Cold Harbour

Cold Harbour - Jack Higgins ****

Jack Higgins is easily my most read Author, with a career spanning six decades he really has stood the test of time. He writes mostly about hard men that are placed in life or death situations either situated during a conflict or with IRA connections. Cold Harbour is no exception and is set during the Second World War and showcases a number of strong male characters who would put a bullet between your eyes first and ask questions later.

Cold Harbour was written in 1990 and for me this really marked a turning point in his career. After this date we were introduced to the Sean Dillon books and his writing tended to become a lot more formulaic, where ideas from previous novels started to become recycled and show more a number of the books blended into each other. The novels were still good, just seemed to have lost that spark that early Higgins managed to inject. But fortunately this novel is vintage Higgins.

The plot has a number of twists and it isn’t simple to second guess where Higgins is taking you. It is difficult to describe the storyline of Cold Harbour without giving away a few of its secrets but I can safely say this has to be in the top 25% of Higgin’s works. If you had to create a checklist of what you would expect between the covers of his best works then this would leave very few blanks. Subterfuge, double agents, death, honour and getting the job done at any cost are just a few of the themes as we see the British military at their most deviant and the German army at their most cruel. As usual the novel seems to be flawlessly set against real historical events which give the characters an even grittier realism.

Not his best but also not a bad place to start. show less

Cold Harbour, by Jack Higgins, is a suspense thriller espionage novel that takes place in the weeks prior to the D-Day invasion of World War 2. "Jack Higgins" is actually one of several pen names used by Henry Patterson, the real author, who also wrote under the names of James Graham, Martin Fallon, and Hugh Marlowe.

The plot, summarized by Wikipedia, is as follows: "In May 1944 Brigadier general Dougel Munro of the SOE [Special Operation Executive] sends Genevieve Trevaunce, a beautiful British operative, to France with the task of infiltrating General Erwin Rommel's briefing on the defense of the Atlantic Wall. The mission is compromised and it is up to the OSS [America's predecessor to the CIA] Major Craig Osbourne, a highly trained show more assassin and Special Forces officer to rescue her."

What an interesting opportunity for some truly suspenseful action even coming equipped with some Nasty Nazis. But boy does it fall flat. The dust cover concludes with: "Cold Harbour is a riveting story of suspense, adventure, and war - Jack Higgin's most ambitious novel to date." Well, if this is true, remind me not to read any of his 47 previous books.

He is a most prolific writer, and an honored one as well. His most famous production probably being "The Eagle Has Landed," also being made into a movie of the same title. And so far he has produced almost 80 novels. But the characters in this one along with the action just lacked something. I guess I have been spoiled by the likes of Michael Creighton, Dean Koontz, Mark Alpert, and Stephen Coonts. Now they know how to write suspense novels. This book had no suspense, even when it was supposed to be suspenseful. show less

This is the first and probably the last book that I have read by this author. The story line had possibilities but the thin development of the stereotype characters and plot make the book a very unsatisfactory read.

### 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

### Product Description

A classic World War Two adventure on the eve of D-Day.

A routine mission ends in icy terror for OSS agent Craig Osborne, as he floats helplessly in the sea off the coast of Brittany. The rumble of engines should signal rescue...

But it is a German warship which appears out of the fog – hauling Osborne to safety and preparing him for the fight.

As show more the time of invasion approaches, the Allies are ready to play their dirtiest trick: dispatching a highly trained killer behind German lines – in a disguised E-boat with the name Lili Marlene emblazoned on its prow... show less