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Black Eagles
With this novel, natinally bestselling author Larry Collins has written another irresistible thriller! Black Eagles presents a viable, "what-if" scenario with powerful international implications, pitting agents of the DEA and CIA against each other on the vicious and violent arena of the drug trade.
KIRKUS REVIEW
Collins (Maze, 1989, etc.) blends fact with fancy in a transnational melodrama, plausibly settling any lingering doubts as to the origin of crack, how Nicaraguan contras were financed, and the importance of Panama for laundered money as well as narcotics. Much of the tale is narrated (via tape) by the late John Featherly (Jack) Lind IV, an affluent and well-bred CIA officer. It's in 1988 Laos that Lind first confronts Kevin Grady, a dedicated DEA agent who can't accept the cloak-and-dagger crowd's winking at the drug-smuggling activities of its ad hoc allies. After their initial meeting, the instant antagonists go their separate ways, Grady to place an informant inside Colombia's Medell°n cartel and Lind to recruit promising young officer Manuel Antonio (``call me Tony'') Noriega as the CIA's man in Panama. Over the years, Noriega gains power and influence, becoming an invaluable source of intelligence. By the time the Reagan Administration decides to make Panama the keystone of its anti- Sandinista campaign, then, agency people like Lind have long turned a blind eye to Noriega's lucrative involvement with dope traffickers. Meanwhile, less concerned than Lind with the finer points of national security, Grady continues to stalk big-time drug dealers to the ends of the earth--including Noriega and the Cuban mercenaries the CIA has set to training contras with funds supplied by can-do Marine colonel Oliver North. (During all this, Medell°n's deep thinkers have developed crack to get the carriage-trade price of coke in US ghettos.) Lind warns Noriega of the DEA's approaching investigation; the strongman promptly orders the murder of an American undercover opponent of his regime; and, finally, Lind is forced at last to face the consequences of actions he's taken in the so-called national interest . . . just as Grady arrives with a warrant for his arrest. An engrossing, wide-angle yarn that could help confirm many conspiracy theorists' wilder suspicions and speculations.
KIRKUS REVIEW
Collins (Maze, 1989, etc.) blends fact with fancy in a transnational melodrama, plausibly settling any lingering doubts as to the origin of crack, how Nicaraguan contras were financed, and the importance of Panama for laundered money as well as narcotics. Much of the tale is narrated (via tape) by the late John Featherly (Jack) Lind IV, an affluent and well-bred CIA officer. It's in 1988 Laos that Lind first confronts Kevin Grady, a dedicated DEA agent who can't accept the cloak-and-dagger crowd's winking at the drug-smuggling activities of its ad hoc allies. After their initial meeting, the instant antagonists go their separate ways, Grady to place an informant inside Colombia's Medell°n cartel and Lind to recruit promising young officer Manuel Antonio (``call me Tony'') Noriega as the CIA's man in Panama. Over the years, Noriega gains power and influence, becoming an invaluable source of intelligence. By the time the Reagan Administration decides to make Panama the keystone of its anti- Sandinista campaign, then, agency people like Lind have long turned a blind eye to Noriega's lucrative involvement with dope traffickers. Meanwhile, less concerned than Lind with the finer points of national security, Grady continues to stalk big-time drug dealers to the ends of the earth--including Noriega and the Cuban mercenaries the CIA has set to training contras with funds supplied by can-do Marine colonel Oliver North. (During all this, Medell°n's deep thinkers have developed crack to get the carriage-trade price of coke in US ghettos.) Lind warns Noriega of the DEA's approaching investigation; the strongman promptly orders the murder of an American undercover opponent of his regime; and, finally, Lind is forced at last to face the consequences of actions he's taken in the so-called national interest . . . just as Grady arrives with a warrant for his arrest. An engrossing, wide-angle yarn that could help confirm many conspiracy theorists' wilder suspicions and speculations.
500 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1993
6 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Larry Collins
65 books181 followersBorn in West Hartford, Connecticut, he was educated at the Loomis Chaffee Institute in Windsor, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale as a BA in 1951. He worked in the advertising department of Procter and Gamble, in Cincinnati, Ohio, before being conscripted into the US Army. While serving in the public affairs office of the Allied Headquarters in Paris, from 1953-1955, he met Dominique Lapierre with whom he would write several best-sellers over 43 years.
He went back to Procter and Gamble and became the products manager of the new foods division in 1955. Disillusioned with commerce, he took to journalism and joined the Paris bureau of United Press International in 1956, and became the news editor in Rome in the following year, and later the MidEast bureau chief in Beirut.
In 1959, he joined Newsweek as Middle East editor, based in New York. He became the Paris bureau chief in 1961, where he would work until 1964, until he switched to writing books.
In 1965, Collins and Lapierre published their first joint work, Is Paris Burning? (in French Paris brûle-t-il?), a tale of Nazi occupation of the French capital during World War II and Hitler's plans to destroy Paris should it fall into the hands of the Allies. The book was an instant success and was made into a movie in 1966 by director René Clément, starring Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford and Alain Delon.
In 1967, they co-authored Or I'll Dress you in Mourning about the Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benítez El Cordobés.
In 1972, after five years' research and interviews, they published O Jerusalem! about the birth of Israel in 1948, turned into a movie by Elie Chouraqui.
In 1975, they published Freedom at Midnight, a story of the Indian Independence in 1947, and the subsequent assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It is said they spent $300,000 researching and still emerged wealthy.
The duo published their first fictional work, The Fifth Horseman, in 1980. It describes a terrorist attack on New York masterminded by Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. The book had such a shocking effect that the French President cancelled the sale of nuclear reactors to Libya, even though it was meant for peaceful purposes. Paramount Pictures, which was planning a film based on the book, dropped the idea in fear that fanatics would emulate the scenario in real life.
In 1985, Collins authored Fall From Grace (without Lapierre) about a woman agent sent into occupied France who realizes she may be betrayed by her British masters if necessary. He also wrote Maze: A Novel (1989), Black Eagles (1995), Le Jour Du Miracle: D-Day Paris (1994) and Tomorrow Belongs To Us (1998). Shortly before his death, he collaborated with Lapierre on Is New York Burning? (2005), a novel mixing fictional characters and real-life figures that speculates about a terrorist attack on New York City.
In 2005, while working from his home in the south of France on a book on the Middle East, Collins died of a sudden cerebral haemorrhage.
He went back to Procter and Gamble and became the products manager of the new foods division in 1955. Disillusioned with commerce, he took to journalism and joined the Paris bureau of United Press International in 1956, and became the news editor in Rome in the following year, and later the MidEast bureau chief in Beirut.
In 1959, he joined Newsweek as Middle East editor, based in New York. He became the Paris bureau chief in 1961, where he would work until 1964, until he switched to writing books.
In 1965, Collins and Lapierre published their first joint work, Is Paris Burning? (in French Paris brûle-t-il?), a tale of Nazi occupation of the French capital during World War II and Hitler's plans to destroy Paris should it fall into the hands of the Allies. The book was an instant success and was made into a movie in 1966 by director René Clément, starring Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford and Alain Delon.
In 1967, they co-authored Or I'll Dress you in Mourning about the Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benítez El Cordobés.
In 1972, after five years' research and interviews, they published O Jerusalem! about the birth of Israel in 1948, turned into a movie by Elie Chouraqui.
In 1975, they published Freedom at Midnight, a story of the Indian Independence in 1947, and the subsequent assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It is said they spent $300,000 researching and still emerged wealthy.
The duo published their first fictional work, The Fifth Horseman, in 1980. It describes a terrorist attack on New York masterminded by Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. The book had such a shocking effect that the French President cancelled the sale of nuclear reactors to Libya, even though it was meant for peaceful purposes. Paramount Pictures, which was planning a film based on the book, dropped the idea in fear that fanatics would emulate the scenario in real life.
In 1985, Collins authored Fall From Grace (without Lapierre) about a woman agent sent into occupied France who realizes she may be betrayed by her British masters if necessary. He also wrote Maze: A Novel (1989), Black Eagles (1995), Le Jour Du Miracle: D-Day Paris (1994) and Tomorrow Belongs To Us (1998). Shortly before his death, he collaborated with Lapierre on Is New York Burning? (2005), a novel mixing fictional characters and real-life figures that speculates about a terrorist attack on New York City.
In 2005, while working from his home in the south of France on a book on the Middle East, Collins died of a sudden cerebral haemorrhage.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 2, 2020
5/10 en 2012.
Aunque lo que cuenta es interesante, lo malos malísimos que son/han sido los de la CIA, no me ha parecido que el ritmo de narración enganche, por lo que no le he dado más nota a pesar de que ya digo que la historia es compleja y atrayente. Y se supone casi veraz. Y se supone quie es un tipo de lectura que me gustaría...pero malamente le acabé.
Aunque lo que cuenta es interesante, lo malos malísimos que son/han sido los de la CIA, no me ha parecido que el ritmo de narración enganche, por lo que no le he dado más nota a pesar de que ya digo que la historia es compleja y atrayente. Y se supone casi veraz. Y se supone quie es un tipo de lectura que me gustaría...pero malamente le acabé.
May 26, 2017
I can't believe there are no reviews for this book.
Readers don't know what they are missing out...
This book falls in the genre of thriller and espionage.
It is story of an ex-CIA officer who was trashed by his own men.
The story invloves money laundering, smuggling contrabands, terrorism, drugs smuggling and transnational conspiracies.
"A-guy thing" novel
Readers don't know what they are missing out...
This book falls in the genre of thriller and espionage.
It is story of an ex-CIA officer who was trashed by his own men.
The story invloves money laundering, smuggling contrabands, terrorism, drugs smuggling and transnational conspiracies.
"A-guy thing" novel
November 3, 2014
An absolute stunner from Larry Collins! One of the best novels I've read this year. It will take time to understand the plot and the never ending number of characters don't make things easy for the reader but once you get the hold of it you'll just love it.
February 8, 2023
Excelente novela política con fundamentos históricos. La historia narrada de una manera que atrapa al lector hasta el fin. Libro tenso sobre el narcotráfico y la sucia dirigencia política de latinoamerica.
March 21, 2022
CIA, DEA, Contras, and Cocaine. Agencies working together but against each other. An agent who follows orders but can no longer live with those orders. Fiction close to the reality of the time.
May 18, 2020
A pretty decent novel about the conflict between the DEA & CIA in regards to the CIA's support for Manuel Noriega from his lowly beginning all the way to military dictator of Panama and his subsequent profiteering from cocaine trafficking through Panama from Colombia.
Whilst it starts slowly it warms up to a good tale about the willingness of CIA agent Jack Lind to turn a blind eye to drug trafficking in Vietnam to slowly realising that such a willingness isn't always worth the cost.
One could almost say it's an examination of the statement 'the end justifies the means'.
Whilst the book is a fictionalised account of the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking, it nonetheless is quite close to the reality of their involvement in Panama and their support of Noriega and is worth a read.
Whilst it starts slowly it warms up to a good tale about the willingness of CIA agent Jack Lind to turn a blind eye to drug trafficking in Vietnam to slowly realising that such a willingness isn't always worth the cost.
One could almost say it's an examination of the statement 'the end justifies the means'.
Whilst the book is a fictionalised account of the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking, it nonetheless is quite close to the reality of their involvement in Panama and their support of Noriega and is worth a read.
April 21, 2025
Águilas Negras muestra ese lado oscuro de la CIA qué nadie quiere decir, pero que todos conocen. La historia de Lind, las conexiones con Noriega y cómo se entrelaza con el Cartel de Medellín muestran cómo el mundo es más pequeño de lo que parece para las cosas malas. La novela es larga, y me aburrió la primera mitad. Se vuelve mucho más interesante en la última parte que todo se conecta.
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September 10, 2016I was looking for the title Black Eagles and it came up with this book. No matter how I put it in, it didn't come up with an English title.
April 29, 2023
Really poor ending.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews