Jack Higgins, Dark Justice

Dark Justice

Jack Higgins

Putnam, June 2004, $25.95, 288 pp.

ISBN 0399151788

A Muslim raised in England as a Christian, Henry sneaks into the United States and stakes out a place across the street from where the president is supposed to be having dinner with a New York Senator. As he is about to shoot, Blake Johnson, head of the president's top secret security force a secret service agent confronts him, informing the Brit that the ammo from his gun has been removed and the president flew back to Washington D.C. Before the assassin kills himself, he tells, them to "Beware the Wrath of Allah."

Blake's counterpart in England, General Ferguson, informed the White House about the assassination attempt. Now the general, Sean Dillion and Hannah Bernstein have to trace the assassin's movements back to the source which turns out to be a mosque run by a man who is recruiting British Muslims and sending them to terrorist training camps in the mid-east. When they return, they will be martyrs in Allah's name. Working behind the scenes is a Russian billionaire and his chief security officer who want to sow dissension in the west and is funding The Wrath of Allah. Ferguson's unit gets in their way one too many times of the Russian and becomes a target for these power hungry megalomaniacs.

Jack Higgins has written a very exciting and action-packed thriller that shows how Britain is fighting the war on terror. Sean Dillon, a stone cold killer who was an enforcer for the IRA before being recruited by the General is the hero of this book as he seeks justice for the innocents who get caught in the cross-fire. Although he works outside the law and his methods are cold blooded and calculating, the author portrays him as a believable anti-hero who appeals to readers that believe that justice and the law doesn't always go hand in hand. Dark Justice is definitely heading for the bestseller lists, deservedly so.

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Harriet Klausner