My usual light reading brought me in close contact with Jack Higgins. An author I did not heard before, but learned pretty fast that he is a master of thrillers. This particular novel is a spy thriller set in the late 70s Europe, in the middle of Cold War. It brought me back some memories from my teenage years when I used to read many similar books.Now about the premise, as in line with the genre requirements, this is on the usual good versus bad fight. The plot is not too complicated but tries to prove right the idea that only the bad guys may be able to catch other bad guys. I was not too convinced of it and this is why I will give it a 3.Regarding the form, the most important thing is that the author tries to avoid excessive stereotypes. Of course that this is almost impossible in this genre, but does limit them so that it is readable. I did not liked too much that some scenes were poorly described and some dialogue scenes were having a similar issue. Nevertheless, the reading experience is, in general, enjoyable, so I will give it a 2 for form.In terms of originality, only the fact that the same author wrote over 60 novels from the same genre speaks for itself. As it was a pretty popular genre among writers, I will have to rate it a 1 at originality.The characters are not at all out of the genre requirements. But at least they are not obsessively predictive and with the bad guys turning sides, we get a well deserved variation. Due to this, I will rate it with a 2.Regarding the complexity and difficulty, I assume the popularity of the genre helped created several well known models. So it should not have pose extraordinary difficulty while the entire novel is pretty linear. So I will rate it with a 2 for complexity and difficulty.In terms of credibility I agree both side had spies and commando teams during Cold War. But I doubt their lives were as thrilling as the worst thriller novel. This is why I will rate it with a 1.The last criteria is edition. I had an eBook with some minor but annoying flaws. Few paragraphs were not properly aligned and notes appeared in the wrong position. Overall it was pretty ok. Due to this, I will rate it with a 3.To summarize, I used this intermezzo to catch up my breath between other, more serious books. And this novel proved the right choice for this intermezzo. All in all, my final rating for the novel is 2.00, which requires no rounding on Goodreads system.+--------------------------+-----------------+| Criteria | Rating |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Premise | 3 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Form | 2 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Originality | 1 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Characters | 2 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Difficulty/Complexity | 2 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Credibility | 1 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Edition | 3 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Total | 2.00 |+--------------------------+-----------------+For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines.
I recently reread, and rather surprisingly enjoyed Higgins' classic WWII thriller The Eagle Has Landed -- and that led me to seek this out. One of the most engaging elements of that book was the Irish-terrorist-turned-German-agent Liam Devlin, and this book visits him some thirty or so years later, in the midst of the Cold War. After a rather strange Vietnam War-set prologue involving the rescue of a lovely French photographer by an immensely skilled special forces solider, the story shifts to the sometime around 1980 or so. We meet a freelance terrorist who has been paid to assassinate the British Foreign Secretary during a visit to France. This opening is the kind of procedural operation that Higgins excels at, as the master-terrorist Frank Barry puts together a plan and lays his trap. However, there's a British secret agent in on the plot, and the story takes a twist that leads Prime Minister Thatcher to authorize Barry's execution.This task falls to the Brigadier in charge of such black ops, who, in delving into Barry's past, discovers connections to Liam Devlin, and the Irish-American special forces fella' from the prologue (Martin Brosnan, who apparently appears in some other Higgins' books). The good old "set a thief to catch a thief" plot is brought forth, and the Brigadier coerces Devlin and Brosnan to take out Barry. This sets the stage for two other lovely set pieces: an SAS-ssnatch team renditioning Devlin to England, and an good old-fashioned prison break to spring Brosnan from an island prison off the coast of France. This involves fun stuff like the Corsican mafia, and much more. Meanwhile, Barry has been hired by the KGB to steal a revolutionary new anti-tank rocket weapon that the West Germans have developed and represents a severe blow to Soviet tank supremacy in the European Theater. So, that's yet another fun procedural set piece, as Barry works on that heist while Devlin, Brosnan, and the British try to track him down.As with "The Eagle Has Landed", Higgins does not plumb particularly deeply into any of the character's psyches. Their motivations are pretty linear and there's nothing unexpected along the way -- however, that's not really much of a concern in a thriller like this. The set pieces are all pretty fun, and the Cold War setting is kind of interesting in its own retro way. The book concludes with another fun set piece, that, while predictable, puts just the right cap on things. All in all, if you like Higgins, you'll probably like this.
What do You think about Touch The Devil (1983)?
http://ajitabhpandey.info/2014/11/touch-the-devil-by-jack-higgins/This is the second book in the Liam Devlin series and the story timeline is the cold war period. The British secret service needed the services of Liam Devlin and one of the other X-IRA operative Martin Brosnan to assassinate another X-IRA operative turned terrorist. Martin Brosnan was jailed in a french prison so the first task was to get him freed from there. This part itself turned out to be a thrilling and gripping part. After Martin was freed up before he and Devlin could proceed further towards their intended target, the target found them and injured both of them before kidnapping Martin's girlfriend, who was also a well known photographer. Then the chase followed and the target was eliminated, but by this time there was still about 10% of the book left, so I was wondering what next and was really pleased to see what comes up next (which I am not going to tell as I do not want to reveal the climax).A very simple story line - a typical in the spy-thriller types genre, yet very effectively written. The book keeps you griped through out. 3 out of 5 is my rating for this book.
—Ajitabh Pandey
Brief Summary:Liam Devlin is recruited by the British secret service to convince his old IRA buddy Martin Brosnan to kill their old IRA associate Frank Barry who is working as a freelance terrorist. Barry is constantly evading the British and French governments and left them with no other options. Devlin helps Brosnan escape from an Alcatraz-esqe prison off the coast of France. Then after Barry kidnaps Brosnan's old french girlfriend Devlin and Brosnan track Barry down and kill him. There is a s
—Cal
Ajattelin näin kesän lopuksi napostella yhden vuosia hyllyssä pölyttyneen Higginsin, kun ei ole herraa tullut luettua vuosikausiin. Higginshän tunnetaan sellaisista elokuviksikin loihdituista klassikoista kuten "Kotka on laskeutunut".Vaikka Touch the Devilissä eli suomeksi tylsästi "Pahan kosketuksessa" on kaikki jännitysromaanin ainekset aina vankilapaosta Marseillesin alamaailmaan, on lopputulos kankea ja naiivi, eikä kerronta lähde lentoon missään vaiheessa. Higginsin maskuliiniset ihannehahmot ovat stereotypisiä, yksiulotteisia ja muistuttavat liikaa toinen toisiaan. Vaikka kuinka yrittäisi hahmotella Donald Sutherlandia Liam Devlinin rooliin, ei kirjan hahmot saa aikaan sellaista kiinnostusta, että niiden kohtalolla olisi mitään väliä lukijalle. Kirja kärsii lisäksi pökerryttävän surkeasta suomennoksesta. Lopun tapaaminen Iso-Britannian pääministerin kanssa oli piristävä yksityiskohta.
—Niko Vantala
