2005-05-02 Gripping read but a rush job......(contains a few spoilers)

This is a good book and should have been filmed by now. It was written in 1982, the year of the Falklands War, which finished in June. I suspected that it was a rush job, and reading the book confirmed it. There are a few glitches. Villiers is 'about thirty' in 1982, and thus too young to have been in many of the campaigns in which he is said to have served. Likewise, we are told that his dad is still alive, although disabled. But when Villiers is decorated at Buckingham Palace, we are not told why no relatives acompany him.

That aside, the book has vivid, well-drawn characters - Gabrielle is a delight - and the combat sequences have a realistic feel to them. Although you know that the Soviet spy plan will not succeed, your heart is in your mouth as the story edges towards the dénouement.

My real regret....no sequel! When Villiers walks away from his bosses and into the park, we wonder what he will do next, and we still don't know. If Higgins has given us a sequel to The Eagle Has Landed, why not one to Exocet - perhaps featuring Scuds or WMD?