Dark Justice (Hardcover)

by Jack Higgins (Author) "Manhattan on a dark November evening around eight o'clock was bleak and uninviting, an east wind driving heavy rain before it, as Henry Morgan turned..." (more)
Key Phrases: ould son, night glasses, Land Rover, Greta Novikova, Prime Minister (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Many of Higgins's thrillers have told one continuing saga, involving the efforts of Gen. Charles Ferguson (head of the British PM's "Private Army") and his staff to fend off various threats to queen and country. Here the timely challenge is Arab terrorism, but wobbly focus makes this a mediocre entry in a generally first-rate series. An attempt on the American president's life leads Ferguson—who alerted the Secret Service to the threat—and his main man, legendary hit man and former IRA enforcer Sean Dillon, to Josef Belov, an associate of Vladimir Putin (who appears in a cameo) and a Russian oil billionaire who's intent on world domination and who along the way is funneling would-be jihadists from Britain into terrorist training camps in the Middle East. Instead of concentrating on the promising terrorist angle, Higgins traces Dillon and Ferguson's pursuit of Belov and his goons, a race that leads to violent shootouts in Iraq and elsewhere. Ferguson takes a bullet, and Supt. Hannah Bernstein is seriously hurt. The story climaxes in a vengeful, bloody foray by Dillon and old sidekick Billy Salter into Belov's castle stronghold in Ireland. Higgins's action has always been clipped, but here some scenes are positively rushed, and there's much that's overly familiar. Still, the author's high-speed narration and the mesmerizing hard edges of heroes and villains alike should sustain fans' perhaps grudging interest.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Higgins has been a best-selling author for decades, but most of his books sound pretty much alike. This one, which brings back IRA enforcer turned British intelligence officer Sean Dillon, begins with a botched attempt to assassinate the U.S. president. Turns out the would-be assassin (who takes his own life rather than be apprehended) is part of a network of villains bent on causing as much terror and confusion as possible. Can Dillon and his American counterpart Blake Johnson bring the evildoers to justice? It's a standard Higgins plot, with standard Higgins characters, and fans of the novelist's previous thrillers will soon realize they are in familiar territory. The Higgins name will still attract an audience of devotees, but younger readers new to the genre are unlikely to see what all the fuss was about. Even veteran Higgins readers may find that too much of a once good thing has become tedious. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First edition (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399151788
• ISBN-13: 978-0399151781
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #325,903 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fire the Ghostwriter!, October 6, 2004

By	Brad Embree "Going Corporate" (New Orleans) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

All of these customer reviews are right on point. Let me say that I'm a huge Higgins fan, especially "Solo" and of course the Ferguson/Dillon volumes. I have all of his books displayed on my bookshelf back home, and whenever I'm home for the holidays i always take out Thunder Point and reread the first act - it's brilliant.

Which is why I'm so disappointed with Dark Justice! I read it in two days and have spent just as long trying to decide if the book even had a plot. Without giving anything away to those unfortunate enough waste their money on this book, there's a teaser on the jacket cover that doesn't materialize - and with the "climax" being so short and underdeveloped i'm pretty sure i didn't miss anything. the only person who "fell" was Mr. Higgins off my pedestal.

Shame on the esteemed author. He has a devoted legion of fans, myself included, and he's now mailing it in something terrible. I've seen cheesecakes with recipes that were more interesting - the First Act Dillon barfight, the revenge-motivating Second Act injury to a key character, and the Third Act convincing of Harry Salter that Billy can go on one more mission with Dillon - one can only hope that Higgins will run out of cliched castles in which to stage his "climaxes," but i'm starting to get the sense that we've seen it all before.

Needless to say, i returned the book to Borders - it has no place on my bookshelf! [e-mail]

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If I could give it zero I would, October 23, 2005

By	IanBren (Australia) - See all my reviews

The plot is basic, involving trips to Iraq, London and Ireland.

The book is full of 2-dimensional characters that you don't care for. The dialog is lacklustre; the "action" is simplistic and by-the-numbers. Even the grand finale is over in a few pages.

Dillon runs around the world saving everybody except the US president. There's nothing "thrilling" about this story at all.

I wouldn't have believed it was a Jack Higgins book if it didn't have the name on the front cover.

Don't waste your money.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mini-Review: "Dark Justice" by Jack Higgins , April 6, 2006

By	Alan L. Chase "Al Chase" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I continue to plow through Jack Higgins titles at a fairly brisk pace. His novels of intrigue and espionage are like an open bag of potato chips; you just can't eat one! With "Dark Justice," Higgins addresses the post-9/11 world of anti-terrorism - both in the U.S. and in the U.K. In each nation, the response to heightened threats of terrorism has been to create a shadow counter-terrorism team - one reporting soley to the U.S. President, the other reporting to the Prime Minister.


The plot ingredients for "Dark Justice" include a former IRA terrorist who now works for the Prime Minister in combatting terror, a Russian oil mogol who is a friend of Putin, a failed assassination attempt on the American President, and internal conflict within the Prime Minister's shadow team about the moral dilemma of operating "above the law" in order to have a fighting chance to thwart the terrorists.
As always, Higgins adds his own special blend of spices - well-drawn characters and unanticipated plot twists that makes this "bag of potato chips" delicious, crunchy and satisfying.

Al