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Rich and Jade #2
Death Run
The phenomenally successful Jack Higgins teams up with Justin Richards for another sure fire bestseller for children. A mafia banker wants to defect and give evidence against his former bosses, and John Chance's boss Ardman is handling the exchange. But when the criminals realise they might be able to exert influence on Chance by getting at his children, Rich and Jade, the twins find themselves in the firing line. With a kidnapping in Venice and a shoot-out at a private school in England, this sequel to SURE FIRE will have both young and old Jack Higgins fans hooked.
253 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2007
23 people are currently reading
391 people want to read
About the author
Jack Higgins
481 books1,280 followersThere 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 13, 2017
pretty good
March 27, 2017
Jack Higgins returns and that can only mean Sean Dillion is also here with yet another cookie cutter adventure. Hold the presses…. This is not a Dillon book, but ‘Death Run’, one of the short lived teen fiction novels that Higgins wrote in conjunction with Justin Richards. In book two, Rich and Jade Chance are together with their agent father John. They think they are on a holiday in Monaco, but for John it is more of a Busman’s Holiday when he is tasked with smuggling out an informant from under the eyes of the Mafia.
‘Death Run’ is a fun book, full of moments rather than a cohesive whole. Like a Bond movie is spans the globe and takes on a series of mini adventures, whilst the overall story does not always work. In this case some of the elements are better than others. The stand out moment is a siege on a private school. This contains action and suspense, all within the confines of a school that a teenage reader can relate too. This part of the book also has some level of realism, although Rich and Jade are a little brighter and bolder than the average child, what they achieve in the school is believable.
It is later in the book, when the stakes are made even higher that things fall apart a little. This being a book for the early teen market it has to soften the edges. However, the fact that Jade in particular is not finished off is a miracle. A book that starts of edgy and modern feeling eventually descends into some Enid Blyton levels of japery. The goodwill that a young reader was being talked to, rather than talked at, is lost with a final section that feels too patronising.
The best book for teenagers are just great stories with no real pandering to the reader’s wellbeing. Higgins and Richards start off well with a great Venice based action sequence and then a school invasion, but the final section falls flat. There is still fun to be had in the book, but if the momentum was held to the end it could have rivalled some of Higgins best adult books, as it is, it feels more like one of the many Dillon novels that fans of the author have become accustomed to having to read.
‘Death Run’ is a fun book, full of moments rather than a cohesive whole. Like a Bond movie is spans the globe and takes on a series of mini adventures, whilst the overall story does not always work. In this case some of the elements are better than others. The stand out moment is a siege on a private school. This contains action and suspense, all within the confines of a school that a teenage reader can relate too. This part of the book also has some level of realism, although Rich and Jade are a little brighter and bolder than the average child, what they achieve in the school is believable.
It is later in the book, when the stakes are made even higher that things fall apart a little. This being a book for the early teen market it has to soften the edges. However, the fact that Jade in particular is not finished off is a miracle. A book that starts of edgy and modern feeling eventually descends into some Enid Blyton levels of japery. The goodwill that a young reader was being talked to, rather than talked at, is lost with a final section that feels too patronising.
The best book for teenagers are just great stories with no real pandering to the reader’s wellbeing. Higgins and Richards start off well with a great Venice based action sequence and then a school invasion, but the final section falls flat. There is still fun to be had in the book, but if the momentum was held to the end it could have rivalled some of Higgins best adult books, as it is, it feels more like one of the many Dillon novels that fans of the author have become accustomed to having to read.
August 29, 2018
Better than the first book, there's a lot more unexpected action in this book, even if it is sometimes just too perfect of a coincidence. The characters are interesting and more detailed than before, and the new characters have depth and meaning to them. I didn't expect the reveal of the tiger to be who it was, and even then I wondered what would happen next. Great book overall.
February 8, 2018
Ok, this is a Y.A series yes, but boy is it good!!! The books are action packed, quick and easy to get into and I seem to devour them a little too quickly. Luckily I have the next 2 in the series to keep me amused a little longer, so on to the next I go........
June 9, 2011
My second foray into Higgin's young adult arena...so-so...not going to continue in this Higgin's area
November 7, 2020
Enjoyable book, but some parts of the plot stretched the believability a bit thin in some parts.
Rich and Jade Chance are twins, fifteen years old and living with a father they barely know after their mother's death in a car accident. Their father is a James Bond type character working for a secret government department.
The three of them have been on holiday and have then relocated to live in a cottage in a village away from London, where the twins are day pupils in a local school.
During their brief stay abroad, John Chance helps a man 'disappear' and then comes back to England to have some much needed time off to be with his children.
Before long, trouble finds the Chance family. The man who disappeared is wanted by international criminals for the knowledge he has of their finances and bank accounts. He is abducted from his new job as a maths teacher in the school where Jade and Rich attend and is taken to a remote part of Scotland.
Chance discovers that his son has also been inadvertantly taken and that there is a mole within the department where he works.
After a few occasions where the Chance twins are resourceful enough to use anything and everything to aid their escape, the situation is resolved and life returns to some semblance of normality.
Not all fifteen year olds would be resourceful enough to use whatever comes to hand to escape, but the Chance twins, being literary characters, can do virtually anything to help their father.
As I said, an enjoyable enough book, but remember, real life is suspended when reading it.
Rich and Jade Chance are twins, fifteen years old and living with a father they barely know after their mother's death in a car accident. Their father is a James Bond type character working for a secret government department.
The three of them have been on holiday and have then relocated to live in a cottage in a village away from London, where the twins are day pupils in a local school.
During their brief stay abroad, John Chance helps a man 'disappear' and then comes back to England to have some much needed time off to be with his children.
Before long, trouble finds the Chance family. The man who disappeared is wanted by international criminals for the knowledge he has of their finances and bank accounts. He is abducted from his new job as a maths teacher in the school where Jade and Rich attend and is taken to a remote part of Scotland.
Chance discovers that his son has also been inadvertantly taken and that there is a mole within the department where he works.
After a few occasions where the Chance twins are resourceful enough to use anything and everything to aid their escape, the situation is resolved and life returns to some semblance of normality.
Not all fifteen year olds would be resourceful enough to use whatever comes to hand to escape, but the Chance twins, being literary characters, can do virtually anything to help their father.
As I said, an enjoyable enough book, but remember, real life is suspended when reading it.
July 2, 2019
This is the first Jack Higgins books I have read, and it was probably one of the best books I have read but not my favourite. This book is very exciting and thrilling and has a lot of unexpected things happening! If you like reading action books you will really like this one. The only bad thing about this book is at times the story can get a bit boring but it is still really interesting and even though you don’t know the whole meaning of the story it can still make your jaw drop even if you have no idea what’s going on. This book is really recommended if you like reading it and sitting on the edge of your sit biting your nails wondering what is going to happen next. My favourite part of this book is when the father snuck out of the hotel room right at the start to do a mission and he succeeded, I liked this bit because of the way he fooled the kids he put a video of him snoring on replay in his room making his children think he is in there sleeping, it’s just the way he tricked them that made me like it. To do what this father done takes a lot of heart to not see his children every night to say good night, to have to lie to them like he did you need to be strong not just physically but mentally also. This book is very fun and thrilling to read and once you start reading this book it’s hard to stop turning to the next page.
July 15, 2018
July 2018 Holy Matzah Balls Bat Man!!!!!!! So..... I requested 7 Jack Higgins books on hold from he library. When they arrived, I stacked them by publication date. When I got the "Death run" I started reading, knowing this was a co-written story. I usually stay away from such attempts. I'm reading and begin to realize this has a few shades of Jack Higgins but much is lacking from his other stories. Then Somehow either see the YA on the spine or read somewhere its a YA book. I do recommend this story as a YA book for the YA audience. However, its not a classic Jack Higgins story!
March 16, 2017
This was a very good suspense book to continue the 1st book. This author is very good at giving supens and giving information at different times and sum it all up at the end. It is a very fun and interesting book.
December 5, 2019
This book is a really good action thriller if you are into Alex Rider. It is full of Cliffhangers and makes you just want to keep on reading. The 2 15-year-old twins help there farther save one of there best friends and get into some big trouble and need Jade and Rich to save the day.
March 26, 2024
This was easily one of my favorite books to read in high school. It was very interesting, it had action packed scenes and was a bit funny at times. Overall good read definitely recommend checking it out.
June 30, 2018
I hated this book so much. It was gross and violent. Don't waste your time reading this unless you like grotesque and violent things.
January 27, 2022
Death Run is an entertaining young adult action book. The book manages a good pace and would be a great book for teens.
Want to read
July 12, 2024very good
July 23, 2024
3,25⭐️
Fajna lektura do „pochłonięcia” na raz
Fajna lektura do „pochłonięcia” na raz
March 26, 2025
Teen action fiction as good as it gets.
March 24, 2017
Another good YA novel.
August 10, 2010
After reading Sure Fire from Jack Higgins, I'd have to say that this book was better than the first. Again, Higgins who wrote "The Eagle has Landed" crosses into the young adult market with the help of Justin Richards to create a fast paced teen action novel.
Again we follow Rich and Jade the twins who have finally settled down with their dad after all the spy action. But of course, sooner than expected both are launched back in when unfinished business from the last dangerous encounter reaches the family in Venice.
I was happy to see that rather than having many, short choppy action scenes like the ones in "Sure Fire", Death Run contained three, very long scenes that keeps readers on the edge of their seats and guessing to see what happens next. It also seems that guns and violence somewhat increases a bit, though not drastically, enough to keep us teens entertained.
I will say, however, that if you haven't read "Sure Fire" first, this book will be extremely confusing, as all the characters are rooted from the first book, with little explanation afterwards.
Otherwise, "Death Run" kept me entertained and guessing while still being a quick read. Those who read and enjoyed the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz will definitely like these as well.
Again we follow Rich and Jade the twins who have finally settled down with their dad after all the spy action. But of course, sooner than expected both are launched back in when unfinished business from the last dangerous encounter reaches the family in Venice.
I was happy to see that rather than having many, short choppy action scenes like the ones in "Sure Fire", Death Run contained three, very long scenes that keeps readers on the edge of their seats and guessing to see what happens next. It also seems that guns and violence somewhat increases a bit, though not drastically, enough to keep us teens entertained.
I will say, however, that if you haven't read "Sure Fire" first, this book will be extremely confusing, as all the characters are rooted from the first book, with little explanation afterwards.
Otherwise, "Death Run" kept me entertained and guessing while still being a quick read. Those who read and enjoyed the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz will definitely like these as well.
October 1, 2016
This might be classed as a YA or "teen lit" but its just as exciting as a full blown thriller with a sophisticated storyline.
Jade and Rich Chance are once again embroiled in their father's undercover intelligence work.
When a mafia banker switches sides and wants to expose the illicit accounts of his clients the underworld goes crazy and are hot on his tail and so is John Chance to save his life but with a mole in the mix its a "death run."
Another brilliant story in the Chance twins series and I would highly recommend this to any adult as its just as good as adult fiction.
Highly enjoyable, so much so I read this in a day.
High octane excitement, explosions, car chases, mafia and a variety of different locations in which the story is set all lend elements of page turning danger for any reader.
Jade and Rich Chance are once again embroiled in their father's undercover intelligence work.
When a mafia banker switches sides and wants to expose the illicit accounts of his clients the underworld goes crazy and are hot on his tail and so is John Chance to save his life but with a mole in the mix its a "death run."
Another brilliant story in the Chance twins series and I would highly recommend this to any adult as its just as good as adult fiction.
Highly enjoyable, so much so I read this in a day.
High octane excitement, explosions, car chases, mafia and a variety of different locations in which the story is set all lend elements of page turning danger for any reader.
November 19, 2008
Jade and Rich are on vacation with their father, a known spy for MI5, when they run into a mysterious group in Italy with possible mafia connections. As Jade and Rich start school the same group of people turn up and then Rich is kidnapped from their school.
As Jade and their father mount a rescue operation, someone highup in MI5 is exposed as a double agent. Lots of explosions and gunfire and action.
Fans of the Andy McNabb or Alex Rider series will enjoy this light yet fun read.
As Jade and their father mount a rescue operation, someone highup in MI5 is exposed as a double agent. Lots of explosions and gunfire and action.
Fans of the Andy McNabb or Alex Rider series will enjoy this light yet fun read.
May 8, 2012
Jack Higgins was for the longest time my favourite author.
This book was one of a couple he collaberated on for the young adult crowd. I gave this one to my teenage son in hopes of getting him hooked on Higgins just like dad.
Being Higgins i of course had to read it.
It is what it is, ok at best, prefaced with the sentament that i had started to turn away from higgins at the time i read this one.
Good for the young adult but not a great Higgins effort
This book was one of a couple he collaberated on for the young adult crowd. I gave this one to my teenage son in hopes of getting him hooked on Higgins just like dad.
Being Higgins i of course had to read it.
It is what it is, ok at best, prefaced with the sentament that i had started to turn away from higgins at the time i read this one.
Good for the young adult but not a great Higgins effort
Read
August 6, 2011A lite YA novel that's good for younger teens or those who like their books short. A watered-down thriller featuring a set of twins and their spy father.
Mostly dialogue and action, little description. Decent.
Mostly dialogue and action, little description. Decent.
August 29, 2012
I really enjoyed this book as well. It is similar to Sharp Shot as it is a book that is very hard to put down because every chapter ends with a cliff hanger. It's a really good book to read if you are looking for something that is entertaining and fun to read.
February 8, 2009
With Justin Richards. BC
May 15, 2009
This series is full action and keeps you going from the first. It is great for kids who really don't like to read.
May 18, 2009
See my review of Sure Fire. If Higgins and Richards want to make more of this series, it's fine by me.
February 28, 2011
Very enjoyable story about teen twins in over the top, impossible situations, but definitely very fun to read.
May 24, 2011
It was pretty good. Not as good as a full blown Higgins. It's a good intro Higgins book, well written with a good plot.
September 26, 2019
A very good story. Action packed from the beginning.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews