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{{comment
|name=Richard Scarr
|verb= said
|comment=After reading some of the reviews for Surefire. I honestly cannot believe the novel I read, and the one these reviewers read are one and the same. I am a Higgins fan, and bought this novel by mistake. I was in a rush, and seeing his name on the cover, I bought it. I soon realized of course that it was for youngsters. But what struck me immediately was the amateurish style in which it was written. I could find no evidence that Higgins was involved in any way in the writing of this novel, other than to lend his name to it. It screams: I am a first novel by a beginner" The author falls into the classic trap of the amateur, by feeling compelled to explain even the smallest and obvious detail, in chapter and verse. He does not credit the reader with the common sense to work it out for himself. For instance, he writes: "John helped his friend to his feet and gave him back his stick, then handed him a headset- infra-red goggles attached to a set of straps that fitted exactly over their heads and held the goggles tightly in place" Did he really think he had to explain that the goggles had straps to hold them on the wearers head, in order to avoid the reader jumping to the conclusion they might be held in position with six inch nails? When: "Then they each pulled on a set of infra-red goggles" would have sufficed.
The book is riddled with these amateurism's and repetitions. When in the telling of the police blocking off a street. He felt compelled to explain in detail that they did so by parking a police car sideways across the road at either end. When simply stating: "The police sealed the street with a police car parked either end." The reader takes it for granted the cars will be parked in such a way as to prevent other vehicles leaving.
I can't believe this work would have got into print if it had not bore Jack Higgins name.
A Higgins fan
}}
[[Category:Teens]]
[[Category:Thrillers]]
