Mercy Mission

Terrific read here. Loved the plot with the Big Guy off to Iraq to try and locate American POW's being held since the Desert Storm invasion. Excellent action scenes abound very well written which will certainly keep your interest up. The taking down of Iraq interests to try and force the General to come clean on where the POW's are located is some very fine reading. I must admit the ending sections blew me away especially on what the US Brigadier General tries to pull off to save his own hide. The final action scenes at the location where the POW's were being held and what happens to the Big Guy with the MP's and how he manages to find a way out of that situation and how he has backed up himself with the copies of the video tape were excellent. You couldn't go wrong reading this one highly recommended.

Reading the back of the book had this one sound like it was going to a rip-snorting adventure: Bolan goes after soldiers left in Iraq during the Gulf War. The execution was only average. It seemed strange that Kurtzman kept the details of this mission from Hal and Barb until later. As Bolan discovered clues that lead him closer to where the soldiers are being held, the action didn't blow me away. The river sequence in Iraq was well done, and Bolan confronting the American general was old-school Executioner tactics. The rescue finale was decent, but not enough to save what could have been a great one.

I really enjoyed this story. Bolan takes on a personal mission at Aaron Kurtman's request, investigating the disappearance of seven US soldiers inside Iraq, captured before 1991. The action scenes were well written (although occasionally hazy as to what was where), and the political scenes were also well done. It was also good to see Bolan destroy the two main villains without actually killing them. The Iraqi General was left to be captured and tortured to death by his own people, the US General was publically humiliated and hung out to dry. It was also interesting to see some past missions and events referenced, including the death of Katz, as well as having a Stony Man mission take place at the same time (Terms of Control by the same author). There were a few points that kept this story from being a perfect Bolan adventure. The main one was the time frame when the adventure takes place. It seems to have been written before the Cheney/Bush invasion of Iraq, since Bolan creeps around Baghdad hiding from Iraqi Republican Guard and Iraqi civilians, yet several times the invasion of 2003 is mentioned, almost as an afterthought. I think that the story was written before the invasion, and then given a rough polish afterwards. This led to a sometimes disjointed feel. But otherwise it was very good.

Nineish I have to say. I liked the way Bolan acted in this one. Tactic used in Iraq to gain information on POWs were classical Mafia war tactics and being able to reduce rebuplican guard general to tears. Some stuff on otherhand did not make much sense. I would not find a salt water to be soothing if I had burned wounds on my body. Iraq as background for story worked were well but unfortunatly it takes Mack half of story to get there.

This book had SO much potential. It seemed as if Mr. Somhiel was trying to cram a SuperBolan's worth of story into an Executioner format. I got lost within the story very often, trying to figure out what the hell was Bolan playing at, and the conclusion was rushed. The action scenes are nice, though, and we see more involvment from Stony Man Farm. It was good, but like I said before, SO MUCH MORE could have been done with this.