British author Henry Patterson, who wrote 85 novels, predominantly thrillers and in the espionage genre under the pseudonym Jack Higgins, died April 9 at age 92. Patterson sold more than 250 million copies worldwide and his books were translated into 60 languages. He was best known for his World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed, which was published in 1975, sold more than 50 million copies and was adapted into a British film of the same name starring Sir Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter and Robert Duvall.
Patterson's first novel, Sad Wind from the Sea, was published in 1959. Between 1959 and 1974, he wrote as many as three or four books a year. In the late 1960s, Patterson began publishing under his pen name Jack Higgins, with the first of his many bestsellers, The Savage Day and A Prayer for the Dying, coming out in the early 1970s. Other titles include Thunder Point (1993), Angel of Death (1995), Flight of Eagles (1998) and Day of Reckoning (2000). A sequel to The Eagle Has Landed, The Eagle Has Flown, came out in 1991. Patterson's final book, The Midnight Bell, was published in 2017 by Putnam ($9.99).
