Eye of the Storm [Hardcover]

Jack Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 1992

Elusive master terrorist Sean Dillon reemerges during the Gulf War when Saddam Hussein hires him to assassinate Margaret Thatcher, and only Martin Brosnan can stop him. 225,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo. BOMC Feat Alt. Reader's Digest Cond Bks.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Higgins's thrillers may evoke a strong sense of deja vu (same basic story, different time frame), but that doesn't seem to diminish the impact of each new novel. Early in 1991, while the Gulf war is in full bloom, operatives of Saddam Hussein hire legendary terrorist Sean Dillon to take the war to the enemy. A master of disguise and subterfuge, Dillon began his career with the IRA, earning the enmity of Liam Devlin--the unforgettable antihero of The Eagle Has Landed , who makes a featured appearance here--and of Martin Brosnan, an American Special Forces hero and IRA member turned college professor. After Dillon's attempt to assassinate former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during a visit to France fails, he decides to go after her successor, John Major, and his War Cabinet with a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street. Learning that British Intelligence is recruiting Brosnan to track him down, Dillon confronts his old enemy, a meeting that ends in tragedy and leaves Brosnan bitterly committed to revenge. Although readers can be sure that Dillon's scheme will be foiled, fun remains in the how and why. Standard Higgins in style, plot and resolution, this is bound for bestsellerdom. BOMC feature alternate; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; audio rights to Dove.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A world-class assassin goes after British PM John Major in Higgins's latest firmly engaging round of speculative derring-do. The Day of the Jackal this isn't, although Sean Dillon--a rogue IRA hit-man who's also a master thespian--is nearly as charismatic a killer as Forsyth's Jackal; and the author's own The Eagle Has Landed it isn't quite either, though Higgins, a diligent literary recycler, revives the spirit, pacing, and even one major player from that 1975 classic. This is the vigorous, rather simple tale of what might have been behind the real-life, still unexplained, mortar attack on Number Ten Downing Street on February 7, 1991. Here, Saddam Hussein, reeling under the allied bombing of Baghdad, asks oily Iraqi billionaire Michael Aroun to avenge Iraqi honor, which Aroun does by joining forces with Stalinist KGB Colonel Josef Makeev and hiring Dillon to blow away Margaret Thatcher, now visiting in France. When Dillon is betrayed by two hirelings and misses his shot at the Iron Lady, he ups the stakes- -why not, he proposes, go after the current PM (here, a most charming chap) and in fact the entire British War Cabinet? Using his Olivier-like powers to pose as several characters, including a bag-lady, and aided by a sexy KGB spy, Dillon sneaks into England, then Ireland, contacts old criminal/IRA pals, and plans. Arrayed against him in an ever-more suspenseful chase are several stalwart British agents, male and female, and two ex-IRA men, including Liam Devlin of Eagle fame. The mortar attack itself has about as much dramatic impact as a hiccup, but Higgins saves his big melodrama for Dillon's attempted escape--which will leave readers happily breathless and waiting for a sequel. The action's so fast, the heroes so valiant, and the villains so blackhearted that not even Higgins's syntax-crunching prose will keep his fans from driving this--his most enjoyable book in years- -up the charts. (Book-of-the-Month Split Main Selection for July) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Chapmans Publishers; 1St Edition edition (June 5, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855920611
• ISBN-13: 978-1855920613
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,527,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jack Higgins is among the world's most popular authors. Since the publication of The Eagle Has Landed--one of the biggest-selling thrillers of all time--every novel he has written has become an international bestseller, including The White House Connection and Day of Reckoning. He has had simultaneous number-one bestsellers in hardcover and paperback, and has been published in thirty-eight languages worldwide. Many of his books have been made into successful movies, among them The Eagle Has Landed, To Catch A King, and The Valhalla Exchange. He lives with his wife on Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A master's work!, January 29, 2000

By 

trojanas "trojanas" (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eye of the Storm (Sean Dillon) (Paperback)

This book HAS to be one of Jack Higgins' best! As the combined forces of British and French Security Services "set a thief to catch a thief", the adventure gets even more deadly and complicated. At one side there is an Irish-American Martin Brosnan who is an ex-IRA gunman trying to live a decent life and at the other hand there is a ruthless but honorable and charismatic villain, Sean Dillon, whom you can't resist loving. As the hunter becomes the hunted, the reader gets more and more sucked in this great Jack Higgins book which combines his old books (thorough the appearence of his Liam Devlin and mentioning of Frank Barry) to his new ones... And when you are finished, you can't shake the feeling that this WAS actually what REALLY happened during the mortar attack on Number Ten Downing Street on February 7, 1991...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely brilliant!, June 23, 2001

By 

Mr N Forbes-warren "author of RESURGENCE and ... (Newport, South Wales, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eye of the Storm (Sean Dillon) (Paperback)

In this Jack Higgins classic which ranks as one of his very best, IRA gun-for-hire Sean Dillon is the protagonist and main character(recurring throughout several Higgins books) who is recruited by Saddam Hussein through French arms dealer Michael Aroun to assassinate the Prime Minister and War Cabinet during the Gulf War. As the plot develops, it is up to American CIA operative Martin Brosnan and head of the PM's clandestine intelligence agency Brigadier Charles Ferguson to stop Dillon when they are tipped off about the threat. Those of us that remember the real-life mortar attack on 10 Downing Street when John Major was in power are presented with a fast-paced account of what might have happened - could it have happened this way? This thought-provoking actioner is well-paced, easy to read and crams in a Clancy-esque story at less than half the length with no unnecessary subplots. A must-read winner!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sheer action all the way, March 4, 2001

By 

snowy "Lorne Vallen" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eye of the Storm (Sean Dillon) (Paperback)

What separates this book from other "thrillers" is the sheer fast pace and relatively simple plot that rewards readers like a short satisfying lunch rather than a boring 3 course.

Though the characters were very much like before - 1. Brit Intel agents 2. Master-criminal/spy 3. Ambitious larger than life targets - as usual, the British PM 4. Small-time crooks who became untied loose ends that eventually tripped the villain 5. Traitor within the British establishment

There is now of course the introduction of the veteran Liam Devlin, the man who never grew old and moved as he did during the Gulf War as he did during the WW2. His successor is Martin Brosnan, with the same self-effacing humour, a former IRA who through strange circumstances found himself working for British interests.

Sean Dillon though, was unforgivably stupid to have made the errors that eventually led to his failure.

The final question is, is there a criminal in Higgins' novel who is not virtually invincible?

This book is worth the reading, for a quick theory/speculation of how the British War Cabinet survived an almost random assault - the kind which would never have been detected if not for stupid mistakes on the perpetrators.

While the characters echoed those from earlier novels, there is enough variation in the plot to make it interesting.