Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
This one for me wasn't as action heavy as previous books in the series. Lots of inner monologs and talking.
The setting for this eighth Executioner novel could not be better: Chicago, a winter snowstorm, the whole book taking place over the course of one long night. The premise is fantastic, but author Don Pendleton seems to struggle to fill pages once the novelty of the idea gets into full swing.
Here, Mack Bolan, one man army, is planning a leisurely Mafia assassination, as you do, when an innocent Playboy Bunny analogue stumbles into his path. Unwilling to put her life in jeopardy (look, he's had a lot of suffering females in the last few months, okay?) he decides to shift tactics and go after all the Chicago bosses...at once...in one night...during a blizzard.
Hell of an opening for our action novel, eh? I know it got me excited, especially when it turns out his plan is to turn two large camps of Mafia goons against each other, playing a little Yojimbo on them.
The problem comes in that once this is established...it keeps being established. Over and over, we get repeated scenes of Bolan working up the paranoia of his enemies. This was neat, at first, because it showed the level of planning he exhibits, but soon felt like padding, especially when one key aspect of the plot, a list of nine names of Mafia-bigshots, is tossed away because there really wasn't enough wordcount left to dwell on it.
We also have too many villains to comfortably build up. Each one only gets a little book time, seemingly to the inverse of their importance, with the minor villains getting several scenes worth of content, the big bad guy only a couple of measly mentions.
The end is a decent bit of spectacle, with a shootout at the enemy country club that involves a lot of flying bullets. It's a touch rushed compared to the padding in the middle, but it left me feeling satisfied.
Even when Pendleton stumbles a little, he still manages to keep the tone in check and it's hard not to get excited as the stakes reach some impressive heights.
Here, Mack Bolan, one man army, is planning a leisurely Mafia assassination, as you do, when an innocent Playboy Bunny analogue stumbles into his path. Unwilling to put her life in jeopardy (look, he's had a lot of suffering females in the last few months, okay?) he decides to shift tactics and go after all the Chicago bosses...at once...in one night...during a blizzard.
Hell of an opening for our action novel, eh? I know it got me excited, especially when it turns out his plan is to turn two large camps of Mafia goons against each other, playing a little Yojimbo on them.
The problem comes in that once this is established...it keeps being established. Over and over, we get repeated scenes of Bolan working up the paranoia of his enemies. This was neat, at first, because it showed the level of planning he exhibits, but soon felt like padding, especially when one key aspect of the plot, a list of nine names of Mafia-bigshots, is tossed away because there really wasn't enough wordcount left to dwell on it.
We also have too many villains to comfortably build up. Each one only gets a little book time, seemingly to the inverse of their importance, with the minor villains getting several scenes worth of content, the big bad guy only a couple of measly mentions.
The end is a decent bit of spectacle, with a shootout at the enemy country club that involves a lot of flying bullets. It's a touch rushed compared to the padding in the middle, but it left me feeling satisfied.
Even when Pendleton stumbles a little, he still manages to keep the tone in check and it's hard not to get excited as the stakes reach some impressive heights.
Chicago Wipe-Out is a quick action packed dismantling of the Chicago mafia in Bolan’s against all odds one man’s vendetta upon the Cosa Nostradamus. This was not as action packed as some of the fist 7 books in this series.
Far from my favorite in this series. Way too much exposition and not enough action.
The good thing about this long running series is that there's a pretty good prologue that explains the setting. This way you can pretty much start anywhere in the series though I still recommend starting from book 1.
Basically this is a 1970's pulp fiction action book where an aggrieved vigilante takes on the American Mafia. He has a few adventures on the east coast, west coast, France, England and now to Chicago. There's a bit of pontification in this book about crime and corruption, otherwise it's more of the same violence and a bit of sex. I skipped over some of the slow moving parts and just concentrated on how he's taking on the Chicago Mob. A little bit disappointed that the Chicago Mob doesn't seem to be that different from the mobs from elsewhere.
Overall an ok book. I'm going to take a small rest from this series.
Basically this is a 1970's pulp fiction action book where an aggrieved vigilante takes on the American Mafia. He has a few adventures on the east coast, west coast, France, England and now to Chicago. There's a bit of pontification in this book about crime and corruption, otherwise it's more of the same violence and a bit of sex. I skipped over some of the slow moving parts and just concentrated on how he's taking on the Chicago Mob. A little bit disappointed that the Chicago Mob doesn't seem to be that different from the mobs from elsewhere.
Overall an ok book. I'm going to take a small rest from this series.