The skill of the author comes shining through in this fast-paced, thoughtful volume. Higgins just keeps getting better and better as his characters continue to dispatch the absolute worst of Britain's enemies. This work, in particular, was especially gripping in that it was very difficult to simply go to bed and leave part of it unread. ( )

OK story with several characters who take turns being the hero This is my first Higgins book, so maybe he grows on you. I will try another ( )

The story was clever, with some unpredictable twists and turns. However, it was obvious the characters had shared a previous novel - the relationships were hard to track. The action was interesting, but written so dispassionately. The author also overused the literary device of cliffhangers, making unexplained decisions that we find out the answer to in the next chapter. ( )

This is the 8th book in the Sean Dillion series, thankfully the story line has evolved beyond the Irish rogue drama which was portrayed in books 1 through 7.

However, such evolution is not enough to save this book from mediocrity, the story line whilst evolved is absurd - totally and utterly unrealistic; the characters are hollow and virtually every line is either action or transit - there's hardly any atmosphere, and what atmosphere there is almost feels like it was added later for padding.

It's an fast easy read that's entertaining but there's little substance to it - it will fill in the time of a commute or plane trip nicely and then is perfectly forgettable. ( )

This is in the true fashion of all the Sean Dillon novels by Higgins. I was intrigued by the murder of Katherine, but knew from the start where this was going. But that did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel. From the defenseless Katherine to the coldblooded response by Sean Dillon, the characters are true to the Higgins formula. The plot had enough twists to keep me reading, but I had noticed that some of the scenes looked quite familiar. But then, how many ways are there to take a bad guy out and still stay true to the characters and environment presented in this series? ( )