The Killing Ground By Jack Higgins Thorndike Large Print (2008), 485 pages ISBN-10: 1410404005 ISBN-13: 978-1410404008 Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - February 9, 2010

Some writers no matter what they are writing about are a delight to read simply because their writing style is so enjoyable. The delight is intensified if the main character is a passionate and heroic and unusual man that we would like to meet and, if not meet, enjoy watching and listening to, and if the villain is bad, but not bad like everyone else, and interesting. Jack Higgins is such a writer, Sean Dillon such a character, and Casper Rashid such a villain. If the plot includes a need for righteous revenge against pure evil, then the main ingredients are properly spiced. Higgins tells the tale of Rashid's father kidnapping Rashid's thirteen year old daughter and taking her to Iraq to marry her to a man known as the "Hammer of God." Rashid the villain begs Dillon for help and Dillon accepts because he sees an opportunity for revenge.

Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.gefenpublishing.com. The Orthodox Union (OU) publishes daily samples of the Targum books on www.ouradio.org.

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