The Death Trade

October 14, 2013
Iran is on the verge of making a nuclear bomb that “is cheap and four times as effective as anything else on the planet” in bestseller Higgins’s timely 20th thriller featuring Sean Dillon, the former IRA enforcer turned British black ops agent. The unwilling mastermind behind the bomb is French-Iranian Simon Husseini, whose work on medical isotopes led to his forced research into nuclear weapons. Husseini’s elderly mother and invalid 40-year-old daughter are under house arrest in Tehran to ensure his cooperation. When Husseini manages to escape to Iraq using a false passport, it is up to Lt. Col. Declan Rashid, the military attaché at Iran’s London embassy, to recapture him. Meanwhile, Dillon and Capt. Sara Gideon, introduced in 2012’s A Devil Is Waiting, set out to rescue Husseini, free his family members, and bring him to England. Higgins, with his usual panache, follows a well-established and successful formula that should please fans. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Literary Agency (U.K.).

December 15, 2013
An elite British special operative unit must prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities and battle an ever growing contingent of al-Qaida terrorists. In this thriller from Higgins (The Devil is Waiting, 2012, etc.), the reader is introduced to multinational terrorists who retain an unrelenting allegiance to the agenda of Osama bin Laden. In this installment, an Iranian scientist who possesses the intellectual capabilities to enable Iran to gain a nuclear weapon must be freed from the fetters placed on him by his country so that he can use his incredible body of scientific knowledge in the pursuit of goodness. Serial characters who reappear to play central roles in this novel include the former IRA assassin-turned-loyal British man-at-arms Sean Dillion; the leader of the prime minister's "private army," Gen. Charles Ferguson; and Sara Gideon, a heroine from the war in Afghanistan who utilizes her ruthless killing ability and the immense wealth of her banking family to fight for justice wherever and whenever she must. A somewhat unbelievable plot develops when high-ranking Iranian officials are, in fact, working for al-Qaida and continually attempt to kill Dillion and Gideon. To make matters even more complicated, or fantastic, a half Iranian/half Irish hero of the Iran-Iraq War, Col. Declan Rashid, appeals to his "Irish side" and begins to work against his family and his country while developing romantic feelings for Gideon. In a number of instances, Higgins will introduce characters and scenarios that echo the British adventure stories of the late-Victorian period. However, a lack of character development and minimal scene setting make this reverberation of an earlier, and idealized, writing tradition a fleeting experience. Brief thrills but continuous action.

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December 15, 2013
An Iranian medical researcher, forced into applying his work on medical isotopes to nuclear weapons research, is dangerously close to perfecting a more powerful, cheaper nuclear bomb. The man's family is being held captive by the Iranian government so there's little chance he would ever defect, but the British (concerned about the possibility of Iran becoming a nuclear power) see a window of opportunity. The man is scheduled to be in Paris, and he happens to be acquainted with Sara Gideon, the intelligence agent who has recently joined the small band of operatives led by series hero Sean Dillon. Gideon and Dillon's mission: meet up with the man in Paris and convince him to turn over his research. Possibility of success: strong. Possibility of mishap leading to dire consequences and life-threatening danger: even stronger. This is another sturdy action thriller with political overtones from one of the masters of the genre. Fans of the long-running Dillon series will flock to this latest entry, and the reappearance of Sara Gideon (who was introduced in 2012's A Devil Is Waiting) injects the book with some serious new energy. Good stuff.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)