Day of Reckoning

In Jack Higgins's new Mafia, no one wears gold chains or carries a tommy gun. Deals are done quietly and often resemble those in the "legal" business world. In fact, the tentacles of the Cosa Nostra extend into the most public of industries, including TV, film, and publishing. When Truth magazine reporter Katherine Johnson starts looking too closely at the life of millionaire socialite and mob boss Jack Fox, however, the veneer of gentility dissolves immediately. Her body is found one morning floating in the East River, and the coroner suspects foul play. Wrenched by the pain of his loss, her ex-husband--former FBI agent Blake Johnson--decides to take the law into his own hands. In fact, as part of the secret White House department known as The Basement, Blake actually has the president's permission to take out Fox in the best way he sees fit. As Blake begins his Fox hunt, Day of Reckoning evolves into an international duel between the masterminds of justice and criminality. Blake struggles to exact his revenge by slowly undermining his opponents' businesses. And Fox matches him at every turn. While the contest between the power brokers is compelling on the surface, Higgins is unable to infuse his characters with enough life to make the story as engaging as it might have been. The heroes and villains borrow heavily from the classic James Bond play book, complete with brandy snifters, brandname cigarettes, Saville Row suits, and secret, world-dominating empires. It's fun to read as a sort of homage to thrillers of the early Cold War period, but Day of Reckoning never matches the success of such earlier Higgins greats as The Eagle Has Landed and seems to fall all too frequently into cliché. --Patrick O'Kelley From Publishers Weekly There's a jaunty, even slapdash feel to the storytelling in Higgins's exciting new novel featuring his longtime antihero, Sean Dillon. And that's fine. The clipped dialogue and minimal exposition suit their subject well, for Dillon--once the IRA's most feared enforcer, now working for British secret police--and his cohorts are men (and, occasionally, women) of few words and swift action. Higgins's new plot is as direct as his characters. The journalist wife of Dillon's old comrade Blake Johnson is killed in Brooklyn on orders of her latest object of investigation, Jack Fox, heir apparent to the powerful Solazzo crime family. The law can't touch Fox, but Blake and Dillon can and will. Aided by Dillon's black-ops boss, Brigadier Charles Ferguson, and his crew, plus a father/son team of British gangsters, Blake and Dillon strike again and again at Fox's wallet: shutting down his London gambling den; sinking a boat laden with his gold; destroying a cache of his weapons in Ireland; foiling his plans for a major robbery in London. A subplot in which Fox's uncle, the Solazzo don, spies on his nephew with increasing displeasure adds dimension to the linear narrative and leads to a clever denouement. The action is sleek and intensely absorbing, but the supreme pleasure is in those Higgins celebrates--tarnished warriors who value honor over life and who get the job done no matter what the cost. BOMC main selection; simultaneous Putnam Berkley Audio. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal When a crime boss blows away nosy investigative journalist Katherine Johnson, her husbandAhead of a clandestine White House operationAseeks revenge. A BOMC main selection. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Jack Higgins lives on Jersey in the Channel Islands. Read more