A Season in Hell

A typical military/spy/English thrill a minute, action packed book. Plenty of twists and turns with the story moving right along. This certainly is not a book for deep reading or thinking and that is as it should be. Every book does not have to rise to the heady heights of "literature."

This is just a ripping yarn where a wealthy woman with pockets deep enough to fly all over the European continent, teams up with ex-military and current intelligence operatives to pursue the truth behind her step-sons death.

When the law can't get it done, she works with the English Underworld, the French Underworld and the Sicilian mafia. Of course a trail of death and destruction lie in her wake but the truth will out.

I personally needed this book as show more a simple break from reading literary fiction. Sometimes I just want to dive into a simple action or adventure book that doesn't last too long, that I can pick up and put down and that fills my need to read. This is one of those books. No more and no less. I had read other Higgins books and there are a few I really loved so it was an author that I knew and was familiar with.

Just like a chocolate chip cookie, you know what you get - comfort food with words. Cover to cover comfort food. show less

Higgins jammed about 500 pages into 330 pages. The story is huge in scope and the characters aren't always super-human in their ability to get things done. There is a distinct underlying story of humor as the master spies just seem unable to head off an utterly inexperienced American woman and a seriously crippled SAS person. The playing field extends from NYC to London to Paris and back and then to Sicily and then Northern Ireland before closing in London.

This is the only Jack Higgins book that I've read. It was a sufficiently unpleasant experience that I have opted not to read another. I remember it as contrived, unnecessarily complex with too many characters, gratuitously violent, and with an ending that was unsatisfying.

Somehow, attempting to even skim through most of this book has felt like my short season in hell. It did not keep my interest , and it feels almost hard boiled. Perhaps just not the author for me, because I thought I normally liked thrillers.

Somehow, attempting to even skim through most of this book has felt like my short season in hell. It did not keep my interest , and it feels almost hard boiled. Perhaps just not the author for me, because I thought I normally liked thrillers.

Written in 1989 prior to the Sean Dillon books this novel contains the base characters for what morphed into those in the Sean Dillon books.

This book's Sean Egan basically is the same as Sean Dillon; both grew up in England, moved to Ulster where disaster struck and their parents were killed. Egan's died to the IRA and joined the UK military, Dillon's died to the UK military and joined the IRA. Both are 'super' assassins. Both drive Mini Coopers. They're so hard to distinguish that many people in reviews mistake the Sean Egan character for Sean Dillon.

Then there's Jack Shelley in this book who just happens to be identical to Mr Salter in the Dillon series, both have the same criminal background, hold the same territory in London, have show more the same Kray Brothers as their opposition.

It gives the book a disjointed feel when reading it having the knowledge of the other books Higgins has written. The characters have pieces of not only the Dillon series but other books he has written, thus giving you a book filled with action however characters which are so hollow they are impossible to warm too.

Basically it's a pretty bad novel. show less

good mystery, undercover agents
murder, drugs - excellent No Sex rare -

Sarah Talbot is determined to avenge the death of her stepson. Sean Egan, ex-SAS sergeant, is at first reluctant to act as assassin, until he discovers a personal link. Together they begin the hunt for a ruthless man whose trade involves not only drugs but also international terrorism.