- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; Library edition edition (4 Mar 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007134576
- ISBN-13: 978-0007134571
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,136,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Higgins is a master of his craft.’
Daily Telegraph
‘A thriller writer in a class of his own.’
Financial Times
‘A compulsively readable storyteller.’
Sunday Express
‘The master craftsman of good, clean adventure.’
Daily Mail
Product Description
Super-spy Paul Chavasse – one of Jack Higgins’s most extraordinary heroes – embarks on a mission to Albania, only to find himself at the centre of a deadly double-cross, fighting for his life.
It’s a trip that agent Paul Chavasse will never forget. His destination: the isolated republic of Albania on the Adriatic coast, at a time when the regime is at its most repressive and the people live in daily fear of the ruthless secret police. His job: to find a double agent whose cover has been blown and put him out of commission, permanently. But what Chavasse doesn’t know is that deep within the twisting channels of the perilous coastal marshes, someone has set a trap for him – someone who holds the keys of hell.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was delighted to see the return of Paul Chavasse from previous Higgins' novel "Year of the Tiger". This book has essentially a similar structure in that the main body of the novel is a descriptive event in Chavasse's past, which then catches up with him in the present day.
Chavasse has just narrowly escaped from operating in Albania where people live in fear of the secret police regime. However he is persuaded by a beautiful women, also working for British Intelligence, to return on a personal mission to recover a statue of the Virgin in a wreck off the Adriatic Coast. Little does he realise that a trap is being set for his capture by the Albanian secret police and the Chinese and that he has been double crossed by the person he least expects. Chavasse then finds himself in a race against time to escape from his foes.
Chavasse has just narrowly escaped from operating in Albania where people live in fear of the secret police regime. However he is persuaded by a beautiful women, also working for British Intelligence, to return on a personal mission to recover a statue of the Virgin in a wreck off the Adriatic Coast. Little does he realise that a trap is being set for his capture by the Albanian secret police and the Chinese and that he has been double crossed by the person he least expects. Chavasse then finds himself in a race against time to escape from his foes.
An excellent read. One of Higgins' best characters's along with Liam Devlin and Sean Dillon.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jack Higgins has certainly given us another of his high-powered action thrillers. The pace is so quick, the plot twists like a snake, the writing is taut and to the point. All good things.
However, even though the characters are likeable, they are not parituclarly developed. That, I feel, is often Higgins's letdown. He gets so wrapped up in the action that he forgets to give his characters deep personalities. Instead, we just see snapshots of people who, really, could be any hero from any thriller novel. All he really does is gives his characters names and then inserts those names into the story. The characters are just there to keep the plot moving along. The problem is that practically all the people in this novel are interchangeable with those of another. For example, Chevasse shares almost exactly the same personality traits as Sean Dillon. As does Liri, who is Jack Higgins's typical lead woman. they are all the same, in all his novels. Their names and pasts just change.
That said, this is still a very good book. The pace never lets up, it's a pageturner and it's quick. If you like a good action thriller and don't particulalry mind about characters, then this is the book for you. Despite the fact that the print margins are ridculously large...I don't mind reading short books, nor do most other people. THis book could easily have been condensed to about 150 pages, instead of the 240 which it is.
Format:Paperback
Another example of Higgins early work where he has written a new framework around an old story.
Paul Chavasse in his 3rd outing under Higgins's pen takes on a mission to help a woman he meets at an embassy dinner. She reports that she is trying to get `The Black Madonna' (A religious statue) out of Albania but her brother has been killed in the process and the boat sunk deep in the Albanian Marshes.
Enlisting the help of a colleague he goes in search of the lost idol. However, things and people are not what they seem and what follows is a tale of deception, deceit and death. A few nice twists but the story is one that I have read several times before from Higgins (The Khufra Marshes/Sad Wind from the Sea).
A nice try but doesn't do it for me.
Paul Chavasse in his 3rd outing under Higgins's pen takes on a mission to help a woman he meets at an embassy dinner. She reports that she is trying to get `The Black Madonna' (A religious statue) out of Albania but her brother has been killed in the process and the boat sunk deep in the Albanian Marshes.
Enlisting the help of a colleague he goes in search of the lost idol. However, things and people are not what they seem and what follows is a tale of deception, deceit and death. A few nice twists but the story is one that I have read several times before from Higgins (The Khufra Marshes/Sad Wind from the Sea).
A nice try but doesn't do it for me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Could have been better
The keys of Hell by Jack Higgins is an action packed thriller.
The author grips you right from the start, an excellent story that has many twists and turns which keeps... Read more
The author grips you right from the start, an excellent story that has many twists and turns which keeps... Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2009 by Mrs. A. M. Chadwick
Another fun adventure from the master
Paul Chavasse is back in this rewrite of a 1960s Higgins book. Chavasse is now an old man, but his past catches up with him one day when the Mafia ask him to a meeting. Read more
Published on 3 July 2007 by Sam
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