Customer Reviews

The President's Daughter

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I am beginning to become a fan of Sean Dillon. He has been used very effectively by Higgins as a hero role. This book held my attention throughout. The President has a daughter who is in turn kidnapped by some Israeli extremists. Their on the President is that he nuke several Arab countries. Faced with this dilemna he is forced to call for help. Who else to save the day but Sean Dillon. As I had said before he has become an effective hero figure for Jack Higgins. Don't worry because Sean Dillon saves the day. This is a very good book. It has good action sequences as well as a good plot. Be sure to read it.

In 1969, Jake Cazalet saved the life of a Frenchwoman in Vietnam, and a brief passionate affair ensued. Years later in Paris, he was introduced to another beautiful young woman, his daughter. For many reasons, their relationship remained a secret. Some of these reasons include that fact that Cazalet is now the President of the United States. The American populous does not take kindly to illegitimate children when it comes to politicians. As I said before, Cazalet is now the president of the United States. Somehow, someone has discovered the truth about his daughter, and she is seized by a vicious extremist group. This group of men call themselves Macabees. They believe they are going to free Israel from its oppressors as Judas and his Macabees did in the fifth century. If the president does not comply with the kidnappers' demand, or uses any of America's security agencies to track them down, they will execute her. This forces Cazalet to make the toughest decision of his life. However, he only has ten days to decide. Desperate he turns to British operative Sean Dillon and Brigadier Charles Fergesun. If these two men cannot find hi daughter, the president will have to make the toughest decision of his life. He must choose between his daughter, whom he loves more than anything, and doing his duty to his country and not complying with terrorist demands. This is a great book for anyone who likes action and suspense. I would recommend this book to anybody, the reading is very easy and the story is never dull. This book forces you to keep reading.

Hey fellow readers, this is another of Jack Higgins action-packed thrillers. It is not Tolstoy and it was never intended to be. How do you think Higgins got so many of these things published? He sure doesn't spend a lot of time on them. These books are to action adventure fans what popcorn and Coke are to theater goers.

In this action adventure thriller, Higgins reprises former IRA enforcer Sean Dillion, Brigadier Charles Ferguson and Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Hannah Bernstein. Later on in the book, the author also recalls from retirement that old IRA legend Liam Devlin. His cunning, wit and skill (despite his advanced age) were a welcome intrusion into the story line as it moved toward its conclusion.

The President's Daughter is another one of those Higgins stories that really requires a major suspension of disbelief. The plot's premise is that the US President, as a young Army officer in Vietnam, met a beautiful French woman who was searching for her husband thought lost when ambushed by the NVA. It just so happens that the woman is married to a French Foreign Legion captain who retains a noble title and significant wealth. Thinking her husband dead, she has a one night affair with young Lt. Jake Cazalet. The very next morning, she finds out that her husband, Captain (Count) de Brissac is alive and out of a sense of duty, returns to him. Jake is heartbroken but the two of them agree to part. What neither one knows is that the one night liaison has resulted in the conception of a child. After the child's birth, the Comtesse de Brissac convinces her husband that the child is his and life goes on.

As the years pass, Jake Cazalet returned to Harvard where he completed his doctorate and law school. He enters politics and eventually becomes a Senator. Later, he is elected President. After he becomes President, Jake finds out that the Count de Brissac, a former French general, has passed away. He eventually meets his long-lost love and she tells him a secret, her daughter was not 'the general's daughter,' but his own. Jake's wife, who had died years earlier of leukemia, had never been able to bear children and now the POTUS has one 28 years old, who he cannot acknowledge.

Enter the complication. Someone else finds out Marie de Brissac's identity and they kidnap her. The kidnappers are not the usual PLO, IRA or former Communist thugs Higgins has employed in these roles in the past. They are Israelis who want to force the President to sign an order that will result in the nuclear destruction of Syria, Iran and Iraq. They give him a time limit and with that clock ticking, the tension also starts to build.

In his own way, Higgins chooses to involve Sean Dillon, Brigadier Ferguson and Hannah Bernstein. He also introduces a new character, Blake Johnson, an FBI agent who runs "The Basement" in the White House. He is the President's special action team and as a result of the kidnapping, he and Dillon join forces. Readers will meet him again in THE WHITE HOUSE CONNECTION.

While the entire premise for this book is truly far-fetched, the way in which Dillon and Blake Johnson resolve the crisis is what makes for the most interesting reading. It is in the problem solving stage where Higgins provides most of the action, tension and enjoyment. That is why he has so many fans around the world. This is not great or memorable literature. What it is is an enjoyable, mindless, escapist way to pass some time.

Higgins is spare with his wording and his details. That is also another factor in why his books are so quick and fast paced. If you're looking for a quick way to escape your everyday existence, then Higgins (and this book) is a good place to start. Sean Dillon and the rest of the characters in these books have become like old friends. It's always good to visit with them every once in a while.

Higgins fans will like this installment. It's full of everything they expect from this extremely prolific author. Cast aside the critical eye. Sit back, put your feet up and visit with old friends.

Jack Higgins' THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER receives Michael Page's outstanding voice and experience in recording numerous titles for Brilliance. It offers a fine thriller that translates well to audio and centers around a U.S. President's romances of the past and the truth about his daughter, who is kidnapped by an extremist group. A gripping thriller emerges.

This book by Jack Higgins starts a little slowly but then gathers steam and finishes well.

As others by this author the U.S. Presidency is involved in the story. It also invoves the FBI and others who come to know a secret about the President that could derail a lot of things.

Naturally, the President turns to Sean Dillon to help him solve the problem and therein lies the rest of the story, as they say.

A good read.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

The president of the US has a daughter from an affair with a French woman in Vietnam. When a terrorist group learns the girls identity, it's up to British agent, ex-terrorist Sean Dillon to save her from the mastermind named Judas. This is an exciting romp as Dillon uses his abilities to find and rescue the girl from her kidnappers before they can bend the President to do their bidding.

The President's Daughter is the first Jack Higgins book that I have ever read, and it will probably be the last. I am surpirsed that I finished it at all. It had no depth, no realism, no character development, it was a total waste of time. Sean Dillon is a poor hero, a total imitation of James Bond to the point that he introduces himself as "Dillon-Sean Dillon"!!!!! Give me a break. And the action was so melodramitic that I was ready to laugh. At least it was only 278 pages. It was a quick death. This book could have been stretched out mercilessly over 600 pages, and that would have been a total disaster.

Jack Higgins is getting better and better.

The current President of the USA has a problem, his Illegitimate daughter has been kidnaped. Due to a security breach he calls on the English top secret 'Group 4' to help this department is the PM's private army, and run by Charles Ferguson and deadly rival to any group.

Sean Dillon group 4's number one man is sent to help the President.

Written by the master of suspence it is a gripping book that i find to be one of his best. For a long running series featuring Sean Dillon and co. it is even better.

Jack Higgins how can you say anymore then he is the man. His main character has held millons gipping to the edge of there seats. His main character Sean Dillin is the perfect role.

Higgins is an excellent writer, and as a tale, The President's Daughter reads fast. But it is not up to the standard one has come to think of as good, innovative Higgins stuff. He uses the same characters from earlier books, and weaves them into the story in the most artificial, forced way. Consequently, one who has read some of the earlier books, especially those with an IRA theme, will find oneself wondering what a world of coincidence we live in! But, the characters are thin and don't ring true to me. The story is a bit amateurish, coming from a pro like Higgins. And, I think his portrayal of the Israelis, although perhaps justified in some ways, is half hearted criticism. If he does not like Israeli policy towards the Arabs, and evidently he doesn't, then let him come out more frankly and more precisely. Sorry Jack, but this one is clearly a pot boiler. I hope your next one is a lot better.