Customer Reviews

Eden's Gate

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Former National Security agent Bill Lane returns in this fast-paced international thriller, to battle a former East German Stasi officer, Helmut Speyer. It seems there is a secret buried in an old german bunker under hundred's of feet of water. A secret not even the present day Germans want made public. With the help of his wife, Frances Shipley, he infiltrates Speyer's operation, and in doing so, helps recover this secret. The action is non-stop, taking you from the mountains of Montana to the countryside of eastern Germany. From the high seas of the Atlantic to the D.C. area. Ambushes, sinking ships, narrow escapes(quite a well dressed hero we have here)along with some underwater action, all bring this hard to put down novel a high edge of excitement.

Highly recommended.

David Hagberg sure does know how to weave a spell of excitement. Some of his best stuff has been written with his CIA adventure seeker, Kirk McGarvey, but the character of Bill Lane originally started under his pen name, Sean Flannery. Just as fun as anything else in his impressive repetoire of literary home run's, 'Eden's Gate' is just plain fun. The easiest way to describe this tale is a dash of James Bond, a bit of Indiana Jones and a touch of Dirk Pitt all rolled into one. Adventure that moves at a brisk pace throughout the novel from Montana to Germany to the High Seas, this story just never let's up. What exactly is it about Nazi atrocities, from the true to the entirely fictional that keeps us coming back for more? I can't exactly say as I have the answer to this question, but I will say that as long as the story is as compelling and as fun as this one, you can bet we'll keep buying them up.

This was my first Bill Lane novel, but rest assured I am going to find the earlier ones and tear into them as well. Word has it that Hagberg is working on his final Kirk McGarvey novel, which leads me to believe that Bill Lane may be Hagberg's answer to the soon-to-be-asked question: What happened to Kirk? If the other Bill Lane novels are as exciting as 'Eden's Gate', rest assured, we won't feel the sting of McGarvey's loss nearly as much. Kudo's to Hagberg, this is really a fun story.

Hagberg has crafted a solid thriller. I'll spare you the plot since other reviewers have already described it well.

Bill Lane is another almost believable super-hero. You suspend your credulity while he does his derring-do . . . endlessly. As with most thrillers, the plot is inherently unbelievable. But Hagberg does the trick of getting you so engrossed in the action, that you forget about reality.

All in all, an excellent choice for whiling a day or two away while your pulse beats just a bit faster.

Former national security agent Bill Lane is in Kalispell, Montana on an undercover assignment. Bill along with his English wife Frances Shipley head up The Room, a top-secret organization that reports to the White House and Ten Downing Street. Because of the panic of the German government, Bill is trying to infiltrate the militia headed up by Herbert Sloan, who reportedly is an alias of the vicious former Stasi officer Helmet Speyer.

Apparently, Helmet has plans to enter the underwater Reichsamt 17, the place where the Nazis committed abominations the Master Race called scientific experiments. Lane knows he must stop Helmet before the man obtains the weapon he desires and flees to hid Eden in Cuba.

David Hagberg is known for his thrillers that seem to accurately predict the future. His latest wild ride, EDEN'S GATE, never slows down as the action goes at SST speed. The rivalry between Helmet and Bill is cleverly designed to keep the action moving forward at a tremendous clip, but that also takes away from understanding what drives the villain although Frannie helps humanize Bill a bit. Still, no one writes better action-packed thrillers than Mr. Hagberg, but let's pray that he is inaccurate about superweapons hidden in World War II Nazi bunkers. There are enough mass destruction weapons already under questionable controls.

Harriet Klausner

If this story had a stronger ending I would have given it 5 stars. Bill Lane is saving the world again (literally) and he is doing it in a page turning fashion. Many villians, numerous pitfalls, snares and delusions await Mr. Lane and his people as they pursue a former East German Stasi leader Helmut Speyer and his wife, Gloria Swanson (I'm not kidding) who have plans to make a "killing" (figuratively and literally) and then retire in opulent splendor to Cuba (Eden's Gate). It is an interesting story, well told by a master of the genre.

"Eden's Gate", David Hagberg's newest novel featuring his recurring character Bill Lane, is an average read and definitely not up to the standards set by some of his earlier novels. It is a quick read, but there are a number of problems. The main problem is the abrupt ending. It seemed like momentum was being built for a big finale, but it ended up being a one-sided shootout.

The novel centers around a German madman, Helmut Speyer, who has discovered a mysterious box located in a submerged area/bunker called Reichsamt Seventeen. Bill Lane goes undercover as a South African agent named John Browne (with an "e" as reiterated way too many times in the novel). In order to join forces with Speyer, he saves him from assassination. While he seems to have Speyer's trust, Speyer's number one man Baumann has his doubts.

The action starts when Lane tries to retrieve the mysterious box. Russian agents become involved and not only does Lane have to keep his cover, he must also protect himself and the Germans from the Russians. Lane survives many close calls, but that's to be expected in this type of novel.

Lane's wife seems out of place and doesn't have a big, or seemingly important, role. The enemies are all cookie-cutter types and don't seem to have their own personalities. They all seem to be based on a generic pre-Cold War Russian and WW2 German. These faults in addition to the rushed ending makes this one an average novel. However, many of Hagberg's/Sean Flannery's novels are better. Don't judge the quality of this author's works on only one novel.

Couldn't put this book down. Kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. But then all of Hagberg's books do that to me. Love his novels.

Having read and enjoyed Hagberg's books featuring the Kirk McGarvey character, I decided to take a look at the series that features Bill Lane. With Edens' Gate, Hagberg presents a fast-paced thriller, with virtually non-stop action sequences (and a resulting trail of bodies). At the same time though, the whole plot pushes the outer limits of plausibility. If the reader can get past this issue, the pages will go quickly.

try to make bill lane a double-0-seven agent or what? hagberg did a bad job to make lane's british wife look real while making the bad german's american wife more like human. hagberg also made bad choices to describe bill lane's luxrious habit in expensive stuff, expensive wines or namebrand clothes and accessories (another 007 formatted copycat), and it's disgusting! look what how he described the good taste of bill lane's and his wife horrible tastes on p. 192 after the couple finished a coupling:
"Pickles and ice cream?"
"Gads, no. But maybe a peanut butter sandwich...with anchovies."
what the hell?
there are so many suddenly jumped but totally disconnected clueless sentences in this book, such as right before the pickles and anchovies dialogue, jumping from expecting preganancy to career to stop nasty comments...blah, blah, blah; or on p. 191:
"i'm going to draw a bath," Frances said, heading upstairs.
"Red or white?"
the wife's talking about taking a bath, the husband responded with a wine choice. it's poor logic and senseless dialogue.
there're so many bad jumped around, widely gapped dialogues in this novel and it's so tiresome like reading a badly written novel. and bill lane's wife is the 2nd heroine creation i don't like or even hate a lot in all the novels i've read. the #1 bad creation and totally unnecessary woman character is that disgusting and the most pretentious woman loved by spenser in the robert parker's 'spenser series', then frances of bill lane's wife, the 2nd runner-up. just horribly created.
and finally, from the mission and action angles, hagberg didn't do a good enough job either. there're lot of holes in this novels, and i'm just too tired to point them out page by page.

this novel was written well enough to keep me interested and focused all the time. although some parts of it were a bit far-fetched and cliched, but obviously better then what jack higgins has been delivered.