Dark Justice, while not one of the best Sean Dillon adventures, is a worthy entry in the series. This time a British-born Muslim assassin tries to kill the American President and the aftermath sweeps Dillon and his allies into a battle with a Russian oil billionaire, a growing Muslim terrorist umbrella and some hired IRA gunmen. Spoilers...The weakest point of the novel are the villains. For the most part they just aren't that interesting. Josef Belov is given an entire chapter dedicated to his backstory and still seems underdeveloped. There was no real insight into his psyche, just a list of things that happened to him. Throughout the book we get no sense of why he's doing any of the evil things he does, other than just to do it (Hanna Bernstein's attempts at psychological evaluation are absurd, as are everyone's awe at her observations). He's a billionaire oil magnate with no apparent political or religious motivations and yet he's funding Muslim terrorists and attacking the US President? There's not even any mention made of him profiting from the terror via his oil company (his oil reserves are in Russia anyway). The only thing it might be is that Saddam Hussein -- who gave him his fortune -- asked him to do it, but this is very lightly implied. His main henchman, Yuri Ashimov, is a little better (at least he gets out on the front lines a little), but not much. He's fiercely loyal to Belov, but I see no reason why. Just because he served with him? Dermot Kelly and Tod Murphy, Belov's IRA hirelings, are nobody's that never seem like a substantial threat to Dillon. The reader is left waiting to see how long Dillon will take to scrape them off his shoe.The exception, though, is Greta Novikova, Ashimov's girlfriend and partner in crime. She's much more interesting than the rest. She's evil and cold-blooded, but she also seems to have a sense of honor. She despises the two thugs assigned to her in Iraq and even kills one to protect Dillon because our hero had saved her life. Then she allows Dillon and his compatriots to get away. Moreover, I like the effect she has on Dillon: he likes her. There's something about her that really appeals to him. She's got a bit of a wicked streak to her, just like he does. That, ultimately, is why he chooses to save her life. You get the sense that Dillon regrets they have to be enemies. But in the end, Dillon kills her, saying simply "She shouldn't have joined." Later he expresses bit of regret, chalking it up to her saving his life, but I don't think that's all of it. Being ruthless takes a toll on Dillon and Greta helped explore that. She was easily the best new character in the book, and it's a shame she won't be coming back. Other than that, everything is as usual in a Higgins book. The pacing is very fast, the action is hard, and Dillon is funny and charming as ever. You want to have a drink with him, being ever mindful that he could kill you as easily as toast you. There were lots of ruminations on the changing rules of war in modern times, specifically with the War on Terror pitting civilization against a new kind of enemy and forcing us to adapt to survive. Hanna Bernstein is the lone holdout for maintaining the rule of law, while the rest -- though some are very uneasy -- see the necessity of fighting fire with fire. I think it's clear where Higgins hangs his hat, but he acknowledges there isn't an easy answer. Overall, a good but not quite great Dillon novel. But even when Higgins isn't at his best, there are much worse ways to spend your time than with Sean Dillon.
Another 'stuck in a remote Irish cottage with no television and dodgy internet' read which followed PD James and that Dawn of Empires thing... it was this or something in German, some kind of trashy 'middle-aged woman misery chicklit' thing and Jeffrey Archer.OK, so I've never read a Sean Dillon book before but my instinct was one of 'Calling Gary-Stu!' If the editor had removed every reference to Sean Dillon being 'the best' at whatever, it would've been a third shorter.On the other hand, it was kind of gripping in that 'well, I haven't got anything better to do' sort of way, and it's head and shoulders above the Archer choice - I never did get that bored.Maybe if I'd read a Sean Dillon before I might've enjoyed it better. As it is, I remember few details and cared about even fewer...
What do You think about Dark Justice (2005)?
Higgins is always good for an escapist read--or in this case, listen. This was another episode in the saga of Sean Dillon, the ex-IRA terrorist turned British intelligence officer. The premise, dealing with a Russian connection to Islamic terrorism in the UK, is timely and Higgins always provides a sense of drawing from some inside information from years of contacts with his sources. Nonetheless, I was put off by Dillon's willingness to, unnecessarily, take justice into his own hands. What I enjoyed the most was narrator Michael Page's reading. His facility in voicing a wide range of characters--in terms of ethnicity (accents/dialects), age and sex--is amazing, so that listening to the book is like listening to the cast of a theatrical production instead of a single narrator.
—Wes Baker
The battle against international terroism continues with renegade Russian agents teaming up IRA members both longing for the good old days of their respective wars. They take on The Prime Ministers Private army led Charles Ferguson with him the most feared enforcer Sean Dillion. The battles range from Irag to England to Ireland. Dillion and his fellow black ops expects battle to the death with those who seek to destroy them. Good exchanges between the characters and enough twists in the story to keep one interested and some pathos also. Nice read during the early days of Summer.
—Billie
