Cold Judgment

I liked the story in this one where the Big Guy is sent to locate the fortress of the newly created Cult of the Assassins with the aim of setting off a aiming beacon so Israeli jets can bomb it out of existence. He teams up with a Syrian guide and sets off to locate the fortress and on the way somewhat fortunately comes across an IRA terrorist in the middle of the desert who is also in fact on his way to the same fortress. Grabbing a golden opportunity he takes over the identity of the IRA terrorist and presents himself at the fortress and gains admittance. Not a lot of action until he is discovered as an imposter but some pretty good reading on how and what is going on in the fortress where the assassins are being trained. Some good characters introduced with one of the harem females not being who she is supposed to be and the Terrorist leader and his second in command also quite good. After he has been exposed as a fake he is tortured on a rack and you can feel his pain at times well written. Overall a good read in the series and recommended reading.

This story was quite interesting, although a little slow at times. It is very much an infiltration story, the main action doesn't start until chapter 17, before that there are a few little fights but nothing really worth noting. The main plot is that the Cult of the Assassins has been recreated and they are for hire and wrecking havoc throughout the world. Bolan is sent in to neutralise the threat. The weak spots then begin to show through. Bolan has a Syrian born CIA contact that shall lead him to the secret fortress - except that the Syrian doesn't know where it is. Bolans mission is to plant a homing beacon so that Isreali jets can bomb the place - except that Bolan doesn't know how he will achieve this once the fortress is found. This is all very vague and to my mind it weakened the story. Luckily Bolan & Co encounter an IRA terrorist and his cohort on the way to the fortress. Bolan kills the bad guys and assumes the IRA man's identity. Then they manage to infiltrate the fortress. Why Bolan simply couldn't radio the map co-ordinates to the Isreali's is anyones guess. There then follows a stretch (literaly) of Bolan being shown around the place before his false identity is discovered. Bolan is put on the rack and stretched. Of course he gets out of it and there then follows more action with the great escape. Bolan makes several allies, and all of them - apart from the attracive Isreali agent that he meets up with - bite the bullet with little or no regret from Bolan. I personally dislike a novel where the author creates a character only to be used as a bullet catcher. So, the story was okay, but not wonderful. It had potential but really failed to deliver. Oh, and the villains are the usual cardboard fundamentalists which can also be annoying.

I just gotta give this one a 10. Newton is at the top of his form here. I always thought when he is good is GOOD!. Not all his novels are like this though.

Enjoyed this one very much.

I liked this one. It was a good entry to the series.

A pretty good book despite my first thoughts. Although the book didn't have very many settings, it was still entertaining. One of Bolan's closest mission. You could really sense the pain when he was interrogated. Ouch. Slow at some points but really picked up when the ending started. Grimaldi to the rescue again.

A+ Gunslinger. I like Mack killing that scottish man on the front cover with a big sword!

A pretty good undercover role for Bolan. B+!