The Slaughter Run

They Call Me the Mercenary #2

by Axel Kilgore

Assassination in the Swiss Alps...terrorism in the Central Americana jungle...treachery in Washington...and Hank Frost right in the middle! The wise-cracking mercenary captain is up to his eyepatch in brutal violence, torture, and betrayal. There's the presidential bodyguard force he'd be a fool to trust; the fighting right-wing general whose republic is aflame with revolt; his seductive wife who'll have Frost as her lover—or have Frost dead; and the Communist Terrorist Army that's out for a final bloodbath!

Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1981

About the author

Pseudonym for Jerry Ahern

Jerry Ahern (born Jerome Morrell Ahern; 1946 – July 24, 2012) was a science fiction and action novel author best known for his post apocalyptic survivalist series The Survivalist. The books in this series are heavy with descriptions of the weapons the protagonists use to survive and prosecute a seemingly never-ending war amongst the remnants of the superpowers from pre-apocalypse times. The series centers around the attempts of Dr. John Thomas Rourke, an ex-CIA agent, to preserve his family. In the first book, a nuclear war begins while Rourke is returning from a business trip. After surviving the crash of an airliner in the Southwest United States, Rourke fights his way across the chaotic horror of the post-war United States to his hidden subterranean survival retreat in Georgia, where he eventually reunites with his family. Survivalist #10 begins a new phase - it takes place after Earth's atmosphere has been destroyed and Rourke and his family have been in cryogenic sleep for 500 years.

Ahern was also a firearms writer, who has published numerous articles in magazines such as Guns & Ammo, Handguns and Gun World. As of May 2010, he was a contributor to the monthly "Field Issue" column to the latter publication. One of his recognized areas of expertise was holsters and leather gear for firearms, and he has produced a line of holsters.

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one eyed mercenary is in the Swiss Alps, taking it easy when he skis into an assassination. Turns out the target is the brother of the president of Monte Azul, a Central American country under siege from terrorists. He was there to hire the merc. It works out anyway, Hank Frost, one eyed mec captain is on his way south.

Once there he's not only up against Castro loyalists, student rioters and all sorts of trouble, he lands smack in the middle of El Presidente 's nympho wife and and her step daughter, El Jefe's child. They both want the same thing. So he has to fight in the streets, as well as fight between the sheets too. The life of a hired gun. The Slaughter Run turns out to be The Merc trying to get the president out of his country and into Mexico by means of a nineteenth century steam engine. The terrorist's are not gonna let him go that easy though.

The show stopping scene in this little action romp was when on the train out, Hank is double crossed and captured. His captor "really hates him." Torture is whats in store. A long painful death. He is first wrapped in wet rags. Copper wire attached to batteries are wrapped around his testicles, very tightly and with much gusto I might add. Then his head is dunked into a tub of water. He is hit in the stomach then until he pukes up the water he swallowed. Repeat this process for an hour or so. He is rescued. The bad guys killed. The daughter, who Hank has already shared her bed with, takes him to a empty car on the train. After a smoke, they decide to see if there is any permanent damage. Nope. He still can preform like he was on vacation. This one is a keeper!

[Rodney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to read many of these action series when I was a youngster so when I came across this book at a used library book sale I decided to read it. It was filled with non stop action with the Mercenary even finding time to have sex with a couple of women. But I guess I have mellowed in my old age and I did not enjoy this book.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hank Frost is the mercenary that they call the mercenary. The second volume opens straight into the action with Frost fleeing from assassins in the Swiss Alps. From there he's coerced by the State Department to protect the military dictator of the fictional Central American country of Monte Azul. The dictator is one of the good guys.

Monte Azul is overrun by communist terrorists, and the US won't give them arms unless they restore civil rights. This is a bad thing. Frost protects the dictator because he believes he is necessary in the fight against international communism. He also has strong feelings of personal loyalty to the man, going so far as to say he may love him, in a totally not gay way. He expresses this devotion by banging the dictator's wife and young daughter, giving him a heart attack. This is what the good guy does.

Frost protects the dictator as he goes around dictating, and does a horrible job trying to make us believe that he's a good guy at heart. In one scene he is shocked to find that the children of a village are starving, and that his close friend and military underling has not been distributing supplies. Imagine that, in a military junta with no accountability. The dictator swiftly creates a civil buearcracy to handle the job with a system of checks and balances and begins the process of free elections.

Of course not. He executes the traitors without trial and the children are promptly forgotten about. Remember, we are somehow supposed to like this man and not sympathize with the rebels who are trying to overthrow him.

Pretty soon the inevitable happens and Frost is forced to flee the country with the dictator, all of his family members that he's porking, and members of the US embassy. The second half of the book is a chase across the country in an antique steam train. There is a brief detour involving big corporations who want world peace at any price, that price being handing Mexico over to Russia and having homosexuals touch Frost's testicles. It's really not as weird or cool as it sounds, and just seems to be shoe-horned in to give us a reason to dislike the government bureaucrats who otherwise seem completely reasonable.

This is a Jerry Ahern book, his second as far as I can tell. Solid, well written action that never really pushes the WTF barrier enough to be really fruitful. The characterizations are more blah here than in the Defender or Survivalist series, with the closest thing to a personality being that Frost makes jokes about his eyepatch. Jerry Ahern is a man who writes entire books about handgun holsters. He is not known for his wit, and Frost's quips regularly fall flat.

More reviews at Trash Menace.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable brutally violent book with Hank Frost serving a benevolent dictator in Central America.