12-5

It is very interesting to track an author as I've been doing. This work, from 1985, is very tightly woven. It is the work of good story teller, before he became famous, or at least famous as he has since become. The characters are quite developed, even the young policewoman, Susan Calder. Even though the ending seems inevitable, Higgins is able to hold interest but without the sort of tricks he uses later.. ( )

I thought I would give Higgins another try. Several years ago I listened to part of a Sean Dillon novel and it must have been the reader. I quit half way through. This one is read by a different reader and perhaps it's the narration or simply a better story, but this one was riveting. The KGB has planted a mole/sleeper in Ireland. He was trained in a replica of a little Irish community located in the Ukraine (yes, it's dated, so what?). Kelly is charged with fomenting discard between the Irish and British in hopes of preventing any kind of peace accord. Brigadier Ferguson and Captain Fox discover a pattern of assassinations almost by accident and they enlist the support of the IRA and Provisional Army to locate the culprit.

Lots of twists and turns, a very believable plot, if archaic and predictable. Solid page-turner. ( )

SUMMARY: Operating in Ireland to keep the cycle of violence between the IRA and British Intelligence at a fever pitch, hit man Cuchulain targets the pope as his ultimate victim, and two enemies become the only people who can stop him. The third book in the Liam Devlin series, hero of The Eagle has Landed.

This is one of the oldest Higgins novels I've read, but it is very good and quite true to the style and content I've come to expect from him. I recognized some of the names from later novels, so was kind of like reading a diary in places.
Lots of bad guys doing some good things and bad things, lots of bad guys getting tapped. I was disappointed a couple of the bad guys didn't get roughed up more or simply eliminated, but heh, you can't have a everything -:)
Quite entertaining. Had trouble setting it aside when I needed to. ( )