The White House Connection (Sean Dillon)

by Jack Higgins

2000

Status

Available

Publication

G.P. Putnam's Sons (2000), 304 pages

Description

New York: Late at night, the rain pouring down, a well-dressed woman in her sixties stands in a doorway, a gun in her purse, waiting for a Senator to come home. Washington, D.C.: The phone rings on the desk of Blake Johnson, head of the White House department known as The Basement. The President wants him now. London: The Prime Minister sits thinking of Sean Dillon, the one-time terrorist, now his most effective, if not exactly trusted, operative. It'll have to be Dillon, he thinks. There's no one else. Someone is killing off the members of a splinter group known as the Sons of Erin, normally not a cause for much concern, but the consequences are much greater than anyone realizes. For in these actions lie the seeds of disaster: the fall of two governments, the derailing of the Irish peace process. Dillon and Johnson must stop this unknown assassin, the heads of state agree, quickly, quietly, before all hell breaks loose... But they may already be too late. For in the Manhattan night, the silver-haired woman smiles, adjusts her rain hat more snugly on her head, and steps out into the street. Four down, she thinks. Three to go.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member amacmillen
A spy novel about the IRA and a group called the sons of Erin. This book is about a women who wants revenge for the murder of her son and about two agencies, one in London that reports to the Prime Minister directly and one in Washington that reports to the president directly. Both agencies are
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working together to solve murder of the groups members and to capture leaders of IRA
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LibraryThing member addunn3
The worst book I have read in many years. Plot is impossible, characters are indistinguishable, and it is generally words without much thought.
LibraryThing member DavidLErickson
This turned out to be among my favorite Jack Higgins novels. The introduction of Lady Helen added an entertaining dimension which immediately drew me into the story. The primary characters are as old friends now and the bad guy is pretty much a cardboard cutout, but whatever was lost in that
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respect was balanced out by Lady Helen.
I felt Lady Helen too easily dispatched the bad guys, but the details didn't matter as the main story wasn't so much about the guys she killed as the efforts to unmask the bad guy.
Overall, this was Higgins at his best.
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LibraryThing member HenriMoreaux
This book is the 7th in the Sean Dillon series and I can say having read the Liam Devlin books and all of the prior Sean Dillon books that the Irish Rogue drama is starting to get stale.

The story line in this arc at least has evolved to include UK-USA coorporation, more so than the last, however
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this small change was not enough to keep it from feeling stale, it didn't give it the injection of freshness and excitement that the series now sorely needs.

Overall I actually found it a little too much like the prior books without enough variation to make you over look the similar plot path. I'm hopeful that the next book moves on from the Irish Troubles or at least has a fresh take on things.
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LibraryThing member DeaconBernie
Excluding The Eagle Has Landed, which is in a class by itself, this is the best I've read from Higgins. The story is tightly woven. The usual characters play their parts but it is Lady Helen who steals the show. From a moral standpoint, it is difficult, if not impossible, to justify her actions.
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Still, it is also true the law could not lay a hand on her. The work she did was nothing but revenge but even in that she took out folks who were no credit to the human race. Vigilantism is a fact in human relations. It doesn't always end in death and very often it contributes to the common good. Hence, no judgement of Lady Helen but a great deal of enjoyment in this Higgins book.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1998 (orig. eng.)

Physical description

304 p.; 4.2 inches

ISBN

0425175413 / 9780425175415

Barcode

1602168
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