Black Death Reprise

Mack Bolan the Executioner #353

by Peter Spring, Don Pendleton (Series Creator)

The search for a missing virologist leads Mack Bolan to a cult with a horrifi c agenda. An order of monks has emerged as a new force of unprecedented terror. Legend has it that the centuries-old brotherhood was the mastermind of the Black Death. Reborn as a fully modern paramilitary organization with cells across the globe, the order is ready to unleash a new plague upon the world.

With ritualistic precision, forty couriers of death will be deployed to major cities. Bolan’s race to stop the unthinkable takes him from the U.S. to Australia. The Executioner must fi nd the source before a designer disease with its roots in history’s darkest nightmare causes untold human suffering.

Genres: Adventure

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

20 years. That's how long it's been since I last read an Executioner novel. I first started reading the series back in Jr. High, when books were a cheap and easily obtained distraction, and used bookstores were my primary after school hangout location. Yes, while the slackers were hanging out in the parking lot of 7-11, and the cool kids were cruising in their new cars or having parties, I was usually browsing dangerously stacked paperback selections in a dimly lit store, hoping to find the most books for my buck. Having introverted tendencies generally meant that I had plenty of browsing time, so it was only a matter of time before I stumbled across Don Pendleton's ongoing saga of the one-man army that was Mr. Bolan. Being an impressionable young man who was already pretty familiar with firearms, I was taken in by Mack and his heavily armed fight against organized crime, terrorists, and drug cartels.

And yes, even being fifteen I knew that these novels weren't award winning literature, but at that age I truly didn't care. I wanted action, as much as I could get, and the Mack Bolan books around that time also had tech specs for a different gun on the last page of each novel, which only added to my addiction. It got to the point where I was reading about two Executioner novels a day, mostly during lunch and breaks between classes.

But, as I got older, my tastes and available reading time changed, and by age eighteen I was no longer following Mack and his Stony Man cohorts.

Roughly 20 years later, while looking for a quick "downtime" novel, I happened to come across Black Death Reprise, and figured "what the hell?".

And...yeah. Not much has changed with Mack, while just about everything has changed with me. The action, weapons, and baddies are just as I remember them being. Unfortunately, I need more from my novels these days. Of course, these books are essentially male fantasy fulfillment in its most basic form. Romance for "manly" men, if you will, where guns are stand-ins for the the lusty lords and ladies, and reconnaissance and the ensuing gunfights are the foreplay and consummation. Ammo counts, tech talk, weekend warrior tactics...it's all here. It's not supposed to be cerebral, and I can (and did) totally make allowances for that.

But while the elements are all there, ultimately the story was executed (pun intended) in a rather lazy fashion. Villains are generally taken out two at a time, with the first one hit being violently (and impossibly) thrown several feet by handgun fire, while the second one ends up falling over in some super dramatic fashion. Seriously, this same sequence of kills happened like 5 times in this book. The few women in the story are all impossibly beautiful, brilliant, and athletically toned, regardless of profession and impact to the story. Allusions are made to missions and events from Bolan's storied history, but it's only superficial, and never really goes deeper or has an impact. Everything sans the action was just "ok", but now that I'm older, I guess I need more than just ok.

Basically, the Executioner books aim to provide visceral action, some tech talk, some tactics, and a super douchey villain to use them on. In that regard Black Death Reprise delivers. I only wish there had been tighter editing and a bit more, well, oomph to the story. I doubt this will prevent me from ever picking up a Mack Bolan book again, but going forward I'll definitely be more picky while also tempering my expectations.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

a enjoyable read especially now with COVID still fresh in ones mind except for the last chapter I found the tone of Bolan's threat to kill 2 daughters painfully was not Bolan like even with no intention to do that, loss 1 star for that