Without Mercy

Without Mercy is pounded out, it’s bare bones story telling, one gets the impression that Jack is ready to move on, and there is no subtlty or apology; the macho lack of sentimentality is transparent as one is expected to notice. The landscape of characters is changing new blood is being introduced perhaps the times and circumstance will be more current with characters to match.

No doubt Higgins is the master of thrilling intrigue I loved this book just because it was a Jack book but I found myself skipping tired descrpitions and less dimensional characters. It was trite. We don’t need to step into the 21st century with Higgins, unless he is really willing to be there. I’d be happy to return to the past with complex intelligent characters; Liam Devlin is sorely missed as are his adversaries. There will never be a Jack Higgins novel that I’ll leave un-read, Jack is like poker night, you go for the camaraderie, if you win, lose or draw, it adds to the mix, but you always go home feeling good regardless.

In my previous reviews of Dark Justice and Bad Company, I wrote that Jack Higgins was decending into mediocrity. If Without Mercy had been a first novel, it would never have been published. I wrote earlier that the last three books read as though Higgins has employed a ghost writer to fill in the blanks of his plot line. The Higgins of earlier, tightly woven novels is gone. The style of this latest effort is sophomoric; two or three page vignetts jumping from theme to theme and place to place. Dillon has become less Irish, Ferguson less commanding, Billy and Harry Salter have become caricatures, the IRA has become populated with inept senior citizens, and the Russians are foiled by the most transparent slight of hand maneuver. Gone or worth adversaries like the Rashids or Grace Browning. Given the first two chapters of this book, the old Sean Dillon would have handed his warrant card to Ferguson and began a one man vendetta,which Ferguson could not condone but would understand. The Sean Dillon of Without Mercy is almost unrecognizable from the Dillon of Thunder Point or Edge of Danger. This Dillon would not have lasted two days in Belfast.

This book is not worth the investment of either time or money.

I chose 5 stars because I love Sean Dillon books. You have to like murder and mayhem, but there is always a sense of justice in the story.

If you choose to read the Dillon series be sure to start at the beginning as his characters all pop up in the following books.I have read the whole series of Sean Dillon by Jack Higgins (pseudonym of UK novelist Harry Patterson) and almost all of his other books. This ranks right up there as an excellent work. I have never been disappointed in his books. If you love mystery and intrique…this is the author for you.

Interesting

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