The Eagle Heist (A Beauford Sloan Mystery) [Hardcover]

Raymond Austin (Author), Wilford Brimley (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Beauford Sloan Mystery | Publication Date: November 2000

Renown screenwriter and television director, Raymond Austin introduces Beauford Sloan to the world of crime fiction in the author's exciting debut. An ex-cop turned P.I., Sloan investigates the mysterious theft of an armored truck full of diamonds and the death of an Eagle Security guard. Set in Washington, DC, the case takes the cunning Beauford to Morocco and finally to Spain where he uncovers the truth behind The Eagle Heist.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Fans of the classic British television series The Avengers and The Saint may recognize the author's name: as Ray Austin, he directed episodes of those series, as well as many other British and American shows. This is his first novel, and it's ideally suited for the small screen. An armored car is hijacked, seemingly snatched out of thin air, and Virginia's Beauford Sloan, retired-cop-turned-private-detective, is hired to find out whodunit. Sloan, who closely resembles the actor Wilford Brimley, is a remarkably likable character. (The resemblance is no coincidence: Brimley and the author are friends, and Brimley has expressed his desire to play the detective in the anticipated television movie based on the novel. He has also written an introduction to the book.) In fact, everything about the novel is remarkably likable; perhaps because he spent decades in the world of moving pictures, Austin knows how to create detailed characters, dialogue that is both memorable and realistic, and an exciting plot. An excellent debut and a real find. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Austin knows how to create detailed characters, dialogue that is both memorable and realistic, and an exciting plot. -- Booklist, 2001 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harlan Publishing Company; 1st edition (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967652812
• ISBN-13: 978-0967652818
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,843,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars READ THIS!!!!, March 2, 2006

By 

clifford "akitonmyers" (Portland, OR, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Eagle Heist (A Beauford Sloan Mystery) (Hardcover)

1. this is a very bad book.
2. i came to this page and wondered why it got around 70 5 star reviews.
3. I checked the profiles of at least a dozen reviewers of this book... guess what, they were all fake accounts.
4. thus, its safe to say that in all likelihood, this is the only real review on this page.

Start my original review.

--This book has gotten waaaaaay to many good reviews:

The Eagles Heist is about as average as it would be possible to get for a genre mystery. The biggest deal here is the over-used running gag and identified reference to Wilford Brimley. Brimley is an old friend of the authors as it states in the opening page. I really don't care that the main character should be Brimley and it became bothersome that it was brought up so often. Knowing that Brimley is around 80 made me think of geriatric sex scenes when Sloan was wooing a widower. It was kind of off putting.

The author `Austin,' starts the book off with a scenario straight out of one of his average tv cop/private eye shows. I take it that he was a producer/director for several of the bigger tv series' from the 60's to the 90's including Magnum PI. An armored car is lifted off of the road and dropped into a river, the bad guys take 18 million dollars in diamonds. Lo and behold, seven months after the heist, Sloan takes one look at the scene and figures out what happens even though the local police and FBI spent thousands of man hours investigating and couldn't come up with squat. That is the way the book goes. Sloan is the wisest old man ever as well as the kindest.

What was most shocking to me is that when I arrived at the review page here on Amazon, I noticed that this book had received around 70 reviews with the average being five stars. This book is no where near that. I have read literally hundreds of books that I would recommend over this one. `Eagles Heist' takes no risks and is about as memorable as an old Magnum PI episode. It was not written very well or with a sense of panache. I don't know where all of these reviewers are coming from, we must have read different books.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first Beauford Sloane mystery turns out to be a good one, August 27, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Eagle Heist (Beauford Sloan Mysteries) (Paperback)

When you look at the cover of "The Eagle Heist," the first of the Beauford Sloan mysteries by Raymond Austin, you will notice that the photograph on the identification card of Sloan looks a lot like Wilford Brimley. This would be because it is a photograph of Brimley, who writes the brief introduction for the novel and has known the author since they were stunt men together in the old days. Then Brimley went on to be a familiar character actor and Austin directed a lot of television shows from "The Avengers" to "JAG."

The running gag in the book is that Sloan looks like Brimley, but the chief advantage is that every time you listen to Sloan in the mystery you can hear Brimley's familiar voice (every time I read a play the female lead is Katharine Hepburn, adjusted for whatever age is required). Knowing exactly how the main character speaks is certainly an advantage, but you are on your own when it comes to the mental images you come up with for the sex scenes in the book (or the mental picture demanded by the book's final line).

"The Eagle Heist" begins with a rather ingenious way of making an armored truck carrying sixteen million dollars in diamonds and three million in cash disappear. All the authorities have to go on are a couple of bodies and some $100 bills and after six months the case has gone stone cold. However, Rosa Costello, the mother of one of the murdered guards from the armored truck is not willing to let the crime be forgotten and hires Beauford, an ex-Virginia cop turned private eye. Within hours he makes a big break in the case and almost as quickly people start dying. Clearly, our hero is making progress and there is somebody who does not like that at all. But once Beauford gets the bit between his teeth there is no stopping him.

Brimley says this mystery is "a great read," and that is certainly an apt description. The action proceeds at a brisk pace, the supporting characters are pretty engaging, and they are enough twists and turns in the mystery, some of which are not exactly happy ones, to keep you engaged from start to finish. One of the reasons it works this well as that Austin provides his hero with a complete back story that comes into play at various points. There is a sense of history to the character and his friends even if this is the first Beauford Sloan mystery. Fortunately I already have the next one, "Dead Again," in my possession, so I do not have to wait for the next "episode" (it is hard not to think of this as a television series, which is not a bad thing in this case).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Caught by Surprise, November 28, 2000

By 

Joan Dameron (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eagle Heist (A Beauford Sloan Mystery) (Hardcover)

THE EAGLE HEIST surprised me. I had formed an opinion that it would be "routine" reading (before I had even read it!) Was I ever caught by surprise. This book, after the second chapter, left me wondering what else could happen. Each chapter flowed into the next that I could not put the book down until I had finished it. Beauford Sloan had murder, surprise, hope, romance and mystery surrounding him, and still an unexpected end. Will hope this book is the first of many for Raymond Austin.