The Target Is H

The Penetrator #1

by Lionel Derrick

With 5 million copies in print, The Penetrator novel series has thrilled readers around the world for years. The series features the action and adventures of Mark Hardin as he wages a continuing war against crime, corruption, and evil organizations from around the world in order to protect the innocent. With The Target Is H, find out how it all began and what events lead to Mark Hardin's quest for justice. A quest where he must not only go up against the criminals but at times law enforcement officials who wish to stop him. The Penetrator. He s learned how in Vietnam. Infiltrate the enemy s position, determine the plan of action and then strike swiftly, taking out as many key men as possible, wreaking destruction, leaving chaos in your wake. Now he as in Los Angeles, engaged in a new, far more sinister war. But he was fully prepared and totally committed, and bound by no rules but his own. He is tall and slim, reflecting his unique Indian-Welsh background. His driver s license indicates his age is twenty-eight. If he seems a bit grim, it is for good reason. He was orphaned at four, when his parents and three brothers and sisters were killed in an automobile crash. Since then, he s been mistreated, brutalized by life, injured in games (football), and wounded in combat. But he s survived. Mark Hardin is tough, a survivor. And an expert. Marksmanship, karate, aikido and even the crossbow, are part of his arsenal. He is the new breed of warror without uniform, without rank dedicated to the American way of life, and pledged to fight anyone who seeks to destroy it. On either side of the law. That s why he s in Los Angeles. Just the beginning of a long and lonely series of brushfire wars.

Genres: Action, Mystery, Adventure

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Lionel Derrick is the house name, or pseudonym, for Mark K. Roberts and Chet Cummingham while writing the Penetrator series for Pinnacle Books. Roberts wrote the odd books and Cummingham the even ones.

Reviews

[Bill Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started as a series to compete with the Executioner the Penetrator quickly establishes itself as it’s own legitimate adventure series. Mark Hardin uses skills honed in the jungles of Vietnam to penetrate his enemies defenses and destroy them from within, aided by his friends, a professor skilled in weaponry and an American Indian skilled in healing and spirituality. Initially spurred into action by the death of his girlfriend at the hands of the mob Mark and his team learn to work as a unit while building their base of operations and tactics.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first venture back into the messed up world of men’s adventure fiction was a bit of a disappointment. This tale of a Vietnam vet with a bad back taking on the mafia is fast paced and action packed but also hard to follow. There are loads of lesser characters and I soon got confused as to who was who. It also suffers from the common problem of being full of incident but lacking in any real tension. All in all, it left me unpenetrated.

[Jim A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally written in the early 70's to compete with the Executioner series by team Pendleton. Full of action. The hero never makes a wrong move and the bad guys, drug dealing mafia, are just too stupid to live.

This was the first of what turned out to be in the neighborhood of 50 novels.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love dumb action books like the Mack Bolan, Able Team, and Phoenix Force series. Having never heard of The Penetrator, my interest was most definitely piqued when it hit my radar. I figured it would be a Mack Bolan-type adventure an it would be fun.

Well, I was partially correct. It is a Mack Bolan-type adventure, but it's the Wish version.

There are so many things wrong with this book, but I'm going to keep it simple:

The editing is horrible. Absolutely abysmal. I don't know if it's because nobody bothered to check it when it was converted to Kindle, or they just didn't care, but holy hell, this is inexcusable. Commas EVERYWHERE.

The story...okay, this is how I described it to a friend. You remember in high school or college you had that friend who would talk about sex, but they were just *off* enough for you to absolutely know they've never even seen someone naked? It's like that here. The Mack Bolan books, as ridiculous as they are, are...believable(?) enough to allow you to check your brain at the door and still have a heckuva good time. But here? There are just things that are wrong. It's like a teenager who's only seen a fight on TV writing this. There's zero sense of realism. It's not even over-the-top in a good way. It's just...bad.

Part of me wants to read a few more in the series to see if it gets any better, but I'm thinking the better play is to read more Mack Bolan.

I gave it two stars because it was a buddy read and I loved talking about how ridiculous it is. It would have been one star otherwise.

[Yvonne Ruiz]

Awesome new read

I loved this new story line with a great new twist of characters the strong young man the wise professor and the knowledgeable Indian friend and healer..

[Grump · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crime, consider yourself penetrated.

Mark Hardin is sore from 'nam and football injuries. On top of that he's pissed about losing the only female character in the book who only exists in about 5 pages of flashbacks. How's a penetrator supposed to penetrate when there ain't no ladies? The answer is penetrating with guns. Hardin shoots the entire LA branch of the Mafia to shut down their heroin trade. No youngster will be penetrating their veins when the Penetrator's done.

This book was only 156 pages but it took me two weeks to read. Semi-excited to read the next one because penetrating is one of my main interests but I think I'll need a penetrator break before I go penetrating again. Also, Asians are called orientals by the penetrator. Take that!

[George Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing that's really new, very much a clone of the Executioner, The Punisher and others of its ilk. Why four stars? Because it was fun. If you read these books you know what you are getting. This book is an origin story and it performed amiably. Really bad guys, fighting really good guys. A little taste of international intrigue sets the direction for the series to follow. I love these mindless action stories. Looking forward to reading a few more in the series.

[Trebonius Octavianus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling Great Read!

The book has a Noir feel to it as the author skillfully pens a suspenseful thriller about a Vietnam Veteran fighting against the drug trade. Mark Hardin is an idealistic character who exudes what a true HERO should really be like. The descriptive but concise story telling moves fast, and the narrative will easily carry you through the smooth flowing pages. I truly enjoyed 'The Target' as you will too. 5 stars!

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads like a generic bad 80's movie

[Secret Agent Fan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starting in 1969 with "The Executioner: War Against the Mafia," Pinnacle Books published a number of paperbacks in the field that became known as "Men's Adventure." These paperbacks chronicled the continuing adventures of several different heroes, including the aforementioned Executioner, The Destroyer, The Death Merchant, The Butcher and others.

One of these series focused on Mark Hardin, the Penetrator, with the first in the series, "The Target is H" providing his origin story, such as it is. The problem with the Mark Hardin Penetrator character is that he's too a close a copy of Mack Bolan, the Executioner. Even their names sound alike.

Hardin and Bolan are both Vietnam vets, both have lost loved ones to the Mafia, both decide to use their military training and skills to fight the Mob at home, both are experts at using disguises to infiltrate the enemy and both have a few allies who help them in their ongoing war.

Unfortunately, while the "The Target is H" copies blatantly from Don Pendleton's Executioner series, it's not able to capture the magic of that series. For one, Hardin's motivations for starting his own war against the Mafia are perfunctory. We don't really get any feel for the anguish he feels at the death of his girlfriend at the hands of the Mafia. That part of the story is told in flashback, without any real emotion.

For another, Pendleton was able to weave engaging plots in between the action scenes in the Executioner series. "The Target is H" doesn't really have much of a plot. Hardin ambushes a bunch of Mafia hardmen and most of them get slaughtered. He gets away, ambushes another bunch of Mafia hardmen and most of them get slaughtered. He gets away, ambushes another bunch of Mafia hardmen and most of them get slaughtered. It gets repetitive after a while.

Author Lionel Derrick also undermines his own storytelling by making Hardin virtually indestructible. In one chapter, in an infiltration mission gone wrong, he gets shot in the chest. In the next chapter, we're told it was just a flesh wound: "It had bled a lot, but wasn't serious." In another chapter we're told that Hardin "made a fatal mistake"--a fatal mistake that he somehow survives.

It's no surprise that at the end of "The Target is H" Hardin lives to fight another day. There were 20 books in this series, some of them with titles strangely reminiscent of Don Pendleton titles ("Mardi Gras Massacre," "Bloody Boston" and "Dixie Death Squad" are some examples).

I've given "The Target is H" two stars because the action scenes are reasonably well written. But, if you're interested in "Men's Adventure" books from this period, stick to the Executioner and the Destroyer. The Penetrator series is for completists only.

[Adam Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this reminds me so much of the books I read as a teenage kid. Quick, violent and action packed without much need for backstory besides the mob killed his girlfriend and he was out for revenge.

I somehow missed The Penetrator back then but had plenty of Nick Carter Killmaster and Mack Bolan The Executioner on my meager bookshelf of men's paperbacks.

Mark Hardin was a butt kicker in 'Nam that got pummeled for ruining a crooked scheme of people selling US military equipment to the North Vietnamese and got a medical discharge. He drifted like a bum until a professor and his beautiful niece finally nursed Mark back to health. But this ain't no harlequin romance, this is men's adventure fiction and like any Florence Nightingale in these books the Professor's niece was killed in a car wreck caused by the Mob.

That's right, the filthy scum of organized crime set off a bomb they couldn't defuse when they killed Mark Hardin's girlfriend. Now, with the help of the brilliant and rich Professor and a Comanche Indian Mark is going to burn the LA Mafia to the ground! And boy does he!

I'm not sure what the body count is officially but I am going to say plenty as various mob goons taste hot lead as Mark takes them and the heroin they are trafficking out. All in all this was a great read and great beginning to what was a long running series back in the day.

[Marty Solotki · Rating 3 out of 5]

LLionel Derrick is the shared pseudonym of Mark Roberts and Chet Cummingham, who alternated odds/evens on The Penetrator series of pulps; as this is Book One, Roberts is at bat. Mark Hardin is our titular hero, a Vietnam vet who is undergoing a personal war against the L.A. heroin trade. In this first instalment he kills a drug mule who is also an important Chinese diplomat, so the State Department wants Hardin found and this whole mess kept secret. As expected, being a 1970s pulp, the dialogue is…cringeworthy at best. Lots of big guns, fast cars, and mayhem: the usual for cheap pulps. My copy was picked up off ThriftBooks for pennies and was falling apart faster than I could read it…but it IS a 50-year-old cheap paperback. I ended up having to get the Audible version (which is incorrectly attributed to Cunningham instead of Roberts…or more accurately, Derrick), and Gene Engene does a great job with the shoddy prose: coming up with over two dozen different voices to distinguish the many bad stereotypes on the board. The book plows past “so bad it’s good” territory and is definitely a must-listen just for the sheer d-list entertainment value.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid read but it literally just took parts of all the mens adventure series and slapped them together. Of course its most rip off was Mack Bolan, Executioner, Mark Hardin (pretty similar huh?), Penetrator is also a Vietnam vet who lost a loved one to the mafia. He starts a war against them for revenge, he has a old Indian assistant as a healer and general side kick (like the Destroyer though not as goofy), he will also use disguise like the Death Merchant. Hell they even take from the Expeditor by having a scientist with a secret lair as a benefactor.

I recommend for readers of the mens adventure books just for the novelty of seeing all the influences from other series. The even numbers are supposly written by Chet Cunningham (odd by Mark Roberts) so wouldnt mind reading more to see what he does with it.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slice of nostalgia cake flavoured with hot lead and zingy Mafia sauce.
Fair to say I liked this first adventure of Mark Hardin: PENETRATOR!
I have read a few of these in the dim and distant past along with the EXECUTIONER, MARKSMAN and all the other BOLAN copies that sprang up at that time.
Loved them all so when I find a little gem like this on Kindle it makes me happy.
I like to be happy
This is glorious trash.

[Ev · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Target H

A little confusing at the beginning,but the author pulled it all together. The fact that the hero gets shot and a day or two later is after the bad guys is a little unsettling. Even though it would be a slow section it would make the story stronger in the end. Talking about surgery by the old Indian and then a short rehab time of a week or two.

[Reg Shell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chet Cunningham has the background to write fantastic fast paced adventure with realism. He’s made the most of all his skills with this The Penetrator Series.
The read was also a sentimental journey with its references to the Vietnam War, by having a Vietnam ex-serviceman as a lead character. This main character is larger than life in heroism, and he had this reader cheering for his dedication. A Great classic, good versus evil, plotline, involving the heroine trade, runs through the story, and it will keep you glued to your seat and the turning pages of The Target H.

[Robert C. smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting, Realistic Super (almost) Realistic Heros!!!

Cunningham knows how to inspire reader's to jump right in and cheer for what at first might seem the underdog! Very exciting, enjoyable easy read.

[ShanDizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As pulpy as fresh squeezed orange juice but absolutely entertaining! Hardin’s origin story was fascinating.

Mark Hardin is the Penetrator. He did not ask to become a household word across America. He did not seek or relish this notoriety… He was simply doing what he had to do: meeting the criminal structure head-on, trying to smash it piece by piece, man by man, to shatter it at every level he could penetrate.

[Debbie Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast action

Vengeance is the game as Mark Hardin takes on a Mafia heroin ring with protection in the police, senate and a Chinese diplomat.

[Peter Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of action

Not much of an original idea, but a fun fast read. Lots of action, a decent plot line, and plenty of action. That's the glue that holds the whole thing together.

[Chris Haynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are several similarities between Mark Hardin and Mack Bolin. They both served in the Army and they both fought the Mafia, at least in the first book for The Penetrator. But that's where the similarities end. At the beginning of the book, Mark Hardin has just been released from the hospital after being beaten by fellow Americans in Vietnam. Hardin had been investigating illegal arms and other forms of corruption. He is introduced to Professer Willard Haskins by his old football coach. The Professor has a place built into the dessert in California called The Stronghold. While there he meets the Cheyenne Indian David Red Eagle. Red Eagle helps Hardin to heal in body and spirit. Hardin also meets Donna Morgan, Professor Haskins niece and falls in love. Donna helps Hardin investigate the man who permanently injured Hardin's back while in college and that investigation leads to Mafia ties. The Mafia gets wind of the investigation, tracks Donna and Hardin down and forces their car off the road. Donna is killed and Hardin vows revenge. He starts killing off Mafia soldiers (ala The Executioner) and stumbles onto a herion drug ring. The revenge storyline turns into a quest to end the drug ring, which is where it starts to differ from The Executioner. With the help of Sheriff Kelly Patterson they bust the drug ring, effectively destroying the Mafia in that area of California. A Red Chinese diplomat and a US Senator were involved in the drug ring and they are both arrested. Sheriff Patterson managed to get all the charges against Hardin dropped and offers him a job as a "special" federal cop, basically with a license to kill. He turns it down and says he's going to take a little R&R to decide what he wants to do.

The violence in this book was a little more graphic in detail than in The Executioner books. Hardin didn't spend a lot of time dwelling on the "righteousness" of his battle compared to all of the introspection Bolan does. The book spent the first couple of chapters dealing with Hardin's permanent back injury and the back injury came back toward the end of the book to almost get him
killed. Hardin basically got his sanction to kill from the federal government at the end of the book. Hardin has the Professor and Red Eagle on his team, whereas Bolin is reluctant to have people help him.

Overall it was a good book. I'll probably read another one some time in the future.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Hardin orphaned at 4, university graduate, army experience, language and weapons expert, honorably discharged. What was he going to do with his life? His girlfriend a mangled mess in a mangled car. Mark had played war in Nam and now he would play war with the mafia. The dream dust (heroin) trade would get a massive shake up. Mark will pump bullets and steal cash and a Ferrari in a drug exchange. He will throw a grenade into a mob's car sending blood, bodies and shrapnel into the stratosphere. He makes Hell bombs, white phosphorus, burning mafia scum. He shoots another spraying the blood, flesh, facial gunk into the face of a lady chef who then quits here job. The penetrator cleaning up the underground criminal scum with superior finesse.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another men's adventure series from the 70's. Pretty much standard action, violence and sex. However a good standout is that the hero is healed and trained by an old Cheyenne Indian in the ancient mystic warrior ways of the Cheyenne. Recommended

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun light read in the Genre of men's adventure of which there are many copy cats.

[E. C. Swartout · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Target

This was a good book, well written but just a tad far fetched in places. I have read other books by this author---he's good.

[JD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book number one was a real ride. Suspense, and great story. Cant wait to read the remaining in this series.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I will read more in this series and will recommend it to friends and family.

[Huntly Rinck]

Okay action

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book of this author I have read. First book of this series and found it very entertaining. Look forward to reading more of this series. I would recommend.

[Larry Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revenge

They say revenge is sweet, but when you vow to take out 100 Mafia henchmen, the job is going to be difficult.