Description
From Publishers Weekly When world-famous Russian novelist Alexander Kurbsky decides to leave for the West in bestseller Higginss suspenseful 16th thriller to feature former IRA man Sean Dillon (after Rough Justice ), Kurbsky turns for help to Dillon and other members of the British prime ministers private army. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin persuades Kurbsky to infiltrate this elite group and spy for Russia by showing him current photos of his sister, Tania, who the celebrated author thought died years earlier in a student riot. Tanias release from a life sentence in prison is the price for Kurbskys cooperation. Dillon and the others, most notably Lady Monica Sterling, Dillons girlfriend, welcome Kurbsky into their circle in England, where the Russian begins to go about his deadly business. Several long flashbacks explore past events to good effect. The final dustup is a little rushed, but the crisp writing shows Higgins to be on top of his game. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The veteran author of political thrillers turns in another lackluster performance. As usual, the story contains the raw material for a first-rate novel: a Russian writer makes arrangements with Sean Dillon, the IRA terrorist turned British intelligence agent, and his colleagues in the “Prime Minister’s private army” to leave Russia and come to Britain. However, as Higgins reveals very early on, the writer is actually working for the Russians, and his deadly mission could wreak havocxa0at the top levels of the international intelligence community. Unfortunately, Higgins seems to be sleepwalking his way through the novel: the book opens, for example, with a clumsy scene in which one character tells another character something she already knows, purely for the benefit of the reader. The characters in the novel feel lifeless, even the ones whom the author has been writing about for years (there are more than a dozen Sean Dillon novels), and Higgins’ decision to reveal the Russian writer’s secret agenda at the beginning of the novel seems ill-considered: the story would have been more interesting, and certainly more surprising, ifxa0readers were left to wonder what this fellow was up to and whether he was keeping secrets. Higgins retains a large if shrinking fan base and thatxa0should ensure interest in the novel, but it’s definitely not one of his best. --David Pitt
Features & Highlights
- The
- New York Times
- bestselling author and dean of intrigue novelists returns with a remarkable novel of espionage and revenge.
- A famous Russian writer and ex-paratrooper named Alexander Kurbsky is fed up with the Putin government and decides he wants to disappear into the West. He is under no illusions, however, about how the news will be greeted at home, having seen too many of his countrymen die mysteriously at the hands of the thuggish Russian security services, so he makes elaborate plans with Charles Ferguson, Sean Dillon, and the rest of the group known informally as the Prime Ministers private army for his escape and concealment. Its a real coup for the West except for one thing: Kurbsky is still working for the Russians. The plan is to infiltrate British and American intelligence at the highest levels, and he has his own motivations for doing the most effective job possible. He does not care what he has to do or where he has to go . . . or who he has to kill. Filled with suspense, driven by characters of complexity and passion,
- A Darker Place
- once again proves that, in the words of the
- Associated Press
- , When it comes to thriller writers, one name stands well above the crowdJack Higgins.
