Double Crossfire

After the first third of this one, I was ready to give it a 2 or 3. After the middle third, I was ready to give it a 4 or 5. But i must admit, somehow it just got more exciting as it went and I ended at a seven. I agree with the other reviews that it it is very slow to start. The story is interesting enough, but the prose just doesn't "flow" very well. By the middle it felt like I was reading Pendleton, by the end it reminded me of New War. So overall, I guess it was ok. Maybe a bit generic, but readable enough for the whopping dollar I paid for it.

Good book. a bit slow in the beginning. but once it took off it was a pretty solid action. I really liked the supporting characters like Hook and Kabrina. A good entry in the terrorist wars. 8 stars

My epic attempt at a full series re-read continues now with #40 Double Crossfire. This book is like an old-fashion locomotive; it chugs along the tracks slowly at first until it picks up steam. And once it does, look out! It keeps racing forward until the end without any delays. The plot is a bit involved: Turks, Armenians, KGB, the Mafia and freelance mercs too. The locations switch frequently as well, and subtle time shifts and flash backs occur. Basically, I had to read certain early sections a few time to gleen all possible info. But the homework is worth it. Once we hit Turkey (around 75 pages in), the action explodes. We are treated to several gun battles, a soft probe and an ending raid that leaves one very cool loose end! If you enjoy your villains hard to kill, you'll be happy. The two main support characters are well written and likeable. They act in a believable manner, and you end up invested in their well-being. Mack is at his best when he is given good company to converse with. The author also handles Bolan's character with ease. He shows us Mack's inner thoughts on his life, war, the current mission and the transition from Mack to Phoenix interestingly. Even though some of it has been said before, it is the way in which the author states it that is insightful and enjoyable. Having just read the entire Mafia run, and with Mack's personality fresh in my memory, these philosophical Bolan bits were welcome prose, not needless filler. The ending transmissions were awesome too! Really a neat hook to get a reader curious about the next adventure.

Executioner 40 was a nice rebound from the previous book. "Double Crossfire" brought the series back to the string of good books that Pendleton wrote in ending the mafia series. In this episode, Mack is placed in the middle of the KGB, Turkish Armenians, and high-level American-Armenians. At stake in all of this is heroin trafficking from the Middle East to America's shores. Led by a ruthless pain of villains -- Paradine and Takim -- KGB interests in large scale heroin production is dealt a wicked blow by Mack Bolan. There are some wonderfully written action sequences, especially after Bolan arrives on foreign soil. Likewise, the secondary characters are done very well. Bolan meets up with a Turkish woman/boy who aid him in his quest to find kidnapped American-Armenians. The author also sprinkles many references back to Bolan's history from the Pendelton books, which I thought was an ingenious touch of bridging the Pendleton books to these new war stories.

Terrific read here which is based on a massive amount of raw opium currently in the hills of Turkey that is destined to flood the American market. Sent to Turkey the Big Guy starts his mission to try and locate the shipment and destroy it. Along the way he comes across some wonderful characters which are introduced probably the standout a Turk rebel named Horuk who changes sides and assists him also a young female Kabrina is good reading (except the fact that she is captured by the bad guys and requires rescuing which happens TOO many times in these titles I reckon). On the bad guys side a character named Paradine is introduced who is destined to make a comeback in future titles who is maybe the first of the arch enemies the Big Guy comes across. Lots of good action scenes to read and throughout you will be impressed with the strong knowledge the author shows on the character of who he is writing about. Really enjoyed this one recommended reading in the series.

I remembered loving this one as a kid. Re-reading it as an adult did not result in the same emotion. I did not mind the introspective portions of the book. My main problem was the HUGE luck factor that bordered on Deus ex Machina. First Mack lucks out in his search for the terrorists, then he lucks out by sparing Hook, then he finds the only American college educated woman within a 500 mile radius, and so on. He never seemed to have an actual plan. That bothered me more than anything else. Oh, and the mafia tie in felt forced. It works in the next book - Violent Streets - but here it feels like it was bolted on for the sake of nostalgia. I hope Double Crossfire was just a blip in my re-reading of the "new war" era Executioner novels. Certainly 39 and 41 were much better reads.

I read this almost at the same time as "Renegade Agent" which I freaking hated - I don't really beleive this is by the same author . Earlier reviewer noted that as well ( was this really the same guy ? ) anyway, I kinda liked this one, but I had to give it a low rating for all the war journal and deep thought crap that Bolan does, Pendelton handled that well, this author does not. There is some real intersting background info on Turkey and Armenia -- which was nicely handled .Its a below average novel in the early stage of Bolans New War . Eh Kay says , read if you must ---

Boring, boring and boring..........are the correct words to describe this book. This is not a regular Bolan book as too much space and time is allocated to the endless introspection of Bolan as a person and his past which is done book after book these days but not in the same extend as this one and this is only done to stretch the books and make them longer, confusing and disjointed. This book started out fairly well but sadly that is the only positive thing about this book but it got worse by each chapter. The plot is unclear and confusing and the book ended with a lot of questions and basically up in the air. Some of the questions are like...........What happened to Paradine? Why did Bolan give Paradine a change to escape instead of finishing him off? Why didn´t Bolan´s injuries stop him in any way? What was the Russian's real part of the plot? Why was there nothing about Paradine´s past? After reading book number 55 it was noted there that Paradine had been a tough evil man and that he was only the shadow of his past in that book. Well, with this in mind and the fact that Paradine wasn't any real threat to Bolan or showed this "true color" of being a menace, Paradine goes into the book of one of the most lame villains in the books so far and yes, he was only a shadow of the best ones in the series in this book as well in the later one. This book was hardly worth reviewing and surely it wasn't worth reading from my point of view. I just don't understand why it was ever written. (Iceland - 2005)

Can't believe he wrote Brothers in Blood which I hated. I agree there is a bit too much introspection in this novel but I dismiss this as GE trying to build a readership. I also couldn't believe that Bear was smoking a pipe while working on his computer. I know its from 82 but I do know that it was rather common knowledge that smoking and computers did not mix. I wonder if Wethers was based on this early Bear? Bear seemed more like Wethers then how we know Bear today. Kudo's for getting Adamian perfect. I have a cousin who is married to an Armenian and he and his family talk about the Armenian holocaust like it was yesterday. A few years ago I was at their house for Christmas Eve and his sister and her family were there along with his friends. They started talking about all these thousands of people killed and the way they talked it seemed like it was current until I realized what they were talking about and they explained to me what the Armenian holocaust was. An extremely dark chapter in European history and oddly never once was it taught in any history class I had. I think its great this book looked at this chapter and even though it was partly a drug story it was also a story about blind prejudice and allowing history control your life today. Paradine not a bad villian. Over the top at times. Still have no clue about his backstory. Why do I get the feeling he was meant as a main villian for this Terrorist saga? With him living at the end and knowing so little about him I get the impression this was an attempt to create a recurring villian. Yes he does show up in book 55. The ending was emotionally good. Action scene was rather standard. I liked how Adamian learned how stupid blind prejudice is and sadly it took a Turk to sacrifice himself so he could live - granted contrived. . A 10 for the character Adamian and lessons he learned and getting the modern Armenian culture right (at least my experiences with it). A 6 for the rest of the story. An 8 overall.

I remember this being just an average Bolan story. Nothing to really put it above what I expect from these books. I never was impressed with Paradine, he seemed to be uninteresting as a villain to me. I was even disappointed to see him come back in #55. The writer has Bolan muse on his war and what he's about, which is fine, it is only the second book in the gold eagle series, so it kind of sets a precedent for his thoughts and stuff. However, I thought it paused the action too long in a book that wasn't to great anyway, so I give this book a 5 star. This same writer wrote #47, which is like reading the boring part of #40 from cover to cover, that book sucked. Still, this book is worth reading, if you're looking for the early terrorist books.

More so than the previous book this novel establishs Bolan's role as a counter-terrorist force to be reckoned with. It opens with a soft probe gone hard, with a brief and well handled throwback to the Mafia wars. From here Bolan explodes upon his foes with unrelenting fury. Pardine and his Turk thugs don't stand a chance. Nice characterizations of the whole supporting cast and a brief glimpse into the ever changing tide of international affairs.

One of the first books after Pendleton stopped writing the series, Double Crossfire is a good, exciting read. The plot involves Bolan stopping an enormous shipment of Heroin to the US, and getting involved in a Turkish/Armenian conflict. Bolan has a lot of decent battle scenes, and the supporting characters seem fully developed. There are some reflective scenes, where Bolan muses on his war, but they are not as extensive as some that Pendleton would write. The story keeps moving, the characters are good, and the battle writing is fine. A good, but not outstanding entry to the series.

Mack Bolan's second mission as Col. John Phoenix, aka Stoneyman One, starts in Beverly Hills where he thwarts an attempt on a man involved in some violent struggles for Armenian people. The plot thickens with the addition of Russian supported Turkish terrorists, drug production and smuggling and a formidable terrorist called Paradine. This story opens with some intense action and never lets up on the throttle. Bolan takes on the terrorists on their homeground and gains a few allies along the way. Though there is some time spent on the motivations of the characters and the cowardice and dishonesty of the terrorists this book is about action, action and more action. And the action here is very well done. This is a Mack Bolan mission with no help from the other regulars except as support at Stonyman Farm. If you like to see the big guy burning a lot of powder and blowing things up this will be your kind of book. I'm giving it 8 stars for action.

EXCELLENT BOOK WITH PLENTY OF ACTION. I LIKED THE MAFIA TIE-IN.

One of my personal favorites from his New War. A lot of action.