American Nightmare

Read rhis one when it first came was published. Its funny how I can remeber this one. I thought the premise. Of the family of assasins was interesting. Thats the only reason I give the book 6 stars.

Fair title to read here which I also thought started off fairly good but tended to fade away the more you got into it. I especially liked the Hit man and his family of killers especially the kids who seem to get a rush like they are on drugs when killing someone. Blocker is methodical in his planning and leaves nothing to chance when he and his family conduct a hit. The Big Guy is just okay in this title where quite often you get the inkling that hey this is a bit out of character but nothing that stands out glaringly that you can put a finger on and say well he wouldn't do that. At times reading this when the Senator or his staff or indeed some of the Secret Service agents are totally opposed to what the Big Guy wants to do you become frustrated thinking well if they don't want to take his advice what the hell is he doing there in the first place. The lead up to and the actual final crack at the Senator by Blocker and his team is quite good reading as are the ways they are taken out. Blocker himself lives on for a while longer to have yet another crack which also is well written dragging out the suspense for a bit longer. This title is not one of the blockbusters of the series but middle of the road stuff which is quite readable but nothing much to remember.

Wow!!! A "family" of killers. What will those zany writers think up next!?!?! Very enjoyable. It felt less like Mack Bolan and more liker Jack Bower of "24." I especially liked the banter between Blocker and his screwed up posse.

WOW..........what a book, what a story, what a fun reading!!!! Finally a great villain with a very twisted mind and strange taste for killing people in a very sick way. Bocker and "family" is one major fucked up wacky "family" with a strange and abnormal taste for blood, mayhem, killing and torture for the pure pleasure or for other kinky sexual reasons. What a great characters and great writing of this unholy family of violence!!!!! Bocker was a very cold assassin killing without any thoughts about it and making him one of Bolan´s worst and memorable enemy and surely one of the toughest one so far. The cat and mouse game was very tense, chilling and suspenseful and was very well written as each part was not dragged along with too much description and the book changed fast and often between Bolan and the Bocker gang making the story run smooth in "real time" The plot was suspenseful one till the end when the reason for all the killings was revealed as it was a fairly surprising one. Bolan´s dealings and interaction with the Senator who he was supposed to protect yet who wanted to fire him and the Secret Service hotshots was done in a great way and really added more suspense to the book. As usually the "hotshots" thought they could cover the whole situation within their own ranks and it was very crystal clear how much Bolan disliked their weak effort of protecting the Senator and their disbelief in the assassination threat. This book had all the right stuff and this is how Mack Bolan books should be written. Read this book and be amazed!!!! (Iceland - 2005)

This makes me sad that a fantastic writer like McQuay is no longer with us. He wrote really fantastic Executioner novels. This and Day of the Vulture are two fantastic novels and had two of the best villians since the original mafia days. Blocker and his family. Well you know what they say "A family that slays together, stays together". What a "family". The daughter was a pure psychopath but did love her brother. I loved her reaction to taking up a new name - Zenna. Blockers kids that he raised since children were "adopted". Mack and beaurcrats - not a good combo. I liked how he just couldn't get through to them. I did like how he just blew up at the Senator who wanted to get him fired. Of course he wasn't a fed employee so you can't fire him. I didn't like how the Secret Service assigned to the Senator did not know who Mike Belasko was. I know the president gave him free reign in Rogue Force but no one got it that he was the Executioner. For a long time the president had a "shoot to kill" order during his lone wolf years and McQuay did write a few lone wolf books. Also how did Mack's assistant not mention or think "gee I am working with the Executioner" since Hal gave her his name. Odd. Hal knows that you can't put Mack on a short leash or any leash so why try? I was shocked that Mack kind of took it. The characters were great though - the senator, Blocker and his family especially. If Blocker and his family were not such great villians this would have gotten an 8. They made it a clear 9. I thought Day of the Vulture was an overall better story but for villians I kind of thought the Blocker family was more entertaining but that doesn't take anything away from the Vulture. Again sad he is no longer with us he would have been such a powerhouse writer to the series. I think we just have to enjoy th few that he wrote which were powerhouses.

I thought this was a well written book, but I didn't enjoy it as much as McQuay's other Bolan novels. It's well worth reading though, but I'm not too crazy about the way Bolan's head was painted on the cover.

This one should have been called Reader's Nightmare. The beginning started off okay, Ghaddafi wants revenge for the American bombings, so he hires an assassin to take out various targets, including a presidential candidate. After that it falls flat. It seemed to me that the novel was originally written as an 'FBI Agent' type story, only to have the agent substituted by Bolan at the last minute. We find Bolan training incompetent Secret Service agents. The level of ineptness of the agents is staggering and runs through the entire book in the same way. That stripped the story of any credibility it might of had. Only Mack knows that an assassin is out there! Only Mack can stop the bad man! Everybody else in America is an idiot! Grunt, grunt! Brognola pulls Bolan off his training exercise (why was Bolan training anybody is not explained) to show the Executioner a video of the assassinations of a Hollywood star and family. Only Bolan sees that it is the work of a professional. Brognola tells Bolan that there is nothing that they can do (then why show him the video?). Bolan gets pissed so Brognola relents, allows Bolan to investigate, and assigns Bolan a partner! Again this vein runs through the whole book as Bolan is on the assignment, then pulled off, then put back on again. Whatever happened to the Executioner finding his own path? Brognola pulls Bolans puppet strings on this one all the time. This is yet another disappointing Bolan book for me, and one that I shall not read again. Even the cover is bad, making Bolan look like a disgruntled gnome.

I have read almost every Executioner book except for a few here and there. In fact I have to go through my collection to figure out the missing ones. Anyway, I read this book right after reading Devils Horn. This guy is as cold blooded and evil as any and so were his little bastard kids.I like when the author trades off chapters between Bolan and his targets thoughts and actions.

A good entry that was both chilling and suspenseful.

THIS IS A PERSONAL FAVORITE. THE ENEMY THAT BOLAN FACES IS ONE OF THE COLDEST AND IS UP THERE WITH THE REST OF BOLAN'S WORST FACED ENEMIES. GREAT ENDING TOO!!!!!

Finally did reread this one and it was passable in a "Day of the Jackal" sort of way. It had a lot of tense cat and mouse scenes. But the big grand shootouts that I've come to expect of the Executioner were not there. I think that was the reason I reviewed it the way I did the first time.

The first half was pretty good, then it seemed to fall flat. Guess I'll have to re-read it one of these days to see if I still feel the same.