Sirius Crossing [Paperback]

John Creed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2003

Jack Valentine has been in the intelligence game too long and it is starting to show, but he accepts one more mission. Suddenly, he has information that everybody wants and finds himself the quarry in a pitiless chase - with an old IRA friend, also in danger.

Editorial Reviews

Review

John Creed's first novel to feature Intelligence Officer Jack Valentine and a fast-moving tale that largely takes place in Ireland and a remote Scottish island involving the IRA and American Special forces.

From AudioFile

The task seems simple for Jack Valentine, a British intelligence operative: Retrieve a twenty-five-year-old package from a Northern Ireland cave. Then an old IRA friend appears, and soon Jack is dodging the IRA, British and American Special Forces, and his own boss as he tries to survive while learning what's so special about that package. Sean Barrett is a mesmerizing reader for this gripping Irish thriller. The accents--Scots, Irish, public school English, even the difference between Texan and North Carolinian--are spot-on. Characters' emotions are revealed clearly without overacting. And narrative pacing in Barrett's warm, well-rounded voice is superb--quiet and clear, then racing with the action. He's so good that one doesn't, at first, attend to the book's mayhem. It's a violent tale, with a convincing love story, well written and beautifully read. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (February 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571210864
• ISBN-13: 978-0571210862
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,877,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thrilling Thriller, April 19, 2006

By 

Mystery Bookworm (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sirius Crossing (Paperback)

Jack Valentine is a self-doubting, semi-super hero of sorts in the Jim Rockford (Rockford Files) genre. Middle-aged Valetine is a likeable and unwilling secret agent--a cross between Sam Spade's earthiness and James Bond suave. He is also very intuitive (a good quality for his profession)and unlike Mr. Bond who spends his enroaching middle-aged years shaking martinis and womanizing while he dodges bullets, Jack Valentine is preoccupied with his boat and art collection while he sails the wild Irish north sea and takes out the bad guys. The Sirius Crossing is full of exciting, unexpected twists and logical, if somewhat bizarre conclusions. Most importantly, it is a really good story. I will read it again. And again.

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't engage, January 18, 2012

By 

Paul Rooney "Paul Rooney" (Opotiki,New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sirius Crossing (Paperback)

Set in Ireland our hero, Jack Valentine, a cross between James Bond and 22 SAS, takes on one last job. This involves locating a body that was buried in Northern Ireland in the 70's ,one that should not have been there and recovering a package.

Along the way he enlists the help of loyalists and provo's alike as well as most intelligence agencies around the world. It does have a great sequence involving a channel crossing in a storm

It is far fetched, very , but very readable. Its well written, Creed is the pen name of Eoin McNamee. Worth the effort but I did'nt enage with the characters at all but as it only cost me fifty cents at a book fair complaining would be miserable in the extreme.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award winner, March 2, 2004

By 

Larry Gandle (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sirius Crossing (Paperback)

Jack Valentine is a British agent who accepts the mission to locate the body of an American agent in Ireland, killed in 1974, and remove whatever papers are on it. He is joined by an old friend of his, Liam Mellows, wanted as a possible informer by the IRA. Both getting the papers off the dead body and keeping a step ahead of Liam's pursuers is beginning to get more and more of an impossible task.
This winner of the newly formed CWA Steel Dagger Award for thriller writing is actually a dull, dreary and dreadfully slow read. There are moments of sheer terror. However, the concentration is on realistic characterizations with great depth. The author succeeds in that regard. The characters lack true empathy which leads to apathy. The bottom line is that as a thriller THE SIRIUS CROSSING simply doesn't thrill.