The Eagle Heist

by Raymond Austin

The Eagle Heist, the first of television director Raymond Austin’s Beauford Sloan Mystery series, has private detective Beauford Sloan (actor Wilford Brimley look-alike) hot on the trail of those who cleverly robbed an armor truck of millions of1 dollars of diamonds. This is the Kindle ebook edition of the best-selling hardcover edition.

An Eagle Security armored truck carrying sixteen million dollars worth of diamonds and three million in cash disappears in Washington, D.C. The only clue the police and FBI have is the distress call from the crew of Eagle Eleven as it was under attack. Six months later, with the case having gone cold, ex-Virginia cop turned private eye Beauford Sloan takes the case and sets out on a trail of clues where death seems to follow his every step.

The book has received rave reviews and is an outstanding start for television director Raymond Austin, whose works include The Saint, The Avengers, Hawaii Five-U, Hart to Hart, Vegas, Quincy, Magnum, P.I., AirWolf, Spenser: For Hire, JAG, and the list goes on and on.

“An excellent debut.” Booklist

Genres: Mystery

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2000

Reviews

[Surreysmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Raymond Austin is a long-time (white, male) television director - The Saint, The Avengers, Hawaii Five-O, Hart to Hart, Magnum, P.I., JAG - any of those sound familiar? I started this book, apparently the first in an intended series, favourably impressed. The opening scene, the heist of the title, was very visual, clearly imagined as if for TV, and well described. But as the story went on, I rapidly got sick of the rather self-congratulatory detective and his conventional and occasionally sexist attitudes; the body count was high and descriptions graphic; and Austin rather put the lid on it by deliberately juxtaposing a heterosexual sex scene (the detective and his one-night-stand) with a gay one (though the gay one consisted simply of a kiss in bed, and then one nasty treacherous gay man strangling the other one). I had the identity of the villain - not surprisingly a gay man - figured out well before the surprise revelation. And finally, to put a capper on it, the copy-editing, which seemed quite good at first, deteriorated badly towards the end, as if the last few chapters had been rushed through with all their spelling and grammatical sins on their heads. I ended up feeling, rather sadly, as if I had spent a few hours seeing one of those action-adventure movies I don't really like - or perhaps an episode of a TV show.

[David Caldwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

It suffers from the same fate as a lot of mysteries. The person solving the mystery gets lucky more than doing any real investigating.In this story not only does Beuford have several lucky breaks, the villians also manage to have many lucky breaks as well.It also seems all mysteries require some kind oh hook to make the detective stand out from all the rest.Unfortunately looking like Wilford Brimley, isn't much of a hook.Not to take anything away from Mr. Brimley, it is hard to see him (or someone who is mistaken for him frequently) as a real ladies man or doing something like nude sunbathing.Beauford Sloan manages to do both of these.While he is an older gentleman who doesn't seem to do that much to stay in shape, he still manages to outfight much younger men even after being knocked unconsious, kicked in the head repeatedly, and even shot.I would have to say that this story is not bad but doesn't stand out enough from all the other mysteries out there. Check it out from the library,like I did, if you want to give it a try.

[Farhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The man behind such successful tv shows as Airwolf and Magnum P.I. decides to write a heist novel with a very tepid result. The novel is mildly engaging but the story is simplistic and clichéd, populated with cardboard characters. The writing is full of atrocious spelling and the punctuation is downright horrible. The plot relies heavily on one coincidence after the other to help solve the so-called mystery. Austin should have turned this into a made-for-tv movie, rather than trying his hand on writing a novel.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An armored car disappears in Washington, DC, and one of the guards body is found in the Potomac. Retired homicide detective beauford Sloan is hired by the mother of one of the guard to investigate her son's death. Other people start being murdered aand the trail leads to Europe and Algiers.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads like a bad TV show... Mostly because it was written by someone who produced TV shows. Predictable, cheaply smutty, and overly dependent on TV dialogue, silk panties, and a Hawaii-5-0 style detective.

[Mahree Moyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced and unpredictable. The characters were brought in and a connection formed. Enjoyed the story. Will read from this author again.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit thin and gory for my taste. Well thought out and executed plot.