Firing Line

I too was left a little underwhelmed and confused after finishing this title. Umm I was under the impression the title was about a group called "The Silent Brotherhood" but shortly after the start that seems to have been tossed out the window ? The Big Guy gets dragged into protecting a Mafia family of an aging Capo where he teams up with the resident Hit man assassin "The Shadow" who could be a good guy or could be a bad guy. Some pretty good action scenes to read through this title which gains it a couple of extra stars as does the revelation of the real identity of The Shadow at the end (I didn't see that coming and it took me by surprise). All said not the worst title in the series to read but gee there are MANY vastly better not recommended from me for your reading in this series here.

A mildly entertaining novel, but only just that. Bolan is investigating a situation in Puget Sound that leads him into a meandering plotline that never has any concrete direction. What is really a Mafia story, Bolan teams up with a mob hitman called the Shadow, for the purpose of pitting one family after a couple others. The result of this relationship was predictable, even if you didn't read the spoiler text on the inside front cover. There were far too many characters introduced in this book. It would have been much better to focus on fewer people, and the characters of Sally and Gloria got in the way of the introduction to Don Pietro's daughter Donna. Donna was supposed to be the main focus of the kidnapping, as well as a central character, but her introduction was dreadful. I got her and Gloria confused, and read many pages before I even knew Donna was the Don's daughter, and not Gloria. No description of any kind was even given for Donna. But this lack of description was prevalent in the book in general. Too often a scene would begin with no indication of where it was taking place. Are they in a car? A boat? A plane? A house? Inside or outside? On the telephone or in person? Many times I couldn't tell. Action scenes were good in some parts and mediocre in others. Bolan's character seemed slightly off at times. Mack had some good allies in the story, and there were enough scenes in general that I liked to keep this book from being a loser. Overall, a fair book but not really worth hunting down. The writer's first Executioner, #145 Chicago Payoff, was a far superior novel.

I agree with the others what happened to the Brotherhood? Was Goss a good or bad guy or both? For some reason this novel reminded me of Pendleton's novel that took place in Cleveland. Bolan realized that a weak kinda harmless mafia boss was better then a vacuum where a strong nonharmless mob boss could take over. Pietro was that rather harmless mafia boss that would have been good to keep in place as boss since a vacuum would have been worst. Pietro was not all that bad of a mob boss. Loyal to family, made sure they remained out of business, won't use turkey doctors. He would have been perfect to leave in -leser of two evils. Also Shadow has a very distinctive boss so why would he ever talk? Even a mask doesn't hide voice. Everytime he spoke people should have recognized him. The action scenes are rather good especially the scene storming the cabin. Ok why did Mack call Hal constantly? It really was out of character. Also on issuue of findding out who the Shardow was instead of contacting Aaron wouldn't Leo be a better choice? I got the impression that Green didn't know what to do with the Brotherhood so he just dropped them. Vast number of good Mack vs Mafia novels. Skip it.

I really missed the plot in this novel. Really. I had the feeling that there was a plot, but somewhere along the line it just got lost, and left me wondering where it was all going. Bolan is in Seattle at Brognola's request to search for a group called the 'Silent Brotherhood' who are 'sniffing around a nuclear power plant.' Bolan immediantly focuses on the local Mafia because an army agent was killed and he is related to a Mafia don, in addition to another army guy, Corporal Goss being missing. Thus the Silent Brotherhood is forgotten as Bolan sides with one Mafia don in a war against another, and teams up with the Shadow, the mafia dons top hitman. Thrown into this mixture are a series of cardboard personalities that blend together so much so that I was left wondering just who was who. Bolan makes use of a security team from Boeing who have no problem with shooting mafiosa, rescues a prostitue called Gloria, who has no real place in the novel but is mentioned more times than the mafia is, and finds Coproral Goss' body in the house of the one Mafia don after first trying to join the Mafia then turning sides and being shot by them. Confused? I was. The only redeeming feature was the fact that the Mafia knew who Bolan was, (despite calling himself Mike Belasko, and refer to him as The Executioner. However, this makes little impact on the Mafia, as they seem to say "Oh, look, its The Executioner, and he is going to attack us. Now, where were we..." There was a lot more potential, but in the end this novel failed to deliver. very siappointing, as I was looking forward to a good ol' mafia story.

Mack Bolan fighting the Mafia with a Mafia hitman as a partner during this mission.............boy this sounds like an interesting story line but sadly this is just about it. This book had such a potential to be a great one but instead it left me with way too many questions like; What happened to the Silent Brotherhood? Who was really behind it? Who was Corporal Guss really? An undercover Marine or a Mafia boy? What was Don Peitro´s ultimate but never explained plot? The Shadow was an interesting character and it was especially interesting to have Bolan figthing the Mafia with a hitman like the Shadow who Bolan was admiring and had similar fighting style as Bolan and was from a certain point of view the Jing of Bolan´s Jang. The book has a lot of action but still it is flat for most of the part and all the questions like the ones above really didn´t help to make the book a killer one as it could have if the writing had beed a bit better than it really was. (2003)

NOT ONE OF THE BETTER BOLANS. THE STORY CHANGED FOCUS TOO MUCH. THE MOB HITMAN WAS THE BEST PART OF THE BOOK.

I LIKED THE SHADOW. HE WAS ONE WORTHY OPPONENT AND THE END WAS FILLED WITH GOOD TENSE SUSPENSE.