Pressure Point

This book was excellent. (SPOILER ALERT) It plunges you into action from page one and the story is laced with deceit, corruption and emotion. Kissinger and Grimaldi tag along for this one as well as a new Blacksuit who come with his own personality and actually does not get killed off! The action is at a fine pace but some may frown and say the book is lacking. There is not much variety in the armaments carried, (in fact I dont recall the 93-R being used at all). But that did not take away from the story for me at all. I was wondering more about what was coming next over what Bolan was going to be shooting with. There is some wonderful characterization and use of environment, (in fact chapter 42 had me in bloody stitches! I had to reread it to make sure I hadn't imagined it). And not a dry conversation anywhere, many characters are built up no doubt for use in future entries. Bolan comes with a very interesting personality in this one. Expressing frustration and even guilt that seems a bit strange in the middle of the book because it's rare to read him in such a way. However the book ties up with an excellent epilogue, bringing all the pieces together and tying off the loose ends. I had to take a deep breath and exhale with a head shake and a "Wow!" That made the book (for me) perfect. Great work, thank you Mr. Renauld!

Good read indeed which when I first started I thought was going to be average only but was pleasently surprised as the more you read the more you get into it. On the hunt for a terrorist group in Indonesia this time with Cowboy and Jack along for the ride also featuring a female bounty hunter who more than holds up her end. I thought the action scenes here were pretty good especially the hovercraft section where you will read some original stuff if you decide to read this title. This author is by no means near my favourite and have found him to be a bit of a hit or miss in these series but I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would suggest you could do far worse than read this one. Recommended reading.

Great-sounding plot on the back cover. Decent story telling, but knowing this was a Renauld book, the action scenes were far too quick and poorly written. I enjoyed the aspect of the terrorists trying for a 9/11-type attack, and having Grimaldi and Kissinger along for the ride was good, too. But, as with the old Able Team novels, no kick-ass action scenes. And Jayne Bahn was extremely annoying in this installment. At least this didn't turn out to be a Super-Villian book, where Renauld focuses too much of the story on the bad guys. No surprise here. Standard stuff.

This book was an egaging and fast paced read. I enjoyed it from the beginning up untill the climactic ending. I was impressed because the reader is given a mysterious plot that Bolan and friends are trying to figure out as the reader is. We never are given the viewpoint of the villians and we stay solidly focused on Bolan the whole time. Detractions from the book were annoying at first but became lost in the well done characterization and plot. These include the author's tendency to end every chapter with a clifhanger or certain kind of punch. It got old real fast. The author was also a little sloppy when blending factual or tecnical data into the story. it was obvious when he was refering to researched material. Otherwise the book was quite enjoyable. The story was impressive and never got convoluted or contrived. Once the final plot is peiced together everything still made sense, unlike many Bolanverse titles I have read. The character of Jane Bahn was annoying but she is not there enough to get in the way of the enjoyable characters of Bolan, Cowboy, Rocky and Grimaldi.

Being a more recent book (January 2004) Pressure Point concerns a Jihad group (Islamic terrorists) and their attempts to control Indonesia. It's full of dirty warfare (chemicals and other plague like maneuvers), HAS-MAT suits and extremist warriors. Of course, something like this can't go on too long before the Stony Man warriors get involved. This time, Mack brings some backup in the form of Kissinger and Grimaldi to kick some ass. My main problem with Pressure Point is that Mack seems overly weak in this book. He isn't his usual self and it shows, he makes some sloppy mistakes, cracks under pressure a few times, and doesn't really get to kick that much ass (aside from an awesome knife throwing at the end). It also seems to linger on the uninteresting local characters too much as well. One very high point is the inclusion of Jane Bahn, a sexy bounty hunter that helps out the Stony Man team throughout the book. There are some interesting scenes involving crocodiles and even a hovercraft attack that saves this book from too low a rating.

One of the best Bolan’s that I have read to date. Mack and his pals, with the addition of a sexy bounty hunter track down the leader of a terrorist group in Indonesia. I lost a lot of sleep because of this book and had to get up early just to finish up the book and see if Mack gets the terrorist (there should not have been any doubt in my mind). Caution – If you have trouble getting to sleep at nights this is not a good book to pickup as it will only add to your problems.

The cover sort of looks like Mack had a bad experience at a tanning salon between missions. Loved the book, though. Mack tracks down an Osama bin laden clone in Indonesia with the help of a sexy sidekick he apparently has worked with in the past. There are some gruesome bits and lots of action, suspense, a few cool plot twists, and a decent batch of characters on both sides of the law. At times there was almost too much going on but it all winds up fitting gotether and paying off. Oh, yeah, not to worry, that sexy sidekick is a woman called Jane Bahn (a play on James Bond maybe?). She's one tough, sassy cookie. I picture a buffed Sandra Bullock.