It's not really my kind of book; I'm not sure why I put it on my to-read list. But I did read it, and actually liked it. A writer goes to a village in Norfolk County, England, digging Up The story of a fiasco that nearly got Winston Churchill kidnapped during world war II. A group of crack German soldiers parachuting into the small village of Sunland Grange, dressed as allied soldiers of the Britons. Underneath their British uniforms they're wearing German paratroopers uniforms. A group of American allied soldiers are at The village at the same time, doing some kind of practice.

Himmler himself has a role in this book that Higgins states in the Prelude is half history and half fiction. I'm not sure about the historical part but it does make a good story. The ending is tragic and ironic. ( )

Loved the book.A proper 'masala' world war thriller.First of the Liam Devlin books and what an entertainer.Fact that its supposed to be part fiction part fact was also a real plus point!! ( )

I remember seeing the movie many years ago; it was better than the book. ( )

This book was in a box of books a networking acquaintance gave me to read and then pass on to others. As far as I remember, I've not read other books from this author. For people of my age the phrase "the eagle has landed" is more associated with NASA and the space race than with World War II when this is set.

Sadly, I don't know WWII history well enough to know if the event Higgins uses as his main plot point is something that really happened and Higgins had to fill in gaps with what he thought happened or if Higgins fabricated it all and wove a plot that included finding information that set him on the investigative path.

I did recently hear about the practice of using body doubles for important figures so the final scene claiming that was who was in the countryside could have happened.

I did see another reviewer mentioned that Liam Devlin shows up in other Higgins novels which makes me lean more toward the fictionalized side of the equation--though it is possible that Higgins takes real accounts of derring do and uses one character to tie the various real-life spies and their accomplishments or failures together.

Sometimes the story was interesting, but other times it dragged or I had trouble making sense of it. There were a lot of characters and sometimes it was hard to remember who was who and who was on what side.

It's a little alarming to realize that a good deed followed by a moment of not thinking is the only reason that the plot failed. ( )

So much has already been written about this book that I don't think my two cents worth will add much value. But if you want to see why Jack Higgins has become so successful this is still the right book with which to begin. ( )