Spoilers!
Sometimes, a straightforward, no muss, no fuss book is just what I need. That’s exactly what you get with Jack Higgins’ books, as I mentioned in my previous first-time read of his book, The President’s Daughter. No muss, no fuss is also what’s on offer with Higgins’ 2003 book, Bad Company, even with a former Nazi in the mix.
Given the cover with the swastika, I figured the Nazi connection would be more overt. Instead, Max von Berger, a young man at the end of WWII, was not so much an avowed Nazi, despite being in the bunker when Hitler was in his final days with the Russians approaching from the east and the Americans and the British from the west. Hitler entrusted Max with his diary, dictated to a secretary over the past six months. It includes information that could potentially harm President Roosevelt: That Roosevelt entertained Hitler’s notion of conditional peace and teaming up against Stalin’s Russia. Roosevelt’s mouthpiece in that potential endeavor was Senator Jake Cazalet. His son, also Jake Cazalet, is the President of the United States in the present story. That’s what gets the attention of the British, General Ferguson, and Sean Dillon, Higgins’ long-running protagonist. Dillon is a former member of the Irish Republican Army, who now works for the “good guys” in Britain, like General Ferguson. He’s as straight forward as they come: he will kill you, if that is the objective.
Thanks to Hitler and Nazi money, Berger is able to escape Germany and eventually through the West as an extremely wealthy man of industry. He mostly spends his time with the Rashid family, also wealthy industrialists and also, arms dealers. Dillon, incidentally, would go on to kill all three brothers and Kate, the sister, who was close to Berger. In fact, she saved Berger from certain death by an Iraqi mob when Berger was in Iraq to potentially sell weapons to Saddam Hussein (he wanted plutonium, and Berger wasn’t willing to give it to the “madman”). Later, Berger learns he has a son, Rossi, who is rather sociopathic, to say the least. He’s all about the game, and the game to him is to best Dillon. He starts by killing Sarah, the aforementioned secretary to Hitler who dictated his diary. That sets Dillon off, who blows up Rossi’s cargo ship that was delivering weapons to a faction in Ireland, which would have instigated a civil war.
Rossi’s next move in the chess game he’s built in his head is to kidnap Ferguson to lure Dillon in. Which works, leading to much bloodshed in Germany (they took Ferguson back there). After the bloodshed, Ferguson forces Berger to give him Hitler’s diary. Ferguson promptly burns it. Then, as Dillon, Ferguson, and others are escaping on a plane, Rossi and Berger give chase. Berger gives up, though, and forces the plane to nosedive into the ground, killing them both. He’s simply had enough of the game.
Bad Company, which is actually in reference to Dillon and Ferguson and not the Nazis, is almost a gentlemanly game of one upmanship between Dillon and Rossi, with Berger a bit put off by it all. They randomly encounter each other and taunt with essentially, “I’m going to kill you the next time I see you,” and welp, it bloody well happens. Like I said, no twists and turns, no surprise revelations. Even the stakes about FDR and Cazalet are not exactly the most earth-shattering of revelations. But all in all, for a Saturday/Sunday read, Higgins’ work continues to be a nice palate cleanser.
Milam's Musings 