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The Wrath of God
Three desperate men. Each determined to flee his dark and violent past—only to find that violence is a way of life from which there is no escape...Emmet a trained assassin who no longer can remember how many men he has killed or why he killed them.Van priest, bank robber, murderer...saint. A man running from the law himself. businessman, hotel proprietor...gun runner. A mysterious man with an even more mysterious past.Three desperate men in a chaotic, war-torn land, joined together in a mission of death.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
James Graham
7 books3 followersOne of the several pseudonyms of Henry Patterson. See Jack Higgins for more complete information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 8, 2023
At the last library book sale (pre-COVID) I grabbed a bunch of Jack Higgins books to fill my bag. I like him but he doesn't tell a happy, light story. Many of his early books are intense so I can only do 1 or 2 at a time & tend to leave them on my bookshelf for a while.
But they're filled with action & suspense.
This as well as a few others were buried in the back when I was reorganizing my shelf. They make a good purse book. (ie. a small paperback book that I keep in my bag so I always have something to read if needed...all my BIG readers know what i mean..)
His protagonists are likable yet they skirt the line w/their morals/actions.
This book was no different.
the writer did a great job of creating the dirty, poor, corrupt mood that surrounded the town in Mexico b/w the 2 world wars. I could easily visualize the setting.
Emmet is our lead protagonist and I rooted for him to make it out alive. There was also a hint of romance w/a young girl so I wanted that relationship to succeed as well.
Van Horne is a conflicted character. I'm not sure what to make of him except perhaps as moral compass for our hero.
Janos is a D!
All 3 have been blackmailed into a suicide mission of assassinating a rebel guerrilla warrior. He's not a good guy. that becomes obvious so the reader doesn't care if he dies though the writer does give insight into why he's become less idealistic & more sadistic.
Lots of action & suspense but with extreme graphic violence.
But they're filled with action & suspense.
This as well as a few others were buried in the back when I was reorganizing my shelf. They make a good purse book. (ie. a small paperback book that I keep in my bag so I always have something to read if needed...all my BIG readers know what i mean..)
His protagonists are likable yet they skirt the line w/their morals/actions.
This book was no different.
the writer did a great job of creating the dirty, poor, corrupt mood that surrounded the town in Mexico b/w the 2 world wars. I could easily visualize the setting.
Emmet is our lead protagonist and I rooted for him to make it out alive. There was also a hint of romance w/a young girl so I wanted that relationship to succeed as well.
Van Horne is a conflicted character. I'm not sure what to make of him except perhaps as moral compass for our hero.
Janos is a D!
All 3 have been blackmailed into a suicide mission of assassinating a rebel guerrilla warrior. He's not a good guy. that becomes obvious so the reader doesn't care if he dies though the writer does give insight into why he's become less idealistic & more sadistic.
Lots of action & suspense but with extreme graphic violence.
June 24, 2025
This is a classic pulp action thriller. It's over the top, fast-moving, and unapologetically wild. The characters are written in broad strokes and fit familiar archetypes, which I can look past in this type of book. It knows exactly what it is and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
The setting, Mexico after the revolution, was a real highlight. It added an atmospheric and cinematic backdrop to the story, and I found myself wanting to learn more about that historical period after reading it. The impact of the setting wasn’t just on the main characters, but on nearly everyone in the story. It grounded the chaos with a sense of place.
Tone-wise, it walks the line between gritty and tongue-in-cheek, with moments of violence and intensity alongside a kind of pulp swagger. It stayed consistent throughout, what you get in the first few chapters is pretty much what you’ll get for the whole ride.
Overall, it was a decent read. A good book to lose yourself in for a short while, especially if you're in the mood for something cinematic and rough around the edges.
The setting, Mexico after the revolution, was a real highlight. It added an atmospheric and cinematic backdrop to the story, and I found myself wanting to learn more about that historical period after reading it. The impact of the setting wasn’t just on the main characters, but on nearly everyone in the story. It grounded the chaos with a sense of place.
Tone-wise, it walks the line between gritty and tongue-in-cheek, with moments of violence and intensity alongside a kind of pulp swagger. It stayed consistent throughout, what you get in the first few chapters is pretty much what you’ll get for the whole ride.
Overall, it was a decent read. A good book to lose yourself in for a short while, especially if you're in the mood for something cinematic and rough around the edges.
April 18, 2010
Good vacation book.
February 8, 2017
A shoot-em-up story set in lawless Mexico.
It left me wondering: What happens next?
It left me wondering: What happens next?
May 9, 2022
Three men with violent backgrounds are in Mexico in 1922 and are forced to team up--given the job of finding and killing a bandit leader.
What makes this novel extraordinary isn't just the strong, action-packed plot, but also the unusual characters. The author is Jack Higgins, though this early novel was written under one of the several other pen names he used before hitting the bestseller list in the 1970s. Here, he crafts several fascinating characters. The first-person narrator is Emmett Keogh, a former Irish terrorist whose background included a stint at medical school before being drawn into the Irish War of Independence and the ensuing Irish Civil War. One of his partners in the "kill the bandit" mission is Oliver Van Horne, a would-be priest who had instead turned to bank robbery.
Both are bitter and cynical, but Higgins manages to still give them unique and three-dimensional personalities that allow for gradual, believable character growth. Higgins works events into the story that SHOULD be contrived and corny, but makes the a natural part of the story's flow and the various character arcs. For instance, Keogh--the former medical student--must at one point deliver a baby and deal with a breach birth. Van Horne, who's role in the mission includes pretending to be the new priest sent to a poor village, finds himself drawn into that role in reality. In both these cases, the potentially contrived plot twists seem right and natural.
As far as plot and action is concerned, the story steadily builds tension, punctuated by truly exciting action set pieces. Higgins World War II thriller "The Eagle Has Landed" is one of my favorite books and I have considered the action scenes in that novel to be among the most exciting I've ever read. But when violence erupts in "The Wrath of God," it matches "Eagle" in quality.
What makes this novel extraordinary isn't just the strong, action-packed plot, but also the unusual characters. The author is Jack Higgins, though this early novel was written under one of the several other pen names he used before hitting the bestseller list in the 1970s. Here, he crafts several fascinating characters. The first-person narrator is Emmett Keogh, a former Irish terrorist whose background included a stint at medical school before being drawn into the Irish War of Independence and the ensuing Irish Civil War. One of his partners in the "kill the bandit" mission is Oliver Van Horne, a would-be priest who had instead turned to bank robbery.
Both are bitter and cynical, but Higgins manages to still give them unique and three-dimensional personalities that allow for gradual, believable character growth. Higgins works events into the story that SHOULD be contrived and corny, but makes the a natural part of the story's flow and the various character arcs. For instance, Keogh--the former medical student--must at one point deliver a baby and deal with a breach birth. Van Horne, who's role in the mission includes pretending to be the new priest sent to a poor village, finds himself drawn into that role in reality. In both these cases, the potentially contrived plot twists seem right and natural.
As far as plot and action is concerned, the story steadily builds tension, punctuated by truly exciting action set pieces. Higgins World War II thriller "The Eagle Has Landed" is one of my favorite books and I have considered the action scenes in that novel to be among the most exciting I've ever read. But when violence erupts in "The Wrath of God," it matches "Eagle" in quality.
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September 25, 2022The thirtieth #jackhiggins #martinfallon #hughmarlowe #harrypatterson #henrypatterson #jamesgraham novel #thewrathofgod published in 1971. Set in Mexico in the 1920s featuring an Irish republican terrorist/freedom fighter (formerly trained as a doctor) with a tragic past that gets his passport stolen and blackmailed into doing some shady work for a dodgy business man (a technique Higgins used recently in #thelastplacegodmade). Also featuring one of the most fascinating characters that Higgins has ever created Oliver van horne a criminal formerly trained as a priest who struggles to balance his life of crime with his religion. A surprising amount of depth and nuance to this character. This is another of Higgins novels where an enormous amount of different things happen within the space of 200 pages. Mugging, blackmail, bar fights, transportation of illegal goods, rescuing a damsel in distress, a dangerous trip through mountain paths at nighttime, arrest, imprisonment, a firing squad, a secret mission, an assassination, a romantic subplot, a dramatic collapse of a mineshaft. So much. Two reasonably well developed characters. But I don’t think I’m going to find this one particularly memorable (other than the priest character).
December 31, 2018
Wish I could give more than five stars! Jack Higgins is a fantastic author. So glad I found this book, as I've read almost all of his novels and to find one that is a new title to me was a wonderful thing.
There's plenty of action in this story, with a love interest to lighten the action in between.
The story centres round an Irish man on the run from his past, and a priest who is not quite what he appears to be at first glance. They meet up in a Mexican town that has seen better days and have been recruited to rid the place of the man who terrorises the populace into submission.
They take their responsibilities seriously and get the job done, against impossible odds.
This is Jack Higgins at his best. I don't think I have read any book of his that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed from the first word to the last.
There's plenty of action in this story, with a love interest to lighten the action in between.
The story centres round an Irish man on the run from his past, and a priest who is not quite what he appears to be at first glance. They meet up in a Mexican town that has seen better days and have been recruited to rid the place of the man who terrorises the populace into submission.
They take their responsibilities seriously and get the job done, against impossible odds.
This is Jack Higgins at his best. I don't think I have read any book of his that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed from the first word to the last.
August 25, 2017
I picked this up at the library after just browsing the shelf. I found that I was pleasantly surprised. The story was interesting, the characters were well-developed and complex. It is a little hard to categorize; I ended up going with adventure, but it could have been a thriller or a western even.
September 15, 2020
A great read, three men from various backgrounds, all very capable, have been given another chance at life when all seemed lost. They must kill a bandit who is well protected and its considered a suicide mission, but it's better then certain death.
Higgins is a great writer and this one is highly recommended, is also a fantastic Robert Mitchum movie.
Higgins is a great writer and this one is highly recommended, is also a fantastic Robert Mitchum movie.
December 27, 2021
Cool story, both in book and movie. Irish revolutionary on the run, gunslinging American priest proving out his understatement that things are not always what they seem. Action takes place in Mexico, in the 1920's. I got a slightly bigger kick out of the movie, because of presence of Robert Mitchum as the priest.
May 2, 2024
The Wrath of God is just an enjoyable read. Thoroughly entertaining, despite some odd story and prose choices. I liked how Higgins' employed frequent irony in character arcs and story beats—it was blatant but not overused. The characters are a bit too similar to one another to have proper character conflicts, but their differing backgrounds still shine through in interesting ways.
August 4, 2020
Set in Mexico in 1922. Features an Irish Republican Army protagonist and a fascinating "priest." Turns out the real author is Jack Higgins author of the Eagle has Landed. A couple of important characters are Yaqui Indians.
October 7, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. All the characters are fairly well-developed and you get to know them and their motivations by the end. Not Higgins' best book, but his fans will definitely enjoy this western action.
June 10, 2020
Read in 1972. Made into a movie with Robert Mitchum.
July 16, 2022
3 pluss.
January 6, 2023
Page burner!
July 30, 2023
A change going Mexican.
September 23, 2023
September 2023. Too intense for me with the added negative of the characters not possessing the charm of Dillion or the character of Bernstein or any Ferguson.
January 3, 2024
No Jack Higgins is not writing a theological treatise here, it is another of his signature action thriller type books we read as we spend our hours.
September 24, 2025
Typical Jack Higgins adventure/thriller. Very similar plot to all the others. Very similar characters to all the others. I've read a lot of Jack Higgins. Getting a bit boring now.
October 26, 2016
Did this on CD. Not very good.
January 22, 2026
When I was nine or ten, my father permitted me to stay up and watch the
1972 film version
of this novel on Channel 100, the pre-HBO premium channel available to San Diego cable television subscribers in the 70s. I loved me some Westerns when I was a boy (still do), but I'd never seen one like this - chockablock with casual profanity and Peckinpah-inflected violence. I was enchanted, doubtlesss mostly because I was up past my bedtime sharing a naughty thrill with my dad, but partly by the merits of the movie itself. I talked about my favorite scenes for years and it started a lifelong infatuation with Robert Mitchum. "Cool" wasn't a word in my vocabulary yet, but, as it is embodied by Mitchum's Father van Horne, it instantly replaced Kirk Douglas's barely supressed rage as my manly ideal. I just watched the film again after finishing this book. It's not a great movie, but it has its charms and, along with Jesus Christ Superstar and A Clockwork Orange, I would still say it's one of the the most iconic movies of my life.
The novel was published in 1971 by Henry Patterson under the pseudonym James Graham. Shortly thereafter, Patterson started writing as "Jack Higgins" and issued an avalanche of swastika-bedizened supermarket potboilers. His ubiquity on the man-shelf was rivaled, in those pre-Tom Clancy days, only by Frederick Forsyth. I don't mean to mock. I adored The Eagle Has Landed and the U-boat adventure Storm Warning when I was a young teen and this title, it turns out, is a worthy predecessor - not exactly Graham Greene, but, nevertheless, a tightly plotted action story with clean, workmanlike prose and an atmosphere evocative, if not of historical Mexico, then, at least, of the cliched "Mexico" of Western genre film and fiction, where, as a movie review I once read put it, "God is dead and we don't need no stinking badges." The characters, particularly the women, are two-dimensional and there was some sloppy research*, but Father van Horne, despite his un-Mitchum-like beard, was every bit as cool on the page as the screen.
*Patterson grew up in Belfast and wrote compulsively about rogues who are current or former members of the IRA, so I was more than a little surprised by his reference to the traditional Irish hero mash-up, "Finn Cuchulain."
The novel was published in 1971 by Henry Patterson under the pseudonym James Graham. Shortly thereafter, Patterson started writing as "Jack Higgins" and issued an avalanche of swastika-bedizened supermarket potboilers. His ubiquity on the man-shelf was rivaled, in those pre-Tom Clancy days, only by Frederick Forsyth. I don't mean to mock. I adored The Eagle Has Landed and the U-boat adventure Storm Warning when I was a young teen and this title, it turns out, is a worthy predecessor - not exactly Graham Greene, but, nevertheless, a tightly plotted action story with clean, workmanlike prose and an atmosphere evocative, if not of historical Mexico, then, at least, of the cliched "Mexico" of Western genre film and fiction, where, as a movie review I once read put it, "God is dead and we don't need no stinking badges." The characters, particularly the women, are two-dimensional and there was some sloppy research*, but Father van Horne, despite his un-Mitchum-like beard, was every bit as cool on the page as the screen.
*Patterson grew up in Belfast and wrote compulsively about rogues who are current or former members of the IRA, so I was more than a little surprised by his reference to the traditional Irish hero mash-up, "Finn Cuchulain."
March 3, 2015
Another early Higgins with a displaced Irishman, this time following WWI. We find him adrift in a Mexico awash with bandits, corrupt cops and the disparity between the landowners and the poor. Emmet Keogh down on his luck in a small town is offered a job of driving a truck load of booze north towards the border to hand it off to a smuggler to take across to the US. He declines, but the dealer/hotel owner is not satisfied. While in the local Bar Emmet stands up for young woman working here when she is accosted by some of the rough customers. Later in his hotels room he catches a man making off with his wallet and shoots him in the leg as he is getting away. Soon the local sheriff arrives and since no one can find the wallet Emmet is hauled off to jail. Now this Sheriff has a practice of keeping the jail population down by frequent use of a firing squad and the dealer/hotel owner offers to stand up for Emmet if he will agree to drive the truck.
There is much more going on as Emmet, ends up joining forces with a "Priest" and the Dealer again with a choice of taking a on a task for the local Federal arm commander or that firing squad again. Yep, more danger, close calls, reuniting with the young woman and a resolution at the end. A somewhat similar theme as the Wrath of GOd, with different characters and local. Still a good read.
There is much more going on as Emmet, ends up joining forces with a "Priest" and the Dealer again with a choice of taking a on a task for the local Federal arm commander or that firing squad again. Yep, more danger, close calls, reuniting with the young woman and a resolution at the end. A somewhat similar theme as the Wrath of GOd, with different characters and local. Still a good read.
May 10, 2012
In Wrath of God, Higgins brings together 3 diverse men and forces them to cooperate with each other. Keogh is a former Irish assassin, Van Horne a former priest who now robs banks and Janos, a businessman whose main interest is himself and how to make his life better. They all find themselves in Mexico in the 1920s and are forced to work together on a mission for a Mexican army officer to save their own lives.
There is no fat in a Higgins novel. He says exactly what he wants and means in few words while still painting a stark picture. Wrath of God is as well written as any of his books, however, for me the plot was a little convoluted and didn't grab me enough. I enjoyed the read, but can't say it was a great novel.
There is no fat in a Higgins novel. He says exactly what he wants and means in few words while still painting a stark picture. Wrath of God is as well written as any of his books, however, for me the plot was a little convoluted and didn't grab me enough. I enjoyed the read, but can't say it was a great novel.
December 6, 2014
A very early Jack Higgins book takes place in Mexico after the revolution. A former IRA gunman, wouldn't be a Higgins book without one of these, a gun toting priest who is really a American bank robber and a Hungarian gun runner are given one last chance to avoid a death sentence. Go into the mountains and kill a bandit who is imposing his own brand of lawlessness on the countryside. OK read.
January 7, 2008
This is just one of the stories I can read over and over again. Set during the mexican revolution, it is just an interesting story with enduring characters. It is a quick read and action packed.
September 1, 2008
This book was originaly written under the pseudonym of James Graham and that's the version I have. Higgins always tells an intense and exciting story. This one is quite good. A historical thriller set in Mexico in the early 1900s.
April 20, 2013
Western en el México de entre guerras. Después de la Revolución mexicana, algunos reductos de desorden deben pacificarse cueste lo que cueste. Tres extraños pistoleros serán encargados con esta tarea.
July 18, 2007
good story, strangely a bit romantic.
August 10, 2015
An early Jack Higgins - short and simply written. 3 outlaws in Mexico given the option to hunt down a baddie instead of the death penalty. Actually a good and engaging plot.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews