Hong Kong Hit List

Goodness me James Bond where are you this is your title. Unfortunately we are talking about an Executioner title and it simply to be polite doesn't stack up (it is crap)! Over and over the Big Guy should be taken out here with a simple bullet to the head which any self respecting bad guy would do but no let's use a pressure chamber or even worse a slight nick into the gut and attach a cork on a line to the intestine? Come on what the hell what the author thinking? The one saving factor of this title which earns it an extra star was the scenes on the Russian submarine how he gets there what he does while he is there and how he gets off is quite good reading. Pity the rest of the title is lacking. Certainly not one to recommend for your reading here.

Peter Leslie may be my least favorite Bolan author, and this book is an excellent example of why. He seems to think Bolan is a James Bond-type supersleuth/spy. There is too much "figuring out" the villan's plots...that is not why most of us read these books. When he gets around to it, he turns every "action" scene in to the most boring drudgery, more concerned with where Goon #3 is placed in relation to a ravine than with any kind of excitement. Occasionally he will write a good one (Sudden Death), but these are such an exception that they seem to be accidents. I generally end up giving up half way through one of his books, but not this one...I only made it to page 100.

Hong Kong Grocery List this should have been called. The first part of the book was good especially the prison break-in/break-out section. Thats when it became a grocery list novel. Ok Mack has the Faceless Chinese terrorist group grocery list for attacks. So the novels turn into item one - prevent, item two - prevent, item seven - prevent. Boring and predictable. I really despise James Bond-type killings. Twice the Faceless leader had Mack so what did he do? Shoot him? Strangle him? Nope. Nope. First put him into a air compression chamber so that leaves time for a rescue. Second cut a small hole in stomach and attach a cork - don't ask seemed convoluted and set him in low-tide. Talk a whole lot about how it would be done and boom a rescue. I liked Felicity Wong but was not sure if her placing Mack on the plane that was suppose to be hijacked was a coincidence or not. The hijacking scene was interesting but no where near as good as the one on Flight 741. The scene in the Russian sub was fun. I liked the humor of the commanding officr being kind of happy that the political officer was winged in the hand with Mack's gun as a warning. A subpar Leslie novel.

Leslies' Books are always entertaining, and this book has its' moments, but overall it just didn't stack up to his usual stuff, or to other books written at this time period, for that matter. I consider it average material, but a new reader to the series might enjoy it more than I did.

I had high hopes for this one but it bored me...Still it had some high points of good chracterization but I still only got half way through it.

I love this book. It's great.

A decent entry but nothing too spectacular.

IT WAS ALRIGHT.

Overall, a loser in my opinion.