Executioner · #56
Island Deathtrap
by E. Richard Churchill
·
August 1983
6.9
/ 10 average from 9 rated reviews
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A foreign terrorist group had taken over a small island off the coast of Maine as a conduit for the importation of men and arms into the U.S.
To ensure the secrecy of their hard-site, the criminals needed the help of the local lobster-men and independent fishermen.
The mob had begun a campaign of terror aimed at wives and families to "soften up" the boatmen.
One man, Ed Warner, had gotten through to Stony Man headquarters. Mack Bolan was determined to avenge the misery of Warner and his neighbors. He plunged head-on into the island deathtrap to grind hardened killers into minced meat...
And in his most perilous impersonation yet, Bolan breached the gangs defenses and became walking Death.
Reviews (10)
Churchill provides another solid story. There is quite a bit of action and some very good (and many) characters to keep this title interesting.
A terrorist group has essentially taken over a small town in Maine. One of the residents calls for Stony Man's assistance ... not sure how he knew about them. Bolan goes out to intervene and introduces two interesting points. First, we see signs that Bolan is considering going solo again. Secondly, Bolan references his satisfaction with being in a small-town vice the big-city/international stuff he's so frequently been involved with of late.
Once in Maine, he stumbles on the scene. Bolan meets a young kid who is in the middle of it all. His friends have been impacted, a member of his family killed, and his girlfriend is missing. Bolan then does what Bolan does. The book has action sequences from front to back.
Another very readable title from this author where again if you like action scenes you will enjoy this one as it is basically action from start to finish.
Some good down to earth characters introduced with the kid and his girlfriend probably the standouts but the rest of the close community also get a tick especially the two old girls at the end and the pigs (great stuff).
Again in this title the Big Guy is tossing up his allegiance to the Stony Man operation and his involvement in it and whether he should strike out on his own again or not.
Enjoyable read recommended here.
I think I liked this book for the reasons that Joshua disliked it, the plot was straight forward and there was tons of action. I remember reading this as a kid and really liking the teenage kid Bolan drags along, though this was kind of a dumb move on his part as Bolan ussualy worries about endangering lives, not here though. Not really a great book, but for some reason I really enjoyed it, and I loved the old ladies feeding the pigs ( you know what I mean ) . Eh Kay says , lots o action !
Weak.
This book suffers from a desire to cram as much action into the book as possible. Bolan gets the mission and the entire plot is explained in the first few pages. After that he is in Maine and moving on the island. From there the reader is assaulted with 200 pages of gunfights and explosions with no plot or story to carry it along.
The entire novel was trite and boring.
This book has some explosive action scenes and lots of action, but not much better than average overall, I liked Mountain Rampage better.
Doug
6/10
February 26, 2002
Mack Bolan heads to the small Maine fishing town of Kenlandport to deal with some outsiders who are terrorizing the locals. The bad guys have set up a smuggling and people moving operation on an island.
There is quite a bit of action here and some of it is really good. Also, the local people who figure into the story are all interesting and well written.
I only have a few complaints about this story. The villains, except for one of the locals, are not memorable or interesting and mostly just serve to give Bolan something to shoot at. Bolan's mission and his execution of it were kind of less than exciting; not much tension there.
The other weakness concerned Bolan himself and his tendency on this mission to be surprised by enemy sentries. Made me wonder if Mack wasn't daydreaming or something. It seemed like very uncharacteristic behavior for the big guy.
I actually thought the best part of the story had nothing to do with Bolan at all: the story of Becky's captivity and her struggles to escape. Also a nice bit of justice dealt out to a villain by a couple locals is a real treat.
In spite of the problems with Bolan's mission and his tendency to blunder into sentries there were enough interesting things with the locals to make this book above average. I figure it's worth 6 stars.
An excellent combination of action and emotion in this book.Bolan doesn't stop in this one,yet we see how he was considering many distracting things at once.I wonder how many minutes exactly he spent in that ice cold water? One of my favorites among the new war books I have read so far.
A CLASSIC BOLAN ENTRY FROM THE TERRORIST WAR DAYS.
I ENJOYED THIS ONE BECAUSE THIS IS ONE OF THE FIRST BOOKS THAT MACK SERIOUSLY CONSIDERS GOING BACK ON HIS OWN AGAIN.
Chruchill hits the mark again! Very action packed. Sort of in the Die Hard mode, 5 years before that film even came out.
