The Death Trade (Sean Dillon Series, Book 20) (Sean Dillon Series) - Softcover

Since The Eagle Has Landed—one of the biggest-selling thrillers of all time—every novel Jack Higgins has written, including his most recent works, has become an international bestseller. He has had simultaneous number one bestsellers in hardcover and paperback, and many of his books have been made into successful movies, among them The Eagle Has Landed, To Catch a King, On Dangerous Ground, Eye of the Storm, and Thunder Point.

Higgins, who lived in Belfast until he was twelve, had several close calls with bombs and gunfire at an early age. After leaving school at fifteen, he served three years with the Royal Horse Guards in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Subsequently, he was a circus roustabout, a factory worker, a truck driver, and a laborer, before entering college at age twenty-seven. He has degrees in sociology, social psychology, and economics from the University of London, and a doctorate in media from Leeds Metropolitan University.

A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an expert scuba diver and marksman, Jack Higgins lives on Jersey in the Channel Islands.

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. --David Pitt