Flight of Eagles [Hardcover]

Jack Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 1998

For decades, Higgins has been giving his readers the best in international suspense. If there were ever going to be a

commando team composed of writers, the editors of the Book-of-the-Month Club wrote recently, Jack Higgins would have to be their leader. He seems to know precisely how soldiers, leaders, traitors, thieves, and spies think and act. Never has that been truer than for the remarkable characters and situations of his new book. It is the early days of World War II, and two brothers find themselves on opposite sides. Max and Harry Kelso were born in the U.S. of a German mother and an American father. They were separated as boys when their mother took Max back with her to Germany, and now Max has grown up to become a feared pilot with the Luftwaffe, and Harry a Yank ace in the RAF. Each has kept track of the other's progress, but neither could possibly predict the extraordinary circumstances under which they are about to meet again. Forces much greater than they have set in motion an intrigue so devious, so filled with peril, that it will require that they question everything they know, all that they hold most dear--their lives, their families, their loyalties. Upon the results of their actions will hang, unalterably, the course of the war itself... Filled with harrowing twists and high-tension action, Flight of Eagles is Higgins at his very best.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-An international thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The unusual beginning, the story of Tarquin, a stuffed bear that has acted as mascot in various aircraft since World War I, hooks readers and offers a smooth transition into the main plot. Identical twins Max and Harry were born in the U.S. to a German mother and an American father but were separated when the mother took Max, the future Baron von Halder, to Germany. As World War II explodes, he has become a feared pilot with the Luftwaffe, and Harry is a Yank ace in the RAF. Each is aware of the other and knows his position. Extraordinary circumstances propel both their lives and the lives of those they love on a perilous collision course. Intrigue and deceit abound in this easy-to-read, action-packed novel. Initially the plot seems obvious, but unexpected twists and turns will keep YAs' interest right up until the surprise ending.
Anita Short, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Another crowd-pleasing, if somewhat wooden, tale of steely heroism and stiff-upper-lip bravado from the prolific Higgins. Returning to the WWII settings that he knows so well, Higgins (The President's Daughter, 1997, etc.) puts a pair of identical twin flyboys, one American, one German, on opposite sides of the war. The story begins in 1997 in Cold Harbour, a lonely Cornish villageand once a secret spy basewhere the real Higgins and his real wife Denise find themselves after surviving a crash-landing in the English Channel. There, Zee Aeland, a crusty innkeeper, turns emotional when he glimpses Higgins's teddy bear Tarquin, which the author purchased in an antique shop. Aeland tells him that Tarquin's original owner was dashing Jack Kelso, a wealthy, thrill-seeking American vet who fought for the British before the US entered the war. Recovering from a crash- landing of his own in France, Kelso met and married his hospital nurse, the impoverished German baroness Elsa von Halder, who laterafter her husband insisted on returning to the Statesgave birth to twin sons Max and Harry. Because he was ten minutes older, Max also became the new Baron von Halder. Then, in 1930, Jack died, and took Max to his ancestral homeland, while Harry stayed in Boston with his rich grandfather, brooding, and finally taking Tarquin with him to fight for Finland against invading Russians. By page 60, Harry has joined the RAF (as a Finn!), and Max, a.k.a. ``The Black Baron,'' is clicking his boots among the Nazis. Using the two boys to show that ineffable daring, chivalric nonchalance, and the ability to execute a flawless Immelmann turn can transcend political borders and ideologies (both Max and Elsa rapidly develop sour opinions about Hitler). Women, spies, tyrants and combat buddies come and go, but teddy bears, brotherly love, and a tearjerker conclusion win out. An old-fashioned, sentimental ode to chivalric virtue and family values: Not as suspenseful as Higgins's best, but well grounded in historical detail, lightened by amusing encounters with Hitler, Himmler, and other factual fiends. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1ST edition (May 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399143769
• ISBN-13: 978-0399143762
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,941 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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book of Intriguing WWII action!, July 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Flight of Eagles (Hardcover)

I have read most of Jack Higgin's books and it is my opinion that this is one of his finest works. Harry and Max Kelso are twins with an English father and a German mother who is the heir to a German Baroness. This makes Max, the elder by 2 minutes, the Baron van Halder. After the twin's father dies, the Baroness takes Max with her to Germany. Each of the brothers has a knack for flying and when the war starts up the both join their respected sides.

This wonderfully portrayed novel tells te story of their exploits during the war and is capped off by a very surprising and great ending.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flight of Eagles Review , by Nick Gatz cass pd.4, November 1, 2001

By 

nick gatz (herndon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flight of Eagles (Paperback)

I found the Flight of Eagles by Jack Higgins to be very interesting and intriguing. The book had a strong plot in which Higgins caught the reader's attention by pulling in historical figures with fictional ones leaving you with suspense and thoughts of always wanting to find out what happens next. The books main Characters Harry Kelso and Max Von Halder are described with such realistic traits, thoughts, and actions by Higgins you would believe that they were real fighter pilots. The characters are described with great detail but often it is hard to keep track of them all until the end when Higgins ties them all together. I found it very interesting as to how Higgins used the bear Tarquin as a symbol in the book to tell the story of two separated brothers brought together by war. The realistic details of war, the planes the brothers flew, and the whiskey they drank made it seem as though you could be sitting right there with them. The book is full of suspenseful action that leaves you with a feeling that you just can't stop reading because you are eager to find out what happens next. The books ending is surprising but well organized in bringing all the events to a whole.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good World War II yarn about twin brother fighter pilots., June 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Flight of Eagles (Hardcover)

Flight of Eagles, by Jack Higgins,1998, Putnam Pub, New York,Hardcover, 336 pp., $17.47 U.S. (from Amazon.com)

"In the early days of World War II, brothers Max and Harry Kelso--born in the U.S. shortly after the first world war to a German war nurse mother and an American fighter ace father--find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. For it seems that forces much greater than they have set into motion an intrigue so devious, so filled with peril, that it will require that they question everything they know, all that they hold most dear. A new thriller by the author of The President's Daughter."

Jack Higgins, who also writes under his real name, Harry Patterson, is a real yarn spinner. Among others, he gave us the 1975 best seller, The Eagle Has Landed. He reminds me of another author whom I knew personally, named R. Wright "Bobby" Campbell, who wrote The Spy Who Sat and Waited.

Both men were high school dropouts, with interesting backgrounds. Higgins' background includes the military, circus roustabout, laborer, and truck driver before he went to college and became a teacher and author.

Bobby Campbell, who lived in Carmel, California when I knew him, would sit across a restaurant table from you and spin a story. He was a natural-born story-teller, and seemingly couldn't help himself.

Another fiction writer of the same ilk was the late Louis L'Amour. He also had a background as a roustabout, truck driver, merchant seaman, prize-fighter and other such jobs, which enabled him to know about life close up and personal.

After all, before you can write convincingly, you need some life experience, and the best of them seem to spend years participating in life before they begin to write about it. But I remember asking Bobby Campbell once how much time he had spent in the Orkneys (the islands North of Scotland) in order to write with such authority about the people and their customs, whom he described so well in The Spy Who Sat and Waited.! He laughed, and said he got everything he needed in the way of research from the encyclopedia.

That will only work, though, for someone who has lived a lot, and observed people closely in their griefs, sorrows, joys, loves and hates. Fiction is an art form, unlike report writing or editorial writing. Not everyone can do it, and of those who can, not all are equal. Jack Higgins is truly one of the master story-tellers.

His protagonists are convincingly drawn, and his plots seem believable even when they are far-fetched. In this one, the Nazis want to assassinate Eisenhower. In The Eagle Has Landed, it was Churchill they were after.

This is good fiction. He works in real people, like Bubi Hartmann, the top-scoring German fighter ace of World War II, and Adolph Galland, who was their highest scoring ace in the Battle of Britain, and who eventually became their chief of fighters. The last I heard, both were still alive.

Higgins weaves a good tale, and you should enjoy this one.

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