SuperBolan · #39

Blood Strike

by Mike Newton · December 1994

6.0 / 10 average from 4 rated reviews

The Sword of Erin, a renegade faction of the IRA, had gambled with the lifeblood of their own movement when they massacred federal agents in New York - and staged the escape of the group's leader William Connolly. Connolly had been in prison for over a year and the movement had lost its momentum. But now he's free - committed to a gruesome wave of destruction. On the attack in Belfast, Mack Bolan speaks the only language the terrorists can understand: harassment and attrition. In another holding action in his everlasting war against the savages, Bolan is about to remove the Sword of erin from his hit list. .. . permanently.

Reviews (4)

ice_cracked 5/10 October 6, 2009

The start of this one is good where the leader of the Sword of Erin a splinter renegade group of the IRA who is in custody in the States is on his way to be flown out of the country and extradited back to Ireland. The convoy is attacked by his offsiders and he is successfully released with all of the federal officers guarding the convoy being killed. So starts the big chase for him and he proves to be an ellusive, wily escapee with the Big guy on his trail from country to country always seeming to just miss catching up to him. Not knowing his whereabouts results in rattling of the cages everywhere we go and whilst some of the scenes are pretty good reading it tends to become repetitive after a while as this seems to be happening over and over again. None the less the chase finishes back in the States where he is finally run to ground by the Big guy. Entertaining enough title here even with the formentioned repetitive scenes.

Monsta Mack 8/10 April 11, 2009

The beginning starts with a prisoner escape, being the leader of the Sword of Erin, a IRA rogue faction. Connolly is then the focus for Bolan for the rest of the novel. This is a chase novel for the most part, with Connolly being one of the most slippery and crafty villains Bolan has ever faced. From the US to Canada, to Ireland, to England, back to the US goes Bolan in pursuit of Connolly. Along the way, there is much going on on the sidelines, with numorous side characters introduced, many action scenes, and moments of suspensefull and violent action. Sprinkled early in the book are a few of Newton's cookie cutter action to get things going, but after this, the book really takes off in more original writing for the remainder of the story. While long in the tooth at 350 pages, nevertheless, Newton does a great job here in keeping the reader glued to the pages all the way to the final scene. A very good effert from Newton, I recommend it.

Greg Rhodes 5/10 April 11, 2006

This book had a great scene with Bolan kayaking across a lake in the fog to take down an enemy safe house in the woods. One of my favorite scenes of any Bolan yarn, ever. Unfortunately, the reset of it was pretty bland, IMO. I wanted to like this one, but I've read better. If you've got this one in your collection, read it for the safe house scene but stop when it gets boring because it doesn't get any better after that point.

Gunslinger 6/10 May 21, 2000

Once again, you have your standard action from Newton. It was fairly enjoyable. Loved the colorful front cover.