then this is deeply, deeply disappointing. For those new to Jack Higgins may I suggest you try "A prayer for the Dying", I book I have re read so often that I'm on my third battered and worn copy.

The story begins with an assassination attempt on the American

President Jake Cazalet.The attempt is foiled and the people who

are involved are handed over to General and his group composed of Sean Dillon.Hannah Bernstein and Billy Salter.They discover a

plan to get British Muslims to train in Middle East terrorist camps that are financed by Russian oil billionaire Josef Belov.

Belov has some plan to seize the oil fields of Iraq.Belov is

supported by Greta Novikova and Yuri Ashimov both former GRU

officers.The two forces have a few battles before having a final

confrontation.This was a very readable book but not near as

action packed as the two books about the Rashid family.

Love all the main characters. Have now read 24 or all his books. Like others I feel something is missing. Maybe all have been written that there is. Don't know but if there can be no more it has been a good run and worth reading some again. I wouldn't try to continue when I am done, if I am. Sugar Ray Leonard would attest to that. I hope there can be more but only as good as the earlier novels were.

The last two Jack Higgins novels, Dark Justice and Bad Company read as though Jack Higgins has hired someone to write Jack Higgins. I would guess, from the dialouge, that someone is an American. Long time followers of General Charles Ferguson, Sean Dillon, Billy Salter,and Hannah Bernstein find their forms in these novels but not their substance. Literary characters are created over time with personalties, idiosyncracies, speech patterns, and atttitudes. Readers come to know them and know what to expect from them. In recent books, General Ferguson has become less dignified; Harry and Billy Salter have moved from being genial fringe outlaws involved in petty crime to waterfront thugs; Hannah Bernstein now finds herself in a career crisis in which she is seeking a moral compass; and the actor, which gave a lightness to his personaility and his language, is gone from Sean Dillon. The dialouge among and between these characters has become contrived and long time readers will say "Ferguson would not say that" or "If Dillon would say that, he would not say it in that way." The tightly drawn characters of Thunder Point and Angel of Death have been reduced to a formula for cranking out a book a year. When a writer has not more to say, he (or she) should say no more.

Dark Justice is not tightly written. Its characters are crass

caricatures of villains whose very language is stilted and predictable. Dillon and Billy Salter mount their usual end of book carnage in just eight pages.