Without Mercy
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Review
‘Another first rate page-turner from Jack Higgins, a writer at the peak of his power’
Daily Express
‘Open a Jack Higgins novel and you’ll encounter a master craftsman at the peak of his powers … first-rate tales of intrigue, suspense and full-on action.’
Sunday Express
‘Higgins is a master of his craft.’
Daily Telegraph
‘A thriller writer in a class of his own.’
Financial Times
‘The master craftsman of good, clean adventure.’
Daily Mail
Review
‘Open a Jack Higgins novel and you’ll encounter a master craftsman at the peak of his powers … first-rate tales of intrigue, suspense and full-on action.’
Sunday Express
‘Higgins is a master of his craft.’
Daily Telegraph
‘A thriller writer in a class of his own.’
Financial Times
‘The master craftsman of good, clean adventure.’
Daily Mail
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Does Without Mercy have character development, unexpected plot twists or fascinating new facts? No.
Does Without Mercy continue the unending saga begun with the Rashids? Yes.
Does anything happen that isn't in the book's blurb? Yes.
It's that last point that saves Without Mercy from being utterly avoidable. Jack Higgins has come up with the beginnings of a new plot to put President Putin at odds with the British and American governments. From that perspective I felt a stir of life in these creaky meanderings through endless shootings with ex-IRA thugs, visits with creepy foreign characters and "dead" villains turning out to be alive.
To liven up the plot, Mr. Higgins takes us to a new locale, Algeria, and disposes of one of his long-time characters, Detective Superintendent Hannah Bernstein, about whom he began to have trouble writing plausible roles about three books ago.
The other new element is a continual reference to Russians drinking vodka and champagne. I'm sure you'll be shocked by this insight.
Stick with Mr. Higgins for one more book. Perhaps he will write us a new story in this series at some point and remember to make Sean Dillon a character rather than a mere killing machine with regrets.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I vowed after the last Dark Justice, never to read another Higgins/Dillon novel again; unfortunately I was given Without Mercy as a present.
Whereas I thought that previous Dillon novels couldn't get any more formulaic/predictable/dull, I was wrong, because now we have a Dillon novel, where the actual hero does less than his sidekicks.
The action (and I do use the term in it's loosest possible form) seems to be based solely on characters jumping on planes, drinking copious quantities of alcohol, and "bumping" into wholly unbelievable characters in wholly unbelievable locations.
Sound familiar? well it is, with the added bonus that our man Dillon does nothing more than rack up the air miles. To be honest, this storyline could have run without him, such is his total lack of bearing on the sequence of events.
The dialogue is it's usual victorian mishmash (just who on earth says "Damn you" these days?) and as with previous Higgins/Dillon novels, about the only suspense was generated, waiting for someone to say "Gadzooks" or "Have at you, you cad" (you get my drift)
This novel is best borrowed from the library
Whereas I thought that previous Dillon novels couldn't get any more formulaic/predictable/dull, I was wrong, because now we have a Dillon novel, where the actual hero does less than his sidekicks.
The action (and I do use the term in it's loosest possible form) seems to be based solely on characters jumping on planes, drinking copious quantities of alcohol, and "bumping" into wholly unbelievable characters in wholly unbelievable locations.
Sound familiar? well it is, with the added bonus that our man Dillon does nothing more than rack up the air miles. To be honest, this storyline could have run without him, such is his total lack of bearing on the sequence of events.
The dialogue is it's usual victorian mishmash (just who on earth says "Damn you" these days?) and as with previous Higgins/Dillon novels, about the only suspense was generated, waiting for someone to say "Gadzooks" or "Have at you, you cad" (you get my drift)
This novel is best borrowed from the library
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jack Higgins is a veteran of the thriller scene and by `Without Warning' so is his very tired cast of characters. Sean Dillon returns in another in the series which is now less cookie cutter and more mass Chinese production standard. Gone are any moments of originality or excitement as Sean and co. Drink their way across a very dated feeling Europe. This time Sean must go up against the IRA again and a group of irate Russians working under the rule of Putin. They are fed up that the British agency run by Brigadier Ferguson is always ruining their plans so they set out to wipe the group out and their allies. With Detective Superintendent Hannah Bernstein critically ill in hospital they have a readymade target. Can Dillon keep her safe and undo the Russians once more before starting a new Cold War?
Higgins must have loved the recent events that have tarnished the relationship between Britain and Russia as `Without Mercy' is a very old fashioned thriller that feels like it was written in the early days of the Cold War. He revels in being allowed to stick it to the Russians and as a reader you lose sympathy as the bile drips from the page. If this was not bad enough Higgins takes us once more to the same places with the same people that we have read about several times - it is getting beyond a joke. I know that Higgins is far beyond his heyday of the 70s, but even so I expect him to do more than churn out the same novel repeatedly. The writing is abysmal, with the characters all being stereotypes of a man whose opinions are stuck in the 1950s. For fans of Higgins brilliant peak avoid these later books as it is becoming a sad decline.
Higgins must have loved the recent events that have tarnished the relationship between Britain and Russia as `Without Mercy' is a very old fashioned thriller that feels like it was written in the early days of the Cold War. He revels in being allowed to stick it to the Russians and as a reader you lose sympathy as the bile drips from the page. If this was not bad enough Higgins takes us once more to the same places with the same people that we have read about several times - it is getting beyond a joke. I know that Higgins is far beyond his heyday of the 70s, but even so I expect him to do more than churn out the same novel repeatedly. The writing is abysmal, with the characters all being stereotypes of a man whose opinions are stuck in the 1950s. For fans of Higgins brilliant peak avoid these later books as it is becoming a sad decline.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Prompt delivery.
This book & two others arrived very promptly. Only read Without Mercy as of today. Slow reader!!
Published 23 months ago by Peter
Without Mercy By Jack Higgins
This Is another excelent book by Jack Higgins and at such good value for money ,it makes a wonderful book to read
Published 23 months ago by Mr. Terence W. Evans
A Tiny Bit of Life Is Injected into This Never-Ending Saga
Does Without Mercy have character development, unexpected plot twists or fascinating new facts? No.
Does Without Mercy continue the unending saga begun with the Rashids? Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2005 by Donald Mitchell
A tentative return to form?
This new Sean Dillon novel is generally a better effort than its formulaic predecessors. It starts off immediately after the end of Higgins last novel, "Dark Justice", and again... Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2005 by Giles Allison
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