The Barrabas Edge

The author of the Gunsmith western series chipped in a couple novels here, and the Barrabas Edge is the first of the two. Overall I enjoyed this book more than the last three titles, and despite some flaws, I thought it was good enough entertainment value. An assassin takes out the president of El Salvador, and his boss takes over as the leader. Enter the SOBs mission to take him out and install the former vice president. The story moved along at a good pace, plenty of action to be had, and the characters were handled pretty well for the most part. Lee Hatten seemed to be a little off, and at one point there was a flub where Nanos's name was used instead of O'Toole. How did the editor miss this?. One thing that dragged this book down for me was the premise of the mission did not allow Barrabas's team the money or the weapons for the task. Much time was spent going around Florida acquiring material, and although made for some entertaining reading, it still seemed like a silly element in the plot development. The concluding scenes in El Salvador were not bad, the final assault was a little underwhelming compared to the earlier books in the series, but good enough. Two of the SOBs sit out this mission, not the first time this has been done so not really a negative, but then we get to the epilogue. I think maybe an editor wrote this, because the epilogue just makes no sense whatsoever. Not only does it have nothing to do with the story, but what takes place is nonsense. very weird, but I won't hold this against the rest of the book, I did enjoy the Barrabas Edge, it definitely has more good than the bad.

A very ordinary stupid title here which we will get on to later but firstly Barrabas is contacted by someone not sure who but if it was supposed to be "The Fixer" he is so out of character in this title he is not recognizable. The mission El Salvador has seen yet another coup and the President has been assassinated so enter the country and remove the guy who has taken over as he won't work with American puppet masters and move into power the ex vice president. Problem 1: The ex vice President wants nothing to do with it. Problem 2: We don't have any money to fund the mission. Huh? no money what the fu*k what a joke and of course Nile falls over himself to accept the mission with miniscule funds that not only does he have to use to purchase weapons to facilitate the counter attack on the current President but also has to somehow use to come up with a way to travel to the country with said weapons and supplies if he can obtain same. This title features one of my pet hates when reading anything where the author actually "forgets" on who/what he is actually writing about so if he has no idea what the hell is anyone reading this pile of droppings supposed to do? Page 113 O'Toole and Hatton are drilling the rebels for the attack upon the palace. She didn't notice that O'Toole had dismissed the men until he came up next to her. "Worried?" he asked. She looked at him and shrugged. "Concerned." "Don't be," he said. "The Colonel knows what he's doing." "Always?" O'Toole nodded and said, "Oh, yes...always." "I guess you're right." She looked past him and saw the former vice president of El Salvador, Jules Berbick. He had been watching Nanos put the men through their paces. huh who? "What do you suppose he's thinking?" she asked Nanos. See even she has forgotten who the bloody hell she is actually talking to and then The Irishman looked over at Berbick and said .... after making a stunning re-appearance to where he was momentarily before. Very ordinary title then proceeds where a whole lot of nothing actually happens and guess what the mission is somehow a success as one of the Presidents men in the climax thinks to himself stuff this I'm not going down protecting this jerkoff and after he blows him away the rest of his "loyal" staff decide to drop weapons and give up. If that is not bad enough an epilogue is inserted which will be nominated for the most ridiculous/stupid in it's class whenever such a poll is created where Barrabas informs Hatton that her lover Bishop who we remember came back from the dead a few titles ago has been killed. ??????????? He wasn't even in the bloody title. Where was he?, what was he doing?, how was he killed? Based on previous events are we actually sure he is dead? Apparently as no information is given on the above questions but well who cares anyway obviously the author didn't. Very disappointing read here steer well clear of this one.

A lot of the later SOB's didn't really grab me, and I see this one is by Robert Randisi. The book seemed like just an average adventure, but in the end, we do find out the fate of an SOB, which I didn't like. I don't remember him being in this one, he was just sort of "missing", then he's dead.