I have to admit I’m chagrined that I only today (May 1, 2022) learned of the passing of best-selling author Jack Higgins. He died at 92 on April 9, 2022. You might recall his given name of Harry Patterson, but the pen name of “Jack Higgins” is the one most remembered in the publishing world for sales topping 250 million copies of his works (translated into 55 languages) and so he is best recalled as Jack Higgins.
Higgins, whose given name was Henry “Harry” Patterson, published more than six dozen novels (some online sources put the number at 77, while others go with 85). He wrote under four different names and hit the best-seller lists over six decades.
Just like his contemporaries Frederick Forsyth and Ken Follett, I became a big fan of Higgins with one novel: “The Eagle Has Landed.” It is a wonderful story set in World War II and was made into a somewhat OK flick of the same name (click here for my review). First-read novels of any author are very important in my reading career. Higgins’ “The Eagle Has Landed” is right up there among first-reads with Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal” (click here for my review of the film) and Follett’s “The Eye of the Needle” (click here for my review of the film).
For many of Higgins’ novels, the plots had similarities and the main character, whether “Liam Devlin” or “Sean Dillon,” were just about the same person doing the same thing. Events, plot twists and the action was similar throughout many of his works.
However, Higgins made it all entertaining and you knew what you would get when his latest would hit bookstores and you gladly paid for his latest work.
Higgins was born July 27, 1929, in England and his alma mater was the London School of Economics. He published his first novel in 1959 and the last in 2016. He was of an era of prolific writers who carved out a niche … and his was action, adventure and often bound by war or the military.
Mr. Patterson will be missed by his publishers, who reaped the rewards of the author’s popularity. I’ll miss his can’t-miss stories, since I had read so many over the past six decades.
RIP, Jack! Thank you for all literary enjoyment you brought to my life.
Click here to read my review of “The Eagle Has Landed”
Click here to read my review of “A Prayer for the Dying”
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