Throw Down

Mack Bolan the Executioner #407

by Don Pendleton

Dead man's switch Armed with weapons of mass destruction, three anti-American groups prepare to unleash a deadly war against the United States. Mack Bolan is sent in to stop the attack before the killing can begin. And he knows every second counts. There's only one problem: the weapons are hidden in different locations around the world. With millions of innocent lives at stake, Bolan has no choice but to accept the help of an ex-Hezbollah member who claims to have insight into the terrorists' plans. Keeping one eye on the informant and the other on disarming the threat, the Executioner knows it's time for him to do some massive destruction of his own.

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Don Pendleton was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, December 12, 1927 and died October 23, 1995 in Arizona.

He wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, suspense, short stories, nonfiction, and was a comic scriptwriter, poet, screenwriter, essayist, and metaphysical scholar. He published more than 125 books in his long career, and his books have been published in more than 25 foreign languages with close to two hundred million copies in print throughout the world.

After producing a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, Don launched in 1969 the phenomenal Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which quickly emerged as the original, definitive Action/Adventure series. His successful paperback books inspired a new particularly American literary genre during the early 1970's, and Don became known as "the father of action/adventure."

"Although The Executioner Series is far and away my most significant contribution to world literature, I still do not perceive myself as 'belonging' to any particular literary niche. I am simply a storyteller, an entertainer who hopes to enthrall with visions of the reader's own incipient greatness."

Don Pendleton's original Executioner Series are now in ebooks, published by Open Road Media. 37 of the original novels.

Wikipedia: Don Pendleton

Reviews

[Alexander Engel-Hodgkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, so the general paranoia of any experienced freelance agent comes around in spades this time as Bolan finds himself surrounded by more 'ex-this-and-ex-that' informants. With only one friend he can surely trust on a mission to find and stop an attack against the United States, Bolan sleeps with both eyes open and double-checks everything. In fact, he was so thorough that by the last third of the book, it got a little tedious with him constantly questioning the loyalty of an ex-Hezbollah member who's stuck with them all the way through to the final battle--but even then, he would take his mind off the battle to question the man's loyalties for half a page. I can't say I blame the man for having his suspicions since he's been in the field more times than James freaking Bond, no doubt with dozens of betrayals at monthly intervals along the way. But that didn't make it any less annoying when Bolan would let his suspicions get to him and waste time double-checking to make sure the ex-Hezbollah member completed a simple task without complaint.

Believe it or not, that's not what cost this book a star. What did cost this book a star was simply the story itself. While none of these Executioner books are original (and to look for originality with these little yarns would be pointless), I just never felt too keen on plots dealing with heroes running across the globe to find and disarm/destroy biological weapons that have found their way into the hands of terrorists. They were in the middle of enemy territory, but even then it wasn't very tense or exciting until they actually had to get the biological agents out of the compound (which was simple, even a little clever). But around this and that, there was a terrorist takeover of a church (and a plan to blow up said church) which Bolan had to foil. This situation, and the aforementioned weapon-extraction/smuggling out of the enemy compound, are the highlights of the book.

The finale itself was wrapped up pretty quickly. What could have been a wild shoot-'em-up finale with Bolan and company storming the compound to prevent a nuclear strike on Miami, is simply boiled down to the trio running across the place, shooting a few guys, Bolan once again questioning the loyalty of the ex-Hezbollah man that came with them, and a two-page conversation with the enemy president and the U.S. president that of course leads to the prevention of a microwave future for Miami. It even mentions a hundred enemy soldiers running toward them at one point. What happened to them? The whole scenario came and went in four pages. It just felt a little rushed.

This review makes it sound like I hate cliche-ridden action yarns with cardboard characters and action scenes that are constantly paused by firearm descriptions and useless background information on a thug right before he dies--which you read with generic direct-to-TV action music playing in your head; but that's not the case. I like these books, and given the chance, I'd read more of them (in fact, I have three more of these from the library, stacked on my desk waiting to be read). Like every series, there are dull installments; segments in a super-powered protagonist's life that aren't as exciting as others. This one just happens to be one of the latter 'sequels.'