Drink with the Devil

Sean Dillon #5

by Jack Higgins

Drink with the Devil (Sean Dillon Series, Book 5) [Paperback] Higgins, Jack

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, Suspense, Action, Espionage

368 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 1996

About the author

There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Jack Higgins was best known of the many pseudonyms of Henry Patterson. (See also Martin Fallon, Harry Patterson, Hugh Marlowe and James Graham.)

He was the New York Times bestselling author of more than seventy thrillers, including The Eagle Has Landed and The Wolf at the Door. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Patterson grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As a child, Patterson was a voracious reader and later credited his passion for reading with fueling his creative drive to be an author. His upbringing in Belfast also exposed him to the political and religious violence that characterized the city at the time. At seven years old, Patterson was caught in gunfire while riding a tram, and later was in a Belfast movie theater when it was bombed. Though he escaped from both attacks unharmed, the turmoil in Northern Ireland would later become a significant influence in his books, many of which prominently feature the Irish Republican Army. After attending grammar school and college in Leeds, England, Patterson joined the British Army and served two years in the Household Cavalry, from 1947 to 1949, stationed along the East German border. He was considered an expert sharpshooter.

Following his military service, Patterson earned a degree in sociology from the London School of Economics, which led to teaching jobs at two English colleges. In 1959, while teaching at James Graham College, Patterson began writing novels, including some under the alias James Graham. As his popularity grew, Patterson left teaching to write full time. With the 1975 publication of the international blockbuster The Eagle Has Landed, which was later made into a movie of the same name starring Michael Caine, Patterson became a regular fixture on bestseller lists. His books draw heavily from history and include prominent figures—such as John Dillinger—and often center around significant events from such conflicts as World War II, the Korean War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Patterson lived in Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Higgins deals well with disaster.
Like a flock in a church with their paster.
Drink with the Devil, give him due.
Read Sean Dillon to the rescue.
This truly is work of a master.

10 of 10 stars

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

hey man

yeah you



you looking for a hit?

I gots another book review for you.

hear you've been fiendin. up all night. sweat poring out of every pore.

you've been needin' textual satisfaction...

oh that sweet book review satisfaction. can't get it nowhere else but here. m.goodreads.com. type it on your cell phone and I'll be at your place in seconds

you know you like it

you know you love it

you know you've been reading since you were six years old.

and nobody else is going to deliver you bespoke product, individually tailored to meet your B . R. needs. you've been a dedicated bookist since you were very young, and now the website has found you all, a classic case of computer assisted search.

OKAY OKAY I PROMISE I'LL STOP



Me llamo Manual. Soy una coca-agricultor colombiano de 27 años. He estado trabajando quince años después la forma. Los norteamericanos - ellos toman mi producto y resopla por la nariz. Para ellos, el producto cuesta 200 dólares el gramo. Yo--yo recibo alrededor de $2 o $3 por día. El Cartel, está basada en San Francisco, tiene las ejecutaras del Amazon--si el cartel Amazon--que es la que recibe los productos de mi labor.

My name is Manual. I am a coca-farmer of 27 years age, Colombian. I have been working fifteen years in the fields. The North Americans-- they receive my product and snort if up the nose. For them, the product, it costs $200 per gram. Me--I receive for my day's work $2 or $3. I am stuck in a cycle of poverty and despair, and I want the world to know that I am a family man. I am a father of two daughters.



Hello Internet readers. My name is Nurse Practioner Lindsay Fay, and I'm the managing director of the Farm Relief Charity, plc, of the UK, a registered charity. We at Farm Relief want you to know that good people--people just like you and your neighbor--are working hard every day to solve the problem of indigent book reviewers in the Amazon who are stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle of text creation through poverty and sad narcisstic attention seeking behaviour.

Through the generous contribution of one Like or more, you can make a difference in the life of the Amazon Review Farmer, based in some primitive Third World country like Japan! You can make a difference, because you care.

OKAY OKAY SRSLY THIS TIME. NO MORE



hey I live for the applause baby. I realise certain types of humour can hit close to home, but face it,



WE'RE ALL WORKER ANTS HERE!

I'm writing

because you're reading

and although you try to hide it

less visuals

more text

means

okay, coming down off that heroin smack

that caffeine high

that sugary sweet goodness called a book

drink with the devil, dance with fire

trying to calm my fingers

center

focus

slow it down

now I feel you Virginia Woolf

Goodreads baby, I'm writing in a crowded rec room full of frenchies. sorry, reality intrudes, and with french girls staring glaring and batting eyelashes its not necessarily easy to generate smooth flowing paragraphs and coherent thought. you didn't ask for elaboration on the emir fanfare, you did not request more insight into the etienne-nadine dynamic, nor do you care about their african boy toy. so, I'm just generating words for you because we are in the community of the word devourers and nobody cares T.T I mean maybe ethanol fuel will save the world, or maybe we should stop the Nipponese from killing dolphins, but I dunno, I'm an ironist by nature. I have a Norwegian sweater. I'm sweating in the dead of winter, hence, sweater.

I want to say baby that the reading addiction is highly respectable. I mean, take a freakin' look at somebody on real smack and tell me that stuff is healthy. the one ONE exception we know from history is that Erdos (pronounced ERDISH) basically wrote modern mathematics whilst strung out on smack (it's true, look it up), but other than, THE HIEARCHY IS CLEAR

MUSIC
POETRY
LITERATURE
DANCE
ACTING
HISTORY

that doesn't up to Nine Muses 'cuz the Greeks divided tragedy / comedy into two. maybe we should say

MUSIC
POETRY
LITERATURE
TRAGEDY
EPIC POETRY
DANCE
COMEDY
HISTORY

I dunno. there's room for doubt. but as the last entry pointed out, it's really easy to mess around with historians. and if you just toss an old Roman coin into the local archelogical dig, you can end up seriously impacting historical research as well. I do it because historians are arrogant, pompous, and believe their art is a "science."

give me a break. Nijinsky over Chomsky anytime.

Music, as German philosophers agreed, is the highest of the muses, and the most impenetrable. but it is possible for mere peons as ourselves to discover the secret messages being passed from one musician to another. I don't even have to repeat "they say you're a cloner / naturally I'm afraid if I do it alone,"; we can even read KPP's Invader as "Indie Pop." sorry if that's recondite, but you know, not everyone is into close reading. [tho' everyone knows the east coast west coast feud, cough]

my confession is more like this. people are stuck into their fields. we picked our majors at age 19. and in the old world, we're stuck even further, we're totally lost. 70% of expats working in teaching of some kind, what a sad lot we are. yet some of us in boom economies are driving around BMWs that we leave at the airport before jetting home. the laws-- in foreign countries-- are sometimes draconian ^^v

all of this makes for weird hiearchies. as my pally pal pal in the mid east will point out, when you arrive in our expat city and proudly proclaim yourself "thirty years working for [respectable company]", we roll our eyes because we are living on the edge!. o baby

now aside from the narcissistic ravings that implies, there is the other question of whether I can give you the full 10000 characters. yeah, I think that's no problem. a deal's a deal and all that. and like british refugee Anthony in Florida, I gotta produce, I gotta give you everything that was asked for.

SO... more about musicians. they are strange baby. they are living on another planet. you can instantly identify professional musicians by their look, just as visual artists have highly distinctive appearances. it is only us word smiths that pass unnoticed.

(however, wordssmiths also fail miserably at music production; Stephen King and Margaret Atwood are in an ad hoc band, and it basically is terrible, although King is of course a mass market writer so his skilz are also questionable)

this bi-cultural membership-- we pass as you normals but interface with artists-- means we can communicate what they think. sorry-- the news isn't perfectly perfect. musicians are an alienated bunch, and they think your lot-- music listeners-- are basically exploitative. if there were ever a goodlistens website, you'd really see a lot of sparks fly. further, musicians peak earlier, on average, are marked by the same divisions (classical vs. rock; avant garde vs jazz) that define other artistic communities, and man o man, they also reflect cultural trends-- i.e., most violinists are asian females or jewish males. yes, many percussionists are epileptics. noiz is an avant garde percussionist band that does not release tracks. much money is made in direct performances, especially now that piracy is rampant.

yarr... johnny depp.

goodreads and the community's official stance is that Piracy Is Strictly Bad. but the EU is now grappling with a (far-right!) piracy movement. and Ukraine is now being torn apart by the Lemberg (Lviv/Lvov) vs. Kharhiv Russophile dynamic, first pointed out twenty five years ago in Huntington's famous poli sci classic.

where this is all leading is to a general confusion of will and intent. our intentions are good, of course; as with most of humanity, but face it, if your future lies in a Parisian garret with your Stradivarius your sole possession, you too would have an embittered perspective on the world. I'm lucky because smartphones are my Stradivarius baby. i don't even need spell check

separate to that issue there is the issue of supply and demand. as in, since Japan is a Galapagos nation of text and aesthetics, inevitably its products and output will be recondite, understood only by... the select, the elite, the holy few! what do we think of you applied citizens walking around the country?

you're obvious!

hah, filipinos with pissed off looks tramping down the subway car

chinese keeping their tonals down but wearing north face jackets with the logo tearing slightly

trying to blend in, but standing out; your attempts at hiding only draw further attention.

how to really pass? try to stand out.

I've been navel gazing, I've been wearing emerald green t-shirts with funny Engrish slogans. I've been looking at facebook and I think you look fat in that picture. nevertheless, driving on fumes alone, I can power through this last section. 1 like = 10000 characters, that's the deal. if you want more, click the button.

separate to that issue, i will report that of the French boys, one has a good personality and face, but his voice is abnormally deep and therefore odd; the African boy has been sniping; a couple of the other boys are of various quality, and actually there's so many females I can't quite keep up with the personality tracking. i mean, i have ability and slots inside the head, but some are being used up by previous relationships (yeah twitter; yeah FB). this makes it hard to necessarily keep track of every cross-referencing incest relationship in the vast panoply of Margaret Mead socio-anthroapology

face it, you love the turns of phrase. word destroyer. acid vernacular.

o my goodreads babies, I am thinking of snow. I am thinking of snowboarding ability. give me a green card!

[Glenn Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drink with the Devil is my first Jack Higgins book. It was a fast moving page turning thriller which I enjoyed a lot. The first half of the book was set in 1985 when the IRA was attempting to end British rule in Northern Ireland. The second half of the story takes place in 1996 in the midst of the peace process. I liked how the hero of the book (Sean Dillon) is not your typical stereotypical macho man. He smokes and drinks and engages in no physical fistfights as such. He is only five foot five tall but highly trained/skilled. He comes through many difficult situations through his calmness, clear thinking, and confidence in his own abilities/skills. I also enjoyed the use of the genuine Irish dialogue throughout the book. My only criticism would be the far fetched ending where the main characters stand around and do nothing

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical Higgins story. Although I should say a typical Higgins story when he cared about how he wrote. His last 3 or 4 books have been lousy with just action and underdeveloped characters and plot lines. This is one of his good ones - fast paced, good character development.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

July 2018 Same vacation - another Jack Higgins story. Not to be too sarcastic but ALL of the Sean Dillion stories could be titled: " Drink with the Devil #1", "Drink with the Devil #2", "Drink with the Devil #3" and so on and on.... Man there's lots of drinking in these stories. Same with Stuart Woods... tons of drinking. Sort of reminds me of the old Maigret stories. Although the premise in this story is far fetched, I loved it!!!!!

[Mick Scrimshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember once having read a Jack Higgins book years ago and not being particularly impressed. The only reason I read this was I found a mint condition hardback copy in a charity shop for 75p and I love nice looking books, collect thrillers, and can’t resist a bargain. In the end I did enjoy it. It was easy to read and had plenty of action but I really don’t enjoy how Higgins feels the need explain everything, even when there is no need to do so and often repeats the same thing or phrase again just to make sure the reader understands. I was originally only going to give it two stars because of that, and because there were a couple of things plot wise that were just silly, especially towards the end, but the book redeemed itself by being fast paced and a bit of fun. The author also needs crediting for getting his characters to speak in a way that found me putting on Irish accents in my head which was also quite good fun.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the twists and turns of Higgins' tales. Or maybe it's the Irish brogue and turns of phrase. As ever may be. :)

[Michael Martz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing like a good old (old, as in nearly 30 years since publication...) Jack Higgins thriller to get your adrenaline up. "Drink With the Devil" is another in his Sean Dillon series and you know what that means: lots of action and a plethora of characters on both sides of the law.

DWTD begins in the mid 1980's when The Troubles plagued Ireland, with the heist of a huge amount of gold bullion in rural England by a group of Irish Protestant militants. Among the group was a clandestine operator who had infiltrated and was now considered a key player: Sean Dillon, ex-IRA now working with Ulster Intelligence, posing as Martin Keough. The plan was to steal the truck transporting the gold, load it on a ship, and move it across the sea to the northern Irish coast. Unfortunately, once the ship's crew determined the worth of their cargo, they began making plans to kill the robbers and take the gold themselves. To say that effort didn't go well would be an understatement, as a gunbattle ensues and Keough along with the leader of the robbers Michael Ryan and his fierce daughter Kathleen escape on an inflatable and blow the ship and its crew up. The boat sinks along with the gold, Keough and the Ryan's make it to shore. Michael and Kathleen Ryan hightail it across the Atlantic to the US and Keough (Dillon) returns to his job in Brit Intelligence.

So, fast-forward to 10 years later. Peace is almost at hand between the Brits and Irish, Michael Ryan languishes in an American prison with his daughter nearby working as a nurse, both with assumed names. During an episode in the hospital when heavily medicated, Michael mouths off about the location of the gold, a mafia guy hears him and passes along the information to his people. Before you know it, an escape plan is concocted for Michael and both he and Kathleen are on the loose along with several mafia-types. Soon, word gets around and several groups are keenly interested in locating the booty, including Michaels old contacts in the Loyalist camp, the mafia, and a joint effort of the British and American government spearheaded by, you guessed it, Sean Dillon. This is where the fun really begins as various loyalties and relationships are rekindled and often abandoned. No holds are barred as these disparate groups with wildly divergent goals 'go for the gold'. The conclusion was a bit of a shock but, thinking back through the previous action, maybe should've been considered a possibility by someone.

A solid Higgins offering with interesting characters, a nice plot, and a fast pace. Dialogue is a bit dated by, after all, it's 30 years old. 3.5 rounded up.

[Serdar Poirot · Rating 4 out of 5]

1985 yılında Sean Dillon, IRA için çalışırken Jack Barry'nin emriyle Martin Keogh adında biri olarak Michael Ryan ekibine katılır. Yeğeni Kathleen'i bir grup gençten kurtararak güvenini kazanan Dillon, Michael'ın planını duyunca onu takdir eder. Külçe altın dolu bir kamyonu kaçırıp gemi ile götüreceklerdir. Ama gemi kaptanı aç gözlülük yapınca kavga çıkar ve Sean gemiyi batırır. Michael geminin tam yerini bilen bir cihaza sahiptir. Sean ikisini de sevdiği için onlara dokunmaz. Michael ve Kathleen Amerika'ya kaçar ve burada Michael bir banka soygunu sırasında yakalanır. Anjin atakları geçirirken hapiste, bildiklerini sayıklar. Rosso ailesinin bir üyesi de hapistedir ve oradan çıkmak için bu bilgiyi aileye verir. Michael hapisten kaçırılır ve Kathleen ile beraber İrlanda'ya rehine olarak dönerler. İçerideki tutuklu Blake Johnson ile görüşür. Başkan'ın özel koruması durumu başkana anlatınca Ferguson ve Dillon da dahil olur olaya. Lian Devlin ile beraber Hannah da Dillon'un yanında araştırmalara katılır. Jack Barry, hem barış istemediği için hem de para kazanmak için bu işe girer. Çünkü Altın külçeleri 150 milyon dolar değerindedir. Ama Sean olaya dahil olur. Michael fazla ilaç aldığı için ölür. Sean da Batığa dalar ama burada Altın yoktur. Çıkan çatışmada Rosso aile üyelerini ve Barry'yi öldürür. Ama Kathleen kaçar. Aslında kamyonda Altın hiç olmamıştır. Michael başka bir kamyon ile onu akrabasının evindeki ahıra gizlemiştir. Bundan sonra neler olacaktır? Kathleen Katolikleri neden hiç sevmez? Dillon bu işin altından kalkabilecek midir? Keyifle okunan bir roman.

[Black Hole · Rating 4 out of 5]

ISBN13: 9780718141424
Binding: Hardcover
Drink With The Devil is a book about uncovering a sunken treasure with Sean Dillon as the protagonist. This is my first book of Jack Higgins and I am surprised why this book is not popular. I have read books that are way worse and yet they are popular. This book deserves more recognition for the great writing style. I couldn't stop reading and I had to force myself to stop so that I can get some sleep.
About the book there was only one part where I felt it was unnecessary. The stunt that Sean Dillon had to do felt like it was deviating from the main plot and felt it was unnecessary. And the second thing was the map felt like it had unnecessary details

SPOILER
I felt there were logical complications in some parts of the plot. After the gold bullion truck sunk along with the Irish Rose, Michael Ryan still had 50k pounds with him so he could have used that money to recover the sunken gold instead of robbing a bank for money.
This is a big spoiler so don't read this if you haven't read the book
Michael had originally switched the truck and the gold was never on the Irish Rose, so there was absolutely no reason for him to rob the bank and shoot a cop only to land in prison for 25 years and to think that Michael Ryan boasts of being a careful guy, this feels like a big logical mistake.

So do I recommend this book? Its a big yes. Great writing, good character development, intriguing plot gives a great reading experience to the readers. This book definitely deserves to be in many bookshelves.

[Oli Turner]

The fifty-fourth #jackhiggins #martinfallon #hughmarlowe #harrypatterson #henrypatterson #jamesgraham novel #drinkwiththedevil published in 1996. The fifth appearance of #seandillon. I read this when it was first published and have always remembered it as my favourite of the Jack Higgins/sean Dillon books. This is my first time re-reading. I had forgotten much of the detail. But it is still really good. Almost the first half of the novel is set in 1985 with Dillon using an alias and getting involved in a gold heist. The second half is set in 1995 and deals with the aftermath. The story telling is very economical. This seems to take almost everything that Higgins is good at and condense it into one story. The only thing missing is a ww2 connection. Otherwise we have the usual: rain, farm and city scenes, diving, political rivalry, the mafia, the IRA, hard men with hearts of gold rescuing damsels from thugs, Dillon showing off, English gangsters with a code of honour. This is the first appearance of Harry salter London gangster and his nephew billy who become regular additions to the team. Higgins original prototype for salter appeared in his 47th book. Plus a cameo from #liamdevlin a recurring character in Higgins earlier novels. The ending was different than I remembered. I think I must have combined a few different Dillon books in my mind. But still very entertaining as always.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Higgins has spent a career developing clearly defined characters and stories that are exciting and thrilling and hard-to-put-down. Drink with the Devil is just such a book.

For those who haven't read stories about Sean Dillon, he's a former assassin for the IRA and mercenary for hire. He's stone cold with just a twist of humor — a tough nut to crack especially when he is focused on a case where he knows both sides while working for a third.

Years before he became a member of British intelligence, Dillon went undercover and was involved with the highjacking of a truck filled with gold bullion, taken to help the Irish Protestant paramilitaries. The plan is audacious enough but with so many knowing just what is in the truck, it becomes tricky just to keep it and before too long the team loses it, when they are forced to blow up the ship carrying it across the Irish Sea. Ten years later, the mastermind is in prison with a heart condition and lets it be known that he knows where the gold lay. The story comes to the attention of the Americans and the British, who then race to get their hands on it before either side of the Irish militants.

The one ace in their pocket is none other that Dillon. Tense, tightly written and bound to keep the reader riveted to their seat, this is a great read.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Jack Higgins book and was a fun, easy read. The book is really written in two halves. I give the first half five stars: 1) it has fewer characters, 2) the setting is Ireland during The Troubles, 3) there's a lot of action with a great finale. The second half of the book bogs down. It starts with a completely irrelevant interlude of a gentleman's wager by a character you have to be reading closely enough to know is the same character as in the first half, only he's had an unexplained name and loyalty switch. Higgins gets back to his story and the novel has good suspense the rest of the way through, but it never achieves the promise it started out with.

Still, it was an enjoyable read and I'm eager to read more of Higgins after dipping my toes into his ouvre with this novel. Looks like I have eight-some-odd other books by Higgins to choose from!

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main Character, Sean Dillon, is an ex-IRA enforcer, who starts the story by infiltrating a paramilitary Irish Protestant group, under his alias of Martin Keogh. The group hijacks a van transporting 100 million pounds in gold bullion and loads it on a ship bound for the Irish coast. The ship explodes and sinks before it can make it to shore. All on board die, with the exception of the mastermind, Michael Ryan and the IRA infiltrator, Martin Keogh. The story moves ahead 10 years where Martin Keogh is again using his real name, Sean Dillon, and is now working for British Intelligence. Word that terrorists groups are looking to retrieve the gold from the sunken ship to finance another war gets the attention of both the British and American authorities. They send in Sean Dillon, again, to prevent the terrorists from getting the gold.
A very interesting read and one I would recommend.

[Stuart Haining · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10 11% SHHB. A good story as always and some unexpected twists in the ending but spoilt IMHO by lazy similarities in characters/location to other novels (unfortunately one of just read - Eagle has flown ) and similar key characters names all making for a unnecessarily jumbled second half - which spoilt an otherwise good yarn. Some character behaviours felt a bit unlikely but didn’t detract too much. Won’t read this one again but will read more by this author who’s general style I like a lot.

[Manosthehandsoffate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Sean Dillon book and overall I enjoyed it. There were a number of sections of the book that were a bit too long to justify their content and at least one that seemed completely unnecessary. I would assume that at this point in his career Higgins was getting a light touch from his editor. Still, it was a breezy, entertaining thriller and I wouldn't be opposed to reading more books about Sean Dillon.

[Mbsuther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sean Dillon strikes again

This is an earlier Sean Dillon. I do like the writing style of Jack Higgins and still rank The Eagle Has Landed as a must read. This book started off in the past and it wasn't hard to figure out who the characters were and where they would wind up. The storyline was very good and very tight. And, like most of Sean Dillon books, he dispenses justice his way. A 4.6 out of 5 rating.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fast read, moderately suspenseful, a good story that relates well to the time in which it was written.
Part of what makes Jack Higgins a great author is his ability to tell a violent story without focusing on the violence. Yes, there is some killing but the story keeps moving. no overtly detailed descriptions that border the disgusting. Thanks Jack.

[Ajitabh Pandey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical Sean Dillon classic. Simple plot of gold theft, action, explosion, drama and recovery. The entry of the character “Sean Dillon” is very late in the book. At points the book does not explain very well about certain decisions the primary Robbery planner took and why ran away and start robbing banks Ina foreign country. But still a very good read.

[William Howle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced Sean Dillon story. Starts in 1995 with the hijack of a truck loaded with gold bullion. The truck is allegedly on a ship which is sunk in the Irish Sea. In 1995 the main thief who is in jail in the US escapes with help of the mafia and returns to Ireland to reclaim the gold. Dillon is sent to prevent the gold falling into the wrong hands.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Higgins is always interesting. Set between 1985 and 1995 and on the Irish conflict of those times.
Worth a read if for no other reason than to confirm the stupidness of killing as a solution to our problems. It is a good plot and would have been sickingly poignant in its day.

Too much killing for me...

[Ulysses · Rating 1 out of 5]

Apparently the same Jack Higgins who wrote the classic World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed also wrote this nonsensical, godawfully paced load of 1990s horseshit? If it weren’t for the fact that one of the key characters from The Eagle Has Landed shows up here as a retiree, I’d never believe it.

[Sheryl Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know much about the struggles in Ireland, so some of the nuances of the story probably went over my head. Still, it was entertaining to read with people changing sides and lots of intrigue. There were some really good surprises along the way and some twist and turns that I didn't see coming.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been sitting on my shelf for ages, it's the first Jack Higgins book I've read. I had heard a lot of positive things about him as a writer.
It lived up to my expectations, it was fast paced although dated. You could tell he had a good knowledge of the Irish situation. My edition had a great map in the cover too, nearly always the sign of good book!

[Melissa Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given that I'm not all that familiar with the reasons why Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants were at all, I had a hard time understanding what was going on. Also, given that this is Book # 5 in the Sean Dillon series, I think I would need to read those previous books. Definitely a page turner.

Major turnoff was the continuous use of God's name in vain.

[Leyda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uf, fatal.

En gran parte lo que me ha pasado es que es un libro parte de una serie y claro, que haya casi cinco capítulos exclusivamente para hablar de aventuras pasadas (que no he leído), me parece un poco aburrido. Es como meter relleno en las series.

A nivel de trama, no está del todo mal. Podría ser mejor si tuviera personajes bien construidos y tal, pero bueno.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes ok the whole writing style is purely Just to grip you but so what! This book was fantastic and quite relatable almost to today with NI troubles seeming to be starting again. Anyone that has read Jack Higgins knows to expect a fast paced thriller and it delivers on all accounts.

[Diane Wachter · Rating 3 out of 5]

HB-B, @ 1996, Read 9/96. A highjacking by Irish Protestant paramilitaries results in the disappearance of one hundred million lbs. in gold bullion. A seagoing barge, The Irish Rose, disappears with only two survivors. 3*'s = Good, but slow to start.

[Greer Andjanetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent story, written in earlier days when JH's books were not so much stamped out of a general mold and had some individuality to them. Very easy to read and follow with interesting and sympathetic characters.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read from Jack Higgins - a gold bullion theft by Protestant loyalists in 1985 falls through during the escape and ten years later a group of Mafia and IRA loyalists try to discover the lost bullion and put the peace process at risk.