FICTION

THE EAGLE HAS FLOWN by Jack Higgins (Simon and Schuster: $21.95; 335 pp.). Sixteen years after his heart-pounding novel of World War II hit the best-seller list, we have Jack Higgins back in the saddle, finally, with his sequel to “The Eagle Has Landed.” In the first novel, the German superhero Kurt Steiner is blackmailed and betrayed by Himmler to lead a grandiose venture--the kidnaping or assassination of Winston Churchill deep in the English countryside. Steiner’s chief ally: the puckish, poetry-quoting IRA assassin Laim Devlin. (The earlier book is being republished in tandem with “The Eagle Has Flown,” with the provocative footnote that it includes 10% new material.) Now, a few weeks after this attempt on Churchill’s life (no, we’re not going to tell you how it turned out), the wily Devlin has an offer from Himmler: to snatch Steiner from his cell in the Tower of London and spirit him back to Germany. Welcome back to likeable, believable protagonists, hard-hitting action and plots that don’t require an accompanying, fold-out blueprint.