The East Germans hire a specialist in 'thought reform' to brainwash a popular priest with the intention of embarrassing the president in public. It's when he gives his famous 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech. President Kennedy is about to visit West Germany in 1963.

2.75* rounds up to a weak-ish 3* rating.more For instance, politically speaking, one would have thought that Conlin's plight SHOULD have been publicized instead of being kept hush-hush. These type of stories are vulnerable to that. I did like the little flying stunt that saved the hero and his rescuee. The whole Hartmann-cross-bearing schtick was a bit much, and of dubious relevance to the plot, but I suppose ONE(at least) of the rescue team had to be sacrificed for some credibility. The cover image of my edition(not pictured) has little relevance to the plot. Nothing particularly remarkable about it except for the digging in the graveyard - ICK! Made me think of 'Hellboy.' Hints of 'The Pit and the Pendulum, 'Brave New World'(conditioning), 'The Ipcress File'(brainwashing), 'The Manchurian Candidate((same stuff), 'A Clockwork Orange'(re-conditioning, aversion 'therapy')įinished last night with this crisply done programmer. It's the sixties, everybody is lighting up. Higgins seems to be reliably competent, as these thriller writing English-folks invariably are. At this point it's all a matter of how it works out. The A-team is a-gathering to effect some sort of dramatic rescue and put those nasty Stalinists in their place. The lady in this story is saved by the weir. Couldn't find the 'right' cover image in the lookup. Seems like all those spymaster novelists did that, didn't they? I guess the hero here - Simon Vaughn - is one of those recurring characters. Poor guy doesn't have much more time to live in any case. The East Germans have some shenanigans planned and so off we go.

We're way back in the Cold War and JFK's on his way to make that 'Ich bin ein Berliner'(with that Boston accent) speech. Seems like all those spymast Haven't read a vintage thriller for a while and haven't read any Jack Higgins that I can recall so here goes. Haven't read a vintage thriller for a while and haven't read any Jack Higgins that I can recall so here goes.

Day of judgment peoples faces