Annoyed Grunt

After first learning of the mob’s plans to infiltrate the US government back in New York, Bolan heads to Washington to stop things once and for all. Before he can break open the conspiracy he’ll have to track down the mysterious Lupo, the head of a phony lobby group and the very real DC mob. There is a lot to like about this book, not the least of which is the resolution of a long running storyline. The mafia’s plans have been pretty vague up until this point but Mack finally learns what it’s all about. The idea of a mob puppet being elected president is where I thought this was headed so it’s not a surprise, but the possibility of a small country being owned by the mob, giving them diplomatic immunity was an interesting plot development. Lupo seems to be another big, vague threat to take down at the beginning of the book but while his identity is a mystery we do learn more about him half way through. It doesn’t hurt that he’s able to strike at Bolan in a unique way; he hires an Executioner doppelganger to attack innocents and the White House to but a lot more police pressure on Mack. The cynical view of the Government in this book is likely a reflection of the Watergate scandal and it sadly could be just as relevant in a book written today. There’s also a mafia wheelman who is spared by Bolan and helps Mack. I thought this was another interesting twist to the formula and a welcome new character who I hope returns in the future. What I do like about Mack Bolan in contrast to the other characters inspired by him are these moments of mercy that pop up from time to time. The problem with the book is that there is a lot happening crammed in too few pages. To make matters worse the book opens with a very long and solid (but not overly spectacular) action scene that spans multiple chapters. I can’t help but think that if Pendleton tightened up this opening he’s have more space alter to let the big moments later in the book breathe. Action takes a back seat to the plot this time around and the shoot outs are fine, but nothing compared to Boston Blitz. All in all, this book had an insurmountable task of following the last book but it was a decent enough outing in its own right. If I could I’d rate it a 7.5 but I’ll round that up since the book left me in a good mood. Executioner Kill count: Approximately 37

Ever since Mack Bolan’s war began, Valentina, the woman heloves, and his brother Johnny have been hidden in Boston. Now they have been kidnapped and Bolan wants them back. However, with the mob splintered in Boston it’s not ever clear who has taken them so Mack is forced to play detective the only way he knows how; with lots and lots of bullets. When two mutilated corpses turn up matching Bolan’s loved ones, The Executioner goes ballistic like we haven’t seen before. I have heard that this was one of Don Pendleton’s favourite books to write and it shows. I had given War Against the Mafia a perfect score in part due to its historical significance, but word for word this is by far the best Executioner book written to this point. The story is tense, you really get in to the vengeful mind of Bolan, the action scenes are as good as can be and Pendleton was at the top of his game. There are a lot of classic moments that I don’t want to spoil here. The majority of the supporting characters have already been introduced in previous books so the reader is already attached to them. The mobsters aren’t a strong focus but that makes sense as Bolan spends the majority of the book trying to hunt them down so we’re in the dark as much as he is. The previous two books have had rather vague primary antagonists and this book continues the trend, but ‘Al 88’ is a lot more interesting to me, probably because we do at least meet his wife. If there’s any flaw in this book is that it’s too short, possibly leading to Pendleton condensing some sequences. Twice in the book Bolan goes on a massive blitz, even killing 52 people in one of his attacks. This is summarized to the reader in about a paragraph. On one hand, this is screaming out to be a SuperBolan so we could see what happened. However, the book is already action packed and sometimes things are better left to the imagination. If Pendleton couldn’t have come up with two more blow away scenes I’m glad he left it vague. The finale also seems a little rushed but that’s just nitpicking at this point. Executioner Kill count: Approximately 130

The Executioner takes his war to San Francisco as the Mob is involved in illegal pornography as well as the usual crime and vice. However, Bolan finds unlikely allies in the Chinese Tongs, but can they be trusted? I found this book kind of infuriating, but not because it was bad. No, the characters, action and story were all passable. In fact, if this was my first Executioner book I would have probably liked it a lot. However, for anyone who has read the past 10 books this is just more of the same. It’s not that it’s written poorly, but it’s easily the most forgettable plot of the series thus far. That’s what’s infuriating because while the broad strokes are business as usual, Pendleton absolutely nails the little nitpicky details I’ve mentioned in other reviews. Unlike in New York, Pendleton makes use of the city as a setting even if it’s just a matter of having Bolan winded after walking up the city’s hills. Thankfully he avoids having any stereotypical gay content, but he uses the city’s multicultural makeup well featuring Asian immigrants and the hippie culture. Bolan even runs in to a woman who only eats organic food which sounds like a line that could have been written today, not in 1972. There’s also a funny scene where Bolan is taken off guard when he meets a porn star (whom he shockingly doesn’t sleep with). This book also served as the introduction of the .44 Automag, Bolan’s signature weapon. Pendleton spends the better part of 2 pages describing it, making it more developed than a lot of his minor characters. It does make sense in that regard as ‘Big Thunder’ would end up being a constant companion. I’m not a gun guy but I’ve heard people say that the Automag is a flawed, often malfunctioning piece of hardware. However, Pendleton makes it sound so cool that he probably should have received some royalties for it. The next book is set up well as Bolan learns his brother and his love interest have gone missing which is a great set up. In fact, it might be too good. I wanted Mack to forget what was going on in San Francisco and figure out what’s going on. Instead the book lurches its conclusion from that point. The main villain of the book is the mysterious Mr. King who is so mysterious we never learn too much about him. At the end there is a revelation about his identity that is somewhat obtuse and I’ll admit that the significance went over my head. I thought it could be because I read the book over a far longer period of time that usual, so I read the plot summary in The War Book and the revelation is that Mr King is black. This may have been a shock at the time of its writing it is rather underwhelming today. Executioner kill count: 43

Directly following his escape from Vegas, Bolan is on a plane to break up the mob’s network in the Caribbean. However, they’re waiting for him and The Executioner is left scrambling and vulnerable until he teams up with Evita, a beautiful Puerto Rican government agent. The first third of this book could be my favourite Executioner story I’ve read so far. Bolan is being tracked in the jungle by dozens of hired guns. All he has is his silenced berretta, 30 bullets and his jungle experience from Vietnam. It may be the worst situation he has faced yet since as he mentions, at least in Vietnam there was at least the possibility of running in to friendly forces. Here he is all alone. Since it’s so rare to see Bolan as such an underdog it’s a fascinating read and I wish Pendleton had just extended this part of the story to the entirety of the book. When Bolan met Evita I feared it would become a typical Executioner book, but he still makes desperate guerrilla attacks after a small reprieve. It’s only in the last third of the book when we hit the familiar trope of a Bolan ally being abducted, but the resolution is a great moment. After reading more than a dozen of these books back to back you start to see patterns develop, but I was happy to see the climax went in a direction I didn’t see coming. An interesting element added to the series in the last book was the fact the Government just wants Bolan dead and out of the way and while it hasn’t been fully explored yet, I’m glad to see it continue here. Pendleton also takes time to reflect on the futility of Bolan’s war and how he has become desensitized to the carnage he causes. When Bolan meets Evita he compares her to a Cuban nationalist from the 4th book and she sprang to mind for me too. In my review of the Miami Massacre I lamented the lack of strong female characters, so how does Evita hold up in comparison? Bolan even says she’s a woman who can handle herself, but I have to think that’s only partially true. She does seem to be a competent agent who struggles between her feeling for Bolan and her duty and she does effectively provide back up, though it did not involve her shooting. However, there is a scene where she is completely unable to accurately use a machine gun and nearly hits Bolan. Like most female characters she sleeps with Bolan, but she has been shown to use sex as a way to manipulate men so at least she’s not just powerless against his charms. Plus, she gets involved in The Executioner’s war and doesn’t end up dead, tortured or kidnapped so I’d say she would have to be one of the better Pendleton women by default. After eliminating his target and escaping in the last chapter Bolan thinks to himself “That was easy” and I have to agree. It was a good scene to be sure, but Bolan achieves his goals with little trouble. Plus, Pendleton tried to build up his target as a mysterious, ominous threat but there’s so little detail that it somewhat falls short of the mark. All in all, this is one of the best early Executioner books. People always rightfully rave about War Against the Mafia and Death Squad, but to me this one deserves to be in the conversation. Executioner Kill count: Approximately 41

The Executioner’s war continues as he’s hunted at an airport, forcing him on to a plane to France. On the plane he finds himself seated close to a celebrity who matches Bolan’s description. After they land the mob is waiting and they grab the doppelganger, sending Bolan on a rescue mission. Meanwhile, somebody who served in Vietnam with Bolan is looking to collect on the $100,000 on his head. I wasn’t looking forward to getting to this one as I read through all of Pendleton’s work. The 6th book was my least favourite of the series and the reviews here were rather middling. And while you can’t judge a book by its cover, the cover of this book is rather flat and unappealing. And so with my expectations suitably lowered I ended up thinking this was a decent enough book. By this point we had seen Bolan ally himself with Vietnam vets but it was a good twist to see a vet turn on him. At the centre of the book there is a very good action scene that ends with Bolan branding a mobster with a hot gun barrel. While you start to take it for granted after a while, Pendleton always does a good job of efficiently telling a good story in a short space. On the negative side, there were a lot of little things that bugged me. Pendleton’s writing of a French accent was rather grating to me. Once again he makes the annoying error of putting a silencer on a revolver. The coincidence of randomly meeting Bolan’s double is a bit too much. It all seems a little too easy to me that Bolan is able to go to a foreign country with a language barrier on a whim and is able to easily arm himself. While this is the worst Executioner book published up until this point I would probably rank it a half notch higher than the next one in the series. I would say that this is your average Executioner book and worth reading if you’re going through all of Pendleton’s books, but I wouldn’t hunt it down otherwise. Executioner Kill Count: 33

Bolan catches word of a meeting of the Capos in Miami and sees this as a chance to take out a number of high profile targets at one. Bolan gets some help from Cuban nationalists but the mob has reinforcements of their own in the form of the infamous Talifero brothers. The plot of this book is one of the simpler ones as this book is all about the action. It starts off with a great action scene that could have been the climax of any other book. In fact, it does feel like another book’s climax as it is the end of a Bolan campaign we didn’t see (as if it’s the end of book 3.5). I like the idea of there being unseen adventures that weren’t complicated enough for their own book. After the opening scene the rest of the book doesn’t disappoint on the action front either. I’m writing this review close to a week after finishing the book and I can remember four of the action scenes vividly, so I’d consider that a good sign. Aside from the warfare it was good to finally see the Talifero’s finally face off against Bolan after being built up in the last book. I’m glad they survived to plague The Executioner another day. However, the rest of the Don’s in the book are numerous and forgettable. The idea of Bolan getting a ‘hunting license’ from the government is turned down, but interesting considering the future direction of the series. When Bolan meets the Cubans he’s introduced to a woman with a gun on her hip. When I read this I thought ‘Great, a woman who can take care of herself” and thought it would be good to see a female character who doesn’t sleep with Bolan, get kidnapped or tortured. Of course she then sleeps with Bolan, can’t take care of herself in a firefight and then gets tortured to death. Later Bolan literally slaps some sense in to a hysterical woman. I understand this is “Men’s fiction” from the 70’s so perhaps it’s unfair to judge on today’s standards, but I look forward to the day when I find good female character gracing the pages of The Executioner. Not much else to say about this book. This one is all about the action and it pays off in spades Executioner Kill Count: 46 (The climax features additional “combat wounds on 52 passengers”, but there’s no way to tell how many wounds were lethal.)

At the end of The War Against the Mafia, Mack Bolan heads to the West coast to meet up with a doctor friend who will change his appearance. Instead, he got caught up in trying to take down mobster Julian DiGeorge with his newly formed death squad. This went disastrously as DiGeorge escaped and Bolan’s squad was wiped out. Now Bolan returns to get his plastic surgery so he can pull of his most ostentatious mission yet; Use his new face to date DiGeroge’s daughter and take down his empire from the inside! This is the 10th Executioner novel I’ve read, but it is the first that I would consider a direct sequel. Sure, the books follow in sequence and characters return, but this is the first that picks up from where the last left off as the enemy is the same and the same cops are still hunting down Bolan. I would also say that this book marks when Mack Bolan fully became The Executioner. By surgically changing his face he symbolically leaves his old life behind for good. By this time his reputation is spreading and is becoming a feared figure, though some still consider him a myth. Also, his going under cover with his new face is probably the first example of Bolan’s trademark role camouflage. We start to see how Bolan’s war is affecting the world at large as his presence in a small town sets off a chain reaction that will change their lives forever. Pendleton also does a good job of building his world with the series’ first returning characters. He also sets up the future by off handedly mentioning a gangster named Tony Danger who would later be a villain in the 14th book. Not to mention that the Talifero brothers are mentioned for the first time and would go on to be recurring villains. I enjoyed the interaction between DiGeorge and his daughter who has grown disillusioned with her father now that she knows the truth. While it is a small part of the book, there were a few little details that made it seem authentic and almost seemed like a proto-Sopranos (only 30 years earlier). I do also like the fact that Bolan is still a rookie making mistakes, this time leading to the death of a friend in a very graphic sequence. The plastic surgery plot is something that could never happen today as Bolan’s new face would be captured pretty quickly somewhere along the line, but it doesn’t strain the credibility of the time too badly. I did appreciate the fact Carl Lyons was fairly quickly able to figure out Bolan’s real identity pretty quickly, since after all he is a detective. Much like the last book, Pendleton has split the narrative perspective fairly equally between Bolan, the cops and the mob. However, we didn’t get a lot of insight in to Bolan’s character as he is undercover in the mob half the time. Since we’re not in his head we don’t know his ultimate plan which leaves us guessing where the book will go. Coming off the last two books the action is a little bit of a letdown. Pendleton’s writing about firearms always seemed credible to a layman like myself, but he isn’t as in depth this time around. My biggest gun related pet peeve in entertainment is when somebody depicts a silencer on a revolver and Pendleton does just that. The previous two books have had great climaxes and this one doesn’t compare. Rather than an epic wipe out Bolan manipulates the mob into fighting each other and he doesn’t even get to deliver the final blow to DiGeorge. At least he does get to go out with a brief but intense final scene with Bolan. However, there is a brilliant scene in which Bolan snaps and unleashes his full fury on a car full of hoods. I’ve never seen Bolan this brutal and there’s a reason this scene was depicted on the cover. This scene alone raised the book’s rating by at least a star for me. The violence is especially brutal in this portion of the book, but it does make sense. A mobster has been tasked with bringing back Bolan’s head, but has obviously failed. Now he’s disgraced and desperate to save face so when he gets the hint of a clue to Bolan’s trail he feels he has to make his source in to a turkey to get the information. On the other hand, Bolan sees his friend butchered and responds to the brutality in kind. While I won’t suggest the violence has any higher symbolic meaning, at least it does fit the story perfectly. All in all, I would rate this book 8.5 if I could. There are just too many small nagging details against it, not to mention it is in the shadow of its predecessors. That said, it’s still a fine book and a good finale to the original Executioner trilogy. Executioner Kill Count: 18

Howlin’ Harlin is dead. The man who trained Mack Bolan to be The Executioner has supposedly shot himself, but not all may be as it seems. Prior to his demise Harlin may have been involved with the Mafia and things look fishy. It’s up Bolan and the remains of the Death Squad, Gadgets and Politician, to find the truth. This installment isn’t as actioned packed as others, but it’s replaced with character development. Early on Bolan reminisces back to his days in Vietnam and when he first met Harlin which offers a good insight in to his character and it’s always interesting to see Bolan’s early days. Pendleton does a good job of getting in to the head of Big Ben, a mobster who knows Bolan will be coming for him eventually. It’s good to see that Bolan’s war actually makes a difference, even if it is just psychologically. I liked that the villain’s plan was very different from past novels and it required a lot more detective work from Bolan and his Able Team than usual. With the more intricate plot I thought it was a good idea to load the cast with returning characters. There’s less action than usual as Able Team realizes they need to investigate before they can go in guns blazing. Gadgets even says, “There’ll still be plenty of fireworks before we close this one”, almost as if it’s an assurance to the reader. The Executioner doesn’t even kill anyone until the 80th page, but it’s not a dull slog until then. It’s interesting to see Bolan and his allies work covertly and once the shooting starts, it lets Pendleton write more unique action scenes. With Bolan working solo he usually snipes or gets up close, but with a team of three he’s able to mix and match the dynamics. Last time we saw Gadgets and Politician they were being chased by the police, assumed to be arrested. However, they turn up here and never mentioned how they escaped. I would presume this was explained in a previous book but personally, I would have liked a couple sentences to satisfy my curiosity. Another issue I had was half way through the book, Bolan confronts a topless woman who then sics her guard dog on him. Dealing with the dog is a great moment that leaves Bolan scratched up. She then instantly takes Bolan inside to stop the bleeding and starts helping his cause. While I do give Pendleton credit for not having Bolan sleep with her, it was a very abrupt change to go from sending a dog to rip out a man’s throat to being his ally. Literally, it was a 180 degree flip that took place over the course of a sentence. While I thought the reduced emphasis on action was a good change of pace, it did seem to be a slow burn building to a massive firefight. Unfortunately, the final action scene was a bit of a letdown. It involves causing a car accident, blowing up the cars and then Gadgets and Politician taking out the survivors. Sounds good in theory, but the last part of that summary is just reduced to “Gadgets and Pol took position. Bolan left the remainders for them.” That’s it and it seems really anticlimactic. However, Bolan left them so he could personally execute the capo in the most epic scene I’ve read in the series so far. Somebody quoted it below and it does not disappoint. Not everyone will like this book because it is different but I liked it. I realize it is a bit of a contradiction to praise it for the slower pace but then complain about a lack of action at the end. That’s the fine balance that this book tries to walk and almost succeeds. Able Team Kill Count: 29

I came in to this book knowing its reputation; it’s the only one of the original 38 books not written by Don Pendleton. It has also been said that “Jim Peterson’s” take on the Executioner isn’t exactly faithful and because of this most fans don’t like this book very much. Having only read books by Pendleton I have to imagine this is a particularly bad take because there are 500+ books written by other writers and few of them are as reviled as this one. So in order to try to give this book a fair shake I came up with the following prologue in my head; “A Vietnam veteran gets in a car accident and injures his head. He wakes up and believes he’s Mack Bolan.” That should let me enjoy this book on its own merits, right? That lasted one chapter. The book starts with Bolan injured from his last battle and seeking out a doctor who turns out to be crooked. Bolan’s dying on his feet but he’s sure the doctor is mobbed up and is going to sell him out for the $100,000 bounty on his head. So… Bolan kills him without remorse. In the next chapter Bolan is able to knock two armed mafia hit men unconscious, but Bolan just kills the doctor. Bolan’s a guy who has shown mercy to far worse than that poor doctor before, so what happened here? I don’t mean to dwell on the first 10 pages but it sets the tone of what to expect as the characterization of Bolan doesn’t get any better as it goes. Early on Bolan finds himself in a tough situation and thinks along the lines of “I’ve never harmed a civilian, but I might have to start in order to escape”. He then recklessly throws a grenade but luckily only kills a mobster. As somebody quoted below, he later puts a gun in a cop’s ear and threatens his life. You could explain away the scene with the cop as Bolan bluffing but his disregard for innocents is baffling. Bolan is known for his luck with the ladies but this time he completely uses a woman, first for sex and later to smuggle his weapons. Oh, and he leaves her a marksman medal to remember him by. She is later predictably hurt by the mob to get to Bolan, something The Executioner went to great lengths to avoid in Chicago Wipeout. Even if he was going to love her and leave her, leaving that marksman medal was essentially painting a bulls eye on her head. Symbolically, it would lead one to think that he doesn’t care about her life at all and wants her dead (though his inner monologue later would indicate it’s not the case). At the end a cop is mortally wounded and Bolan is to blame. Bolan is perturbed by this, even if the cop was as crooked as the doctor at the start of the story. This death didn’t bother me as much, maybe because it was at the end and I knew I was almost done and that this would never be mentioned again. What bugged me more was a scene where Bolan wants to destroy a mansion but can’t seem to take it down, so he feels like crying. Yes, the man who admires his multiple showers of gore is about to turn in to a toddler throwing a tantrum. Throughout the novel Petersen keeps referencing the previous book as well as War Against the Mafia. It wouldn’t shock me at all if it turns out those were the only two books of the series he had read. It would make sense, as Bolan was a little rougher towards women in the first book. While he always valued innocent life, in his first outing his attitude towards undercover and plainclothes cops was “Well, they better identify themselves, otherwise how am I supposed to know?” Obviously Petersen got things wrong, but if my theory is correct you can at least see the origin of his mistakes. When I read War Against the Mafia I felt it had more of a sleazy, grindhouse feel than the other books that followed. Maybe Petersen felt the same way and decided to ratchet up the sleaze when he was up to bat. While Don Pendleton doesn’t shy away from cursing, it is usually constrained to the dialogue. Petersen peppers his third person prose with swearing and just about every slur that could possibly come up. He’ll bring up button pushing topics like pedophilia and abortion rather casually for no real benefit to the narrative. However, the worst of it has to be his descriptions of women. Hardly any females escape having their breasts described as if the writer was a perverted old man on the subway. Not to say I was offended by the writing style, it just wasn’t consistent with Pendleton’s and it comes off as Petersen trying way too hard. The fact I’ve gone 700 words without describing the plot isn’t the bad sign you might think. Not that the story is great, but it is solid enough. Mack Bolan goes to Sicily to strike the Mafia on its home turf to eliminate a hitman training camp that has beleaguered him in the past. Meanwhile, one mobster is using The Executioner’s arrival to make some big moves of his own. While I won’t go in to more detail of how Bolan was out of character, at least the Mafia scenes are close to the quality of what I’ve come to expect. Not that there’s anyone as interesting as the Talifero brothers but the villains are equal to some of the lesser Pendleton antagonists. I did think it was a nice little twist that one mobster who was developed happened to be killed unceremoniously 40 pages before the end. An Executioner book is often defined by its action so at least this novel delivers to some extent. There are no absolutely outstanding sequences but Petersen is almost as detailed about weapons as Pendleton was and the action is good. Well, it’s good when it isn’t over the top. For example, Bolan shoots a head clear off its owner’s shoulders... Twice in one book! Grenades cause limbs to wiz through the air and body parts rain down from the sky after a mortar hits. The worst had to be when Bolan was on a plane and took out a not very dangerous woman by shooting a pressurized window, sucking her out. Is that really the smartest idea? I could think of at least a dozen safer ways to have neutralized her, not to mention the fact Pendleton made a point of saying Mack had never shot a woman before in the 13th book. There is a pretty good chapter where Bolan takes out a dozen Capos in short sequence, sending the mob in to chaos. At least it was good until I realized that Petersen didn’t do anything to establish how he tracked them down, especially considering he just arrived in a foreign country. The epilogue promises an interesting sequel in which Bolan will be hunted by his equal, but it never came to pass. Pendleton would later use a similar idea likely with better results. A good way to compare Petersen to Pendleton is how they deal with Bolan’s injuries from the last book. Pendleton made a token mention of this book, but otherwise acted like it never happened and as such Bolan is suffering from in injuries from #15 when #17 starts. In my review of Jersey Guns I was critical of how quickly Bolan went from injured to perfectly fine. Well, that book seems medically accurate compared to this one. It seems like Bolan goes from his death bed to on a plane in 24 hours, never to mention his injuries again. At least Pendleton had him on the shelf for a while. Later in this book Bolan is shot again several times but gets over it with morphine and using cobwebs to patch his wounds. Really, cobwebs? This is an old timey remedy I’ve never heard of but a Google search shows people claiming it works for a cut. That may be, but I can’t see it being effective for a bullet wound. Even if this is completely true Petersen just throws it in there like its common knowledge. Also, I’d have to question the logic of anyone who shoots up with morphine to avoid his sense from being dulled. This is the 8th Executioner book I’ve read, so I fully acknowledge that I’m hardly an expert on the series. Never the less, even a rookie like me can spot the glaring flaws in this book. I’m not saying that this is an objectively good book; No, it’s the worst of the series I’ve read so far. And yet, I was glad that I read it. It could be because it moves quickly and there’s enough craziness to carry you through. However, I think I enjoyed it because it defined The Executioner by showing examples of what he isn’t. Even if it was a bad outing, there was something about it that made me write a 1500 word review. Not that I would have liked to have read a second Petersen book, Sicilian Slaughter remains a failed experiment but at least it’s an interesting one. Executioner Kill Count: Approximately 76 (It’s hard to tell for sure with explosions)

Mack Bolan shows up in Las Vegas looking to make a quick buck my robbing a Mafia convoy. What he doesn’t count on is saving the life of an undercover Carl Lyons, the cop who was hunting him back in Death Squad. With Lyons recovering from being beaten half to death, Bolan is tasked with protecting Tommy Anders, a stand-up comedian who has stumbled on to a mob plot to take control of Hollywood and eventually the entire West coast. Meanwhile, the Mafia has sent in the Talifero brothers, long time Bolan rivals, to protect their casinos and their future interests. I enjoyed seeing the return of Carl Lyons, knowing he will become a major character in the future. He didn’t have much to do in this book as he spends his time recuperating from a brutal beating, but that’s a touch that keeps the series grounded. I also liked the continuity of Bolan’s favourite gun being a rifle he got while in England back in the 6th book. Tommy Anders is an interesting character who seems to be pastiche of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin based on when the book was written. Pendleton spends a few pages writing a long comedy routine and while Don shouldn’t quit his day job for open mic nights it was better than I was expecting and at least he didn’t write the audience as finding the routine hilarious. After a string of unremarkable villains, Vegas Vendetta picks up again. I think it’s because the Talifero brothers are already established as antagonists and the operations in Vegas are different enough to keep things interesting. As far as the action goes, there seems to be a little less than usual but there is a badass scene where Bolan takes down an entire airplane. Rather than the usual wipe out the climax is a pretty engaging tactical withdrawal. Plus, while there are the requisite attractive ladies Bolan doesn’t bed any of them. Not that I have a problem with the sex scenes in the series, it is nice to see that Bolan doesn’t have to get down every single time out. I’m always looking for the rare strong female character in The Executioner series and there may be one here. However, she is working undercover for the majority of the book so we just have a hint of her potential. Hopefully she will return later. Late in the book Bolan does his usual trick of impersonating a mobster through his acting ability; though this time he is able to shut down an entire casino. To Pendleton’s credit, even Bolan seems shocked that this plan works for so long but it does seem a little far-fetched. I’m getting a little tired of these scenes as you would think that word would have gotten around that Bolan goes undercover. I suppose that information isn’t spread around as quickly in the early 70’s and Bolan hasn’t done this trick too many times at this point. I can’t fault the book for being a product of its time but if the story took place now I imagine Bolan’s cover would last minutes, not hours. All in all, this is one of the better Executioner books I’ve read. There were no real down spots and while it didn’t reinvent the wheel, so far I’d call it the quintessential example of the series. Executioner Kill Count: 38

Mack Bolan shows up in Chicago and his meticulously planned hit soon goes awry. As he’s fleeing the scene of the crime he rescues a model that was providing entertainment to the recently dispatched Don. To save her life he announces an audacious plan to keep the heat off her; in the next 24 hours he’s going to take down the heads of the Chicago mob. What the hell happened to this book? The first half was amazing, but then it takes a steep dive downhill. The opening chapter is an edge of your seat sniping scene, easily the best of the (admittedly few) Executioner books I’ve read. When Bolan saves the model he thinks back to all the women the Mafia has hurt to get to him and realizes he has to take a more active role in protecting her, putting him in a bodyguard role. I definitely appreciate seeing Bolan acknowledge the consequences to his actions. Pendleton uses the Chicago setting well by setting the story during a terrible snow storm, especially during a sequence where he has to stealthily escape from a motel. Pendleton also introduces an interesting ally; a tenacious lawyer who has paid a big price in his legal battles against the Mob. I thought it was interesting to see another sort of Executioner working within the system and while he doesn’t have much to do I’m hoping that he’ll return in the future. And then the book goes off a cliff. There’s a lengthy sequence where Bolan taps the phones and starts rumours, putting mafia factions against each other. I don’t know why but the different political machinations of varied factions just bored me and that takes up the majority of the rest of the book. It ends with a big mob war where the bad guys take each other out. We learn later it was quite the slaughter, not that we ever see it. Instead we see Bolan go after the prime targets in a not terribly gripping action scene. I wish I could say this is the great book it was shaping up to be but I’ll have to settle for it being another decent enough entry in to the series. Executioner Kill Count: Approximately 24.

I honestly wasn’t a fan of this book at first but after reading some reviews here I’ve reversed my opinion. Why? I’ve realized that my expectations were warped by the almost completely inaccurate summary on the back of the book. The Executioner trying to stop a political assassination? My mind was filled with images of Bolan in a desperate hunt, trying to get to the grassy knoll in time in a story unlike any other Pendleton had written. Instead, he is ambushed and injured as soon as he arrives in New York. He’s nursed back to health by a trio of sexy girls and then gets to executing the New York Mafiosi. However, he goes ballistic when one of the girls is tortured and the other two are kidnapped. Oh, and the Mob is planning ‘The Big Thing’, a plan that will give them control over the Government. This is your archetypical Executioner story and it is a good one. The opening action scene is great with Bolan unarmed against a hit squad, an encounter he barely survives. Later there is a gunfight in an abattoir that features Bolan at this most brutal that is a must read. In fact, Don Pendleton’s are always worth reading but in this book they’re all exceptional. Not to spoil things, the last chapter is a great capper to the story as well. While it’s only the 7th installment, Pendleton starts to subvert the clichés of the series. A woman throws herself at Bolan but before they can spend the night together she sees The Executioner at work and is immediately turned off by the fact he’s a killer. Later there is the highlight scene of the book where Bolan arrives at a mobster’s house to eliminate a target, but can’t do it as the creep’s wife is standing next to her husband. The mobster was looking to quit anyway so Bolan shows him mercy and allows him to walk away and go in to witness protection. It’s scenes like this that make Bolan a compelling character to read and keep him from being a one dimensional killing machine. Aside from my expectations from the description, I thought Pendleton could have done a lot more with the setting. The Executioner in New York in the 70’s brings up all sorts of gritty images from Taxi Driver, but aside from troubles with traffic there was nothing that couldn’t have been done in any other city. At first I was disappointed that ‘The Big Thing’ was defeated in the last 10 pages without even being fully explained, but I’ve read that it comes back in later books so I’ll hold off judgment until later. Part of the climax is told from the perspective of what seems to be a dying mobster. That leads to things being ambiguous and confusing (did Bolan just kill a Senator?) but at least it’s interesting. Executioner Kill Count: Approximately 51.

What can you say about War Against the Mafia? I assume that everyone knows the plot as it gets recapped in just about every Executioner novel. In fact, I had just read a pretty detailed summary in Death Squad two weeks earlier. So with that in mind, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the book considering I knew the plot already. For example, having read later installments I knew a certain character was an undercover cop, but it was surprising to learn that this future ally was actually instrumental in the death of Bolan’s family. It was also interesting to see a rookie Executioner who makes more than his fair share of mistakes and at times only survives through dumb luck. Some people on this site were critical of the prologue chapter but I thought it did a good job of establishing Bolan’s close relationship with his sister. Without this relationship it would be harder for the audience to accept his war, especially in the late 60’s. Speaking of the 60’s it’s hard to believe that the book was written that long ago as the writing is as exciting and fresh as ever. It was interesting to see how Don Pendleton established his formula so early on and it’s easy to see how this became a hit. However, Mack Bolan’s character wasn’t quite as established in this first book. Early on Bolan actually works for the Mafia as a way of gaining intelligence. That’s fine, but he also takes part in the spoils of organized crime as he spends some time with a high class prostitute (though technically she’s working for free). I can understand his temptation after being in the army for the entirety of his adult life, but he seems to have forgotten that his sister was recently forced in to that lifestyle. Later he busts up a brothel and as he’s clearing the place out he’s either kissing hookers or slapping their asses. While this can be rationalized to fit the Executioner we all know, it’s still pretty jarring to read. Some people may see this as a negative but at the very least I thought it was interesting in a historical sense. There’s not much else to say, this one is a classic for a reason. Executioner Kill Count: 38

Mack Bolan finds himself in England after fleeing from France. Why was he in France? I’m not sure because I haven’t read the last book. Either way, it seems like things went badly for him. Almost immediate after arrival he’s ambushed but rescued by a beautiful woman working for a group being blackmailed by the mafia since they footage of politicians enjoying themselves at a sex club. Bolan reluctantly gets involved but as he enters this shadowy world of politics, sex and violence, who can he trust? It could be the emphasis on torture or the heaping dose of sex but this is one of the more lurid Executioner novels. The book has the usual great action but there is a bit of dark comedy mixed in. When Bolan is first rescued he is taken to an S&M club and is fairly perturbed by that fact. (The Museum De Sade seems just strange enough to be real.) I also got a laugh out of a scene where Bolan is able to confuse a couple goons in to killing each other without our hero firing a shot. Early on in the book Bolan spots a hidden security camera and comments it’s ‘Very Bond’ before shooting it down, yet Bolan’s adventure has some Bond undertones to it. Besides the British setting, Women are throwing themselves at him and later he finds himself in a torture device reminiscent of the famous Goldfinger scene. However, I wasn’t feeling this book as much as others. Early on all Bolan wants is to get back home and escape the police dragnet since he is completely unprepared to fight. I kind of wish that the novel just focused on escaping as the plot is a little convoluted. There’s a mystery with a confusing resolution that made me kind of want to go back and see if I missed something, yet wasn’t interesting enough for me to actually do so. Mack meets an old veteran for literally seconds but seems overly affected when he is found tortured to death. He’s not nearly as devastated when his friends from Vietnam are dropping like flies in Death Squad. There are no real standout villains and they spend pages discussing the idea of offering The Executioner a ‘pardon’ and bringing him in to the mafia. This is a dumb plan that goes nowhere, but maybe it’s paid off in a later book? Lastly, there is a sex party held by the ‘good guys’ but Bolan never seems to wonder if the women involved are prostitutes. Considering what happened to his sister, maybe he would be a little more selective about who he allies with? From the reviews here it seems people classify this novel as rather average. I’d be inclined to agree but even an average Executioner book is still entertaining enough. Executioner Kill Count: Approximately 28 (Pendleton is a little vague about the numbers sometimes so I was conservative)

This is the second Executioner book I’ve read and it did not disappoint. Bolan assembles a team of Vietnam vets to carry on his war against the mafia, but not only will they have to face down the Mob, but a police squad as well! The plot summary is a little sparse this time around, but there is plenty going on in this book. The perspective switches almost equally between Bolan and his team, the Mob and the police allowing the reader insight from every perspective. This will lead to times when you’ll hear about an ambush from the perspective of a gangster as he wonders how the Death Squad pulled it off but then in the next chapter the police will piece together the clues and figure it out. The action is good but short which makes perfect sense in context. If you had a squad of 10 professionals outnumbering a handful of mobsters I’d hope it would be quick. I also appreciate the attention to detail by having characters discuss the challenges of long range sniping. It’s not just a matter of putting the cross-hairs over a target like the movies would have you believe. Also, making a detective the antagonist to a vigilante has become a trope by now, but it’s a smart move to have a challenge that the hero can’t solve with bullets. Being that this is the second book in the series it’s a little surprising that Bolan isn’t featured heavily, but in retrospect it makes sense. Pendleton defines Bolan but contrasting him against his team. While they’re all good at what they do, they’re no Executioner. They’re political, in it for the money, unstable or have a grey morality. Bolan isn’t an adrenaline junkie looking for his next fix; he’s doing what needs to be done. He’s fighting a war and while he may have some satisfaction from a job well done, he’d rather live in a world while his job isn’t necessary. As the books went on I’m sure readers would wonder why Bolan usually works alone, but this book did a good job of explaining why early on. *MAJOR SPOILERS* This book also emphasizes the importance of tactics, a trend I hope will continue. The squad does well as long as they have a well thought out plan. During their final assault a team member acts spontaneously and is killed soon after. The rest of the team then tries to improvise a plan to infiltrate a stronghold which ends with everyone besides Bolan dead or on the run from the cops. This final action packed sequence is the highlight of the book and I loved the fact that this mission would have to be considered a failure. Sure, a lot of gangsters got killed but Bolan seems to kill plenty on his own. The main villain got away, all of his allies are defeated and Bolan may not even have all the money they acquired. While it would be a downer if every book was a failure, having it happen once and a while keeps things more realistic. Most of the problems I have with this book come from the fact it’s too short. It’s a bit much to add 10 new characters and expect them to be fully fleshed out. As such, Pendleton gives some of them an easily recognizable hook to keep track of them during the action but not much more. Also, recruiting his team seemed to come a little too easily for Bolan. The first guys he talks to join up on his crusade without much internal debate. Had the book been longer I’d imagine he’d have to do a little more convincing and more some of his first choices would have turned him down. And while the Death Squad isn’t the deepest, the characters are likable and it almost seems like a waste to kill off so much of the team. In retrospect it might have been a good idea to keep the team going for another book before killing everyone, but I know that would have been a risk at the time. I doubt Pendleton knew that the series would continue for so long and that he’d have all the time that he wanted.

This is the first Executioner novel I’ve read, so why am I leaving a review? I happen to think that it’s worth evaluating things from all perspectives; In this case, from people who have read everything all the way down to a newbie like me. So, a little background on myself; I’m a pretty big fan of The Punisher comic book character but I had always heard he was based (or blatantly ripped off) from a pulp character, though both franchises evolved away from each other over the years. So I was interested in reading The Executioner but never found any of the novels growing up in the 90’s (maybe they weren’t as popular in Canada?). Fast forward to a couple weeks ago I find Jersey Guns on sale at an antique store. I’d rather start at the beginning of a series, but 17 out of 425 is practically the start, right? For a quick story synopsis; Mack Bolan is more than half way dead and barely armed as he continues his war on the Mafia. He is taken in and nursed back to health by a brother and sister who are putting themselves in harm’s way from the mob by doing so. When the mobsters come for them, Mack is able to save the sister but the brother is taken. Mack goes after him but when he is tortured to death Bolan’s rescue mission becomes a vendetta. I was quite impressed by how Don Pendleton was able to fit good action, a concise story and efficient character development in to just 180 pages. It’s not a complicated story written in flowery language; it’s a down and dirty, somewhat sleazy revenge story. Or to put it another way; just the way I like it. Being familiar with the Punisher, I was pleasantly surprised with the differences between the characters. I was not expecting Bolan to be merciful at times nor was I anticipating his use of subterfuge. Reading some of the reviews here, some people didn’t like the chapter where Pendleton takes time to defend his creating against the critics. I for one found it interesting and I can’t think that delving in to the philosophy of your character for a few pages is a bad thing. That’s not to say I thought this was without its flaws. I thought it was quite tense at the beginning with Bolan injured and hunted by the Mob but by the end he is completely recovered. While I don’t expect him to be in a wheel chair, but acknowledging some after effects would be nice. He almost seems like a bit of a ‘Mary Sue’ when he can throw a grenade ‘with the speed and accuracy of a major league pitcher’ but you’d think he might be a bit sore while he does so. Also, he went from having just a handful of bullets left in his gun to being fully armed very quickly. You would think the tension would be ramped up if he was under equipped but I suppose those are the sort of things that get done quickly when you’re trying to fit everything in 180 pages. So what did I think of my first Executioner? Let’s just say I spent a good chunk of time this weekend hitting all the used book stores in town, ending with me now having a complete set of 17-38 with a smattering of earlier books to boot.