Product Description

Undercover enforcer Sean Dillon tackles a new crisis as Presidential skeletons threaten to burst from the closet -- in the dramatic new thriller from the master of suspense, the author of the international bestsellers Day of Reckoning, Edge of Danger and Midnight Runner. In the waning days of World War II, Hitler gave his diary to a young aide for safekeeping. Now it's threatening to resurface, with explosive contents: the details of a meeting between emissaries of Hitler and Roosevelt to reach an armistice and turn their collective efforts against the Soviet Union. The American representative: a close relative of none other than the current US President, Jake Cazalet. Powerful enemies of Cazalet will do anything to get their hands on that diary -- and it is up to White House operative Blake Johnson, together with his colleague in British intelligence, Sean Dillon, to make sure they don't...Filled with hairpin twists and high-tension action, with characters as dark and surprising as any he has created, this is Jack Higgins working at the peak of his powers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #545761 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bad Company is a competent, unmemorable example of the sort of thriller Jack Higgins can do almost without thinking. His usual characters--former IRA assassin Sean Dillon--and his various allies in British Intelligence and the London underworld--find themselves having to cope again with the consequences of earlier actions. German millionaire Berger and his illegitimate mafioso son Rossi are determined to avenge Kate Rashid, who was herself killed trying to take revenge for her brothers, whom Dillon killed for entirely good reasons of national security. Berger is, however, a more problematic enemy, since he was the last man out of the Berlin fuhrerbunker and is the repository for Hitler's genuine, and extremely compromising, diaries. Specifically, he is the man who can prove that there were peace negotiations between the Nazis and the father of the current US president. There is intelligence here, and some superficial expertise about stunt-flying, but far too much of the plot is a recycling of elements Higgins has found reliable in the past. This is one for his many committed admirers rather than for new readers. --Roz Kaveney

Review
'Open a Jack Higgins novel and you'll encounter a master craftsman at the peak of his powers ... first-rate tales of intrigue, suspense and full-on action.' Sunday Express 'Higgins is a master of his craft.' Daily Telegraph 'A thriller writer in a class of his own.' Financial Times 'The master craftsman of good, clean adventure.' Daily Mail

The Higgins thriller-engine revs up for its 32nd, with Hitler's "secret diary" the McGuffin. Berlin, April 30, 1945, and that is one bleak and blasted bunker in which Sturmbahnfuhrer Max von Berger makes a command appearance. A diminished Adolph Hitler, his fate sealed, has a final mission for the decorated young officer: to be keeper of the "holy book," his diary, to guard it closely until the day arrives when it can be used "to advance our cause." Flash forward to the present. Fortune has smiled on Baron von Berger, propelling him into the loftiest echelon of high-rolling entrepreneurs (munitions, oil) and yet, at the core, he remains as he always was: just a simple soldier for whom the laws of loyalty are immutable. Loyalty to his cherished Fuhrer, of course, but also to the beautiful Kate Rashid, late the half-British, half-Arab countess of Loch Dhue. It was British superagent Sean Dillon, series hero (Midnight Runner, 2002, etc.), who helped render the lovely but lethal Lady Kate deceased, an act of self-preservation if ever there was one. To von Berger, however, there's no such thing as an extenuating circumstance with loyalty the issue. He'd been half in love with the seductive (and willfully wicked) chairperson of multinational Rashid Investments-partnered her in a variety of clandestine ventures-but over and above this he credited her with once saving his life, of having wrested him from the clutches of some murderous Iraqi thugs. In behalf of Lady Kate, then, von Berger commits himself to "a Jihad," with Dillon and his ever on-call irregulars the announced target. At this point, Hitler's diary (and the revelations therein) becomes what everyone wants and is ready to kill for, setting the stage for the obligatory Higgins bloodbath. "It's like a bad novel, the whole thing," someone says, admittedly in another context. The Higgins thriller-engine sputters. (Kirkus Reviews)

Financial Times
‘A thriller writer in a class of his own.’

Customer Reviews

Written in a rush
I do not want to spoil this book for those who have not read it. And to express my feelings I would have to do that......

All I would say is that it seems like Jack Higgins was up against a dealine with this book - Sean Dillon and General Ferguson are back. The story starts in 1945 and ends in modern day London and drwas you in with all the skill that Higgins has.

However, and this is the bad bit, the end of the story is wrapped up far too quickly - it's as if there was a deadline looming or Higgins just decided to tie up all the loose ends....

The story is great (4 stars) but the end takes away what could have been a fantastic book (1 star).

Dillon's Back
Sean Dillon is back. Dillon, Ferguson and the gang are all back in this explosive new story. The plot speeds like an express train with plenty of twists and you hate Rossi, who has entered the story on the side of the Rashid's. Higgins marries the past of Hitler and his diary with the modern setting of the Oil fields of the Middle East and once again bring good up against evil.The characters remain strong and this is Jack Higgins, once more, at his best. All Higgins fans will read this without being able to put it down until it's completed.

Not "Higgins at the peak of his powers", but enjoyable
Our story begins at the funeral of Kate Rashid, the villainess of Higgins's last thriller, whom undercover enforcer Sean Dillon managed to kill before she wrought her vengeance upon him for killing her three beloved brothers. Dillon and his companions watch on, increasingly uneasy at the presence of Baron Max von Berger, a multi-millionaire friend of the Rashid's, who has now interhited their old empire in the Hazar that is worth billions.

Now, von Berger himself wants revenge, and it is a matter of honour. Kate Rashid once saved his life, and she was a very dear friend. He is determined to exact justice on those who conspired to destroy the Rashid's and their empire: Dillon, his friend in the government General Charles Ferguson, and their colleague, White House insider Blake Johnson. But, unknown to them, Berger has a secret weapon. In the waning days of WWII Hitler entrusted von Berger, his close aide, with his diary detailing the final six months of the war, and a meeting he had with President Roosevelt which could have stopped the war before it started.

Bad Company is another of Higgins's increasingly by-the-numbers, cliched, formulaid thrillers that just reuse aspects from his other books (boats blown-up, planes crashed, assassinations, etc), but it is a primse example. A one character says of the events in the book, "It's like a bad novel", and that is exactly what they are. They are the evnets of a bad novel. however, they are also the envets of an entertaining story, and this is exactly what this is. A great story, a nice adventure. It's fast, thrilling, enjoyable, nothing more. nothing less. If you are looking for great writing, don't come here. If you're looking for a plot that wont fall apart under close scrutiny, also don't come here. If you're simply looking for a quick, easy read that's a bit James Pattersonesque in style, then do come here.

There's only one little problem, really: Dillon is flat and cardboard. Higgins has reduced him merely to proper nouns and pronouns, and as a result the reader tends to prefer the villains, who are more colourful, and that leads to dissappointment come the finale (which is a tad rushed), in which, of course, the heroes unfailingly win.

Still, Bad Company is light and easy reading, and it's relatively easy to overlook that almost everything within has been lifted from various other Jack Higgins books. This is about as close to literature as a TV guide, but, then, it doesn't intend to be.