Sean Dillon: Terrorist-Turned-Hero

Jack Higgins, the author of such action-thrillers as The Eagle Has Landed and Storm Warning devised an unlikely hero indeed in the person of Sean Dillon.

At the age of 19, Dillon was an aspiring actor when his father was killed by British soldiers in Ireland. In his thirst for revenge he joined the Provisional IRA and became one of its deadliest operatives, rivaling even Carlos the Jackal, but his disapproval of the IRA's indiscriminate bombings of innocent civilians prompted him to abandon the cause and offer himself out as a mercenary for hire, working indiscriminately for the PLO and the Israelis, for the Red Brigade and even the KGB. For more than 20 years the elusive and resourceful Dillon-who shunned the publicity favored by other terrorists--slipped through the fingers of the authorities on every continent. Ironically, he is finally caught by the Serbs while running medicine for children into Bosnia. Sentenced to death (it appears that someone snuck some Stinger missiles into the shipment), Dillon is plucked out of prison by Brigadier Charles Ferguson of the elite, terrorist-fighting Group 4 of the British Security Service, who offers him a clean slate in exchange for his services. Dillon--an expert pilot & scuba diver as well as a master of disguise and languages--subsequently becomes Ferguson's most effective agent, at one point even foiling an assassination attempt upon the Prime Minister and President of the United States.

EYE OF THE STORM Putnam, 1992.

Rogue IRA-hitman Dillon is hired by Saddam Hussein to assassinate Margaret Thatcher. When the plot is betrayed, he chooses an alternative target: the entire British War Cabinet set to meet at No. 10 Downing Street. Martin Brosnan, an Irish-American Special Forces hero and former comrade of Dillon's, is recruited by Ferguson to stop him.

THUNDER POINT. Putnam, 1993.

When the wreck of a WWII U-boat is discovered off the Virgin Islands, the British government has good reason to want to get its hands on certain key documents said to be on board-including a list of high-level people from the United States and England who were Nazi supporters during the war. When circumstances put Dillon within his grasp, Ferguson offers him reprieve from a firing squad if he will undertake the dangerous mission for British Intelligence. It is the beginning of Dillon's new career as a "good guy."

ON DANGEROUS GROUND. Putnam, 1994.

Dillon is giving the task of locating and destroying the Chungking Covenant-a 1944 document in which Winston Churchill agreed to assist Mao Tse-tung against the Japanese in return for an extension of Britain's lease on Hong Kong for another 100 years.

ANGEL OF DEATH. Putnam, 1995.

After the President of the United States dispatches an Irish-American senator to Great Britain in an attempt to forge a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, a mysterious terrorist group called "January 30" plots to assassinate the senator. Ferguson, Dillon, and their reliable co-hort, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Bernstein, are assigned to protect him.

DRINK WITH THE DEVIL. Putnam, 1996.

Ten years after the hijacking of a barge carrying one hundred million pounds in gold bullion, the President of the United States receives information about its whereabouts and learns that the money is to be used to finance an Irish civil war. Dillon is plunged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to recover the fortune by any means necessary.

THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER. Putnam, 1997.

Years after a one-night stand with a French countess the President of the U.S. learns that he has an illegitimate daughter. Unfortunately, a group of terrorists find out and kidnap her to force him to order a series of nuclear air-strikes against Iran, Iraq and Syria. The terrorists ensnare Dillon to deliver their deadly terms and arrange his assassination, only to learn what so many others have learned before them-that Sean Dillon is not an easy man to kill.

THE WHITE HOUSE CONNECTION. Putnam, 1999.

Dillon and Johnson are called upon to stop an unlikely assassin who is executing the American members of a rogue terrorist group called the Sons of Erin which threatens to derail the Irish peace process.

DAY OF RECKONING. Putnam, 2000.

When her investigation brings her too close to an international crime boss, journalist Katherine Johnson pays with her life. Her ex-husband, former FBI agent Blake Johnson enlists Dillon's aid in exacting his revenge.

EDGE OF DANGER. Putnam, 2001.

This time out, Dillon puts his life on the line to thwart the global vengeance of an English-Arab family after a drunken Russian diplomat accidentally kills the mother of one of the world's richest men.

MIDNIGHT RUNNER. Putnam, 2002.

Sequel to Edge of Danger.

BAD COMPANY. Putnam, 2003.

When the secret diary of Adolf Hitler surfaces, a diary that would prove derrimental to the current U.S. president, a billionaire industrialist with ties to an international crime family, targets Dillon in an act of revenge.

DARK JUSTICE. Putnam, 2004.

The indestrucible Dillon and his American counterpart Blake Johnson, take on assassins and a Russian oil magnate intent on world domination.

WITHOUT MERCY. Putnam, 2005.

Dillon seeks revenge on the Russian agents responsible for murdering a colleague, while they target him for the same reason.

THE KILLING GROUND. GPPS, 2008.

Dillon comes to the aid of an English-Bedouin man whose thirteen-year-old daughter has been kidnapped by his own father and forced to marry a terrorist.

ROUGH JUSTICE. GPPS, 2008.

Sent to Kosovo on a mission to report on the status in the troubled region, agent Blake Johnson joins forces with British operative Harry Miller to stop a Russian officer in the act of torching a mosque. But the action will have profound repercussions for both agents, as well as Dillon and the governments involved.

A DARKER PLACE. GPPS, 2009.

Dillon and the rest of the group known informally as the “Prime Minister’s private army” help famous Russian writer and ex-paratrooper named Alexander Kurbsky defect to the West unaware that he is still working for the Russians.

THE WOLF AT THE DOOR. GPPS, 2010.

Having gotten tired of their interference in his schemes over the years, the Russian prime minister masterminds a plot to kill Dillon and other members of the British prime minister's private intelligence army .

Created and maintained by: Lynne M. Kennedy.