Eagle has Landed, The

Inhoud

Threatened on all sides, a desperate Adolf Hitler lashes out with an impossible order: kidnap Winston Churchill, or kill him. A disgraced war hero receives the suicidal mission - to take his commandos into the heart of England. In the quiet seaside village of Studley Constable, a beautiful widow and a cultured IRA assassin set the groundwork for the ultimate act of treachery. On November 6, 1943, Berlin gets the coded message: The Eagle has Landed!. One of the most suspenseful war adventures ever written, The Eagle has Landed is a heart-stopping story of espionage and commando action, a searing drama of courage and deceit - and of those who paid the price for Hitler's most daring plan.

Bespreking

Once started, you cannot put this book down

The Second World War draws to a conclusion and in the hope to deliver a nasty kick to the balls of the allied forces Hitler comes up with the seemingly impossible idea to kidnap Winston Churchill. At first sight the German troops, suffering defeat and lack of moral, do not have a single chance of pulling off this scheme. But Wehrmacht officer Max Radl gets a different view when he is able to recruit Kurt Steiner, a legendary warrior known for leading out German troops cut off behind enemy lines.

No doubt, this is the best book Jack Higgins has written so far! Although the story suffers under the bulk of espionage genre clichés, like for example "no good suspense novel without a good romance", the basic idea is refreshingly original.

The story is told from the perspective of the German soldiers and this is a quite daring and enthralling viewpoint. In the end you are so in touch with the story and its characters that you start to hope that the Germans will succeed in their crazy mission.

The pace of the narrative is quite slow for the first hundred pages, but this gives the reader the opportunity to get really involved into the lives of the main characters. This part can easily be compared with the depth reached in a John Le Carre novel. When the climax comes nearer the pace suddenly changes quite dramatically. And believe me: once the show started, you cannot put this book down. Oh no!