The Savage Day

In the introduction, Higgins wrote that this is one of his personal favourite and after reading it, I can see why.The story is simple : an ex-Brit élite soldier, Simon Vaughan, was given choice of 15 years in a most undesirable prison, or a dirty job on behalf of Her Majesty's government. The job consisted of infiltrating the IRA, posing as an arms dealer, locate a shipment of gold stolen by the IRA to be used as the war-chest, neutralise the threat of a certain Michael Cork who masterminded the heist.The development is anything but. From the start, it was a game of deadly deception between the G-men and the IRAs, not just one, but 2 competing factions. Simon found Michael Cork too cautious to get near, and had to deal through the latter's niece Norah, a Harvard-trained doctor who had seen too much death, and her bodyguard Binnie, still believing in an honourable war. Frank Barry, leader of the rival IRA faction, also wants the gold, and the arms, and seems to shadow Simon and his group at every step.Through their conversation, readers cannot help but feel sad at the state of affairs - it had definitely gone beyond where any side can claim higher moral grounds, yet it cannot seem to stop or the victims might just lose any cause to go on living with their pain. Almost everyone has a decent reason for what they do, whether it be the IRA or the British government. And almost everyone has their hand in some unforgivable misdeed.Higgins set out to write from his personal experiences and of those around him and he succeeded in describing the situation as a no-win for anyone but pain for everyone. It was also a warning against simplifying the heroes and the villains, but also to focus on the real victims, people who had to live with the bombings and shootings while simply trying to lead a normal live.

Jack Higgins has created some wonderful characters, starting back with Liam Devlin in the Eagle Has Landed. He has used the device of rescuing a potential lead character from prison or death sentences in the past and Simon Vaughn appears to be the newest. The story moved with Higgins' usual pace: action-filled, developed story line and interesting characters. Worthy of a read.