Nightmare in New York

This entry starts right off after the previous book, Assault on Soho. Again, Bolan meets hot women who care for him, even though they way they meet seems a little forced. Oh well. The action scenes where he does his strikes on the mob strongholds are great, I like the dialouge between Bolan and Leo Turrin, you get more into Bolan's motivations. Kind of funny to see Bolan just kind of bluff his way past mob guards by walking and talking like a mob goon himself without effort. All in all, some great scenes.

What a book. I give it a solid 10. Good characters all round. Loved the 3 girls and their "body therapy" Mack is written well here. Especially when he executes the 3 hit men searching for him at the girls apartment. Then later he spares Sam the Bomber because his wife has the same quailities as Valentina. Evie's death was tough to read and Mack' Reaction is what's separates him from the savages that he fighting. I liked when Mack dragged out Gambella's wife and showed her her husbands work. And then burned the house down. This is the seacond book in which Mack uses the media for his benefit glad to see the series get back on track with this entry. Solid book. Starting Chicago wipe out now.

I honestly wasn’t a fan of this book at first but after reading some reviews here I’ve reversed my opinion. Why? I’ve realized that my expectations were warped by the almost completely inaccurate summary on the back of the book. The Executioner trying to stop a political assassination? My mind was filled with images of Bolan in a desperate hunt, trying to get to the grassy knoll in time in a story unlike any other Pendleton had written. Instead, he is ambushed and injured as soon as he arrives in New York. He’s nursed back to health by a trio of sexy girls and then gets to executing the New York Mafiosi. However, he goes ballistic when one of the girls is tortured and the other two are kidnapped. Oh, and the Mob is planning ‘The Big Thing’, a plan that will give them control over the Government. This is your archetypical Executioner story and it is a good one. The opening action scene is great with Bolan unarmed against a hit squad, an encounter he barely survives. Later there is a gunfight in an abattoir that features Bolan at this most brutal that is a must read. In fact, Don Pendleton’s are always worth reading but in this book they’re all exceptional. Not to spoil things, the last chapter is a great capper to the story as well. While it’s only the 7th installment, Pendleton starts to subvert the clichés of the series. A woman throws herself at Bolan but before they can spend the night together she sees The Executioner at work and is immediately turned off by the fact he’s a killer. Later there is the highlight scene of the book where Bolan arrives at a mobster’s house to eliminate a target, but can’t do it as the creep’s wife is standing next to her husband. The mobster was looking to quit anyway so Bolan shows him mercy and allows him to walk away and go in to witness protection. It’s scenes like this that make Bolan a compelling character to read and keep him from being a one dimensional killing machine. Aside from my expectations from the description, I thought Pendleton could have done a lot more with the setting. The Executioner in New York in the 70’s brings up all sorts of gritty images from Taxi Driver, but aside from troubles with traffic there was nothing that couldn’t have been done in any other city. At first I was disappointed that ‘The Big Thing’ was defeated in the last 10 pages without even being fully explained, but I’ve read that it comes back in later books so I’ll hold off judgment until later. Part of the climax is told from the perspective of what seems to be a dying mobster. That leads to things being ambiguous and confusing (did Bolan just kill a Senator?) but at least it’s interesting. Executioner Kill Count: Approximately 51.

It's start as soon as he gets in to New York. Shoot and bleeding. 3 beautiful girls take him in and nurse him back. One of the girls Evie Clifford becomes a turkey. The attack on Stoney Lodge was great. I really like how the end of each book takes us to the next city for a Bolan hit...

Returning from the ordinary titles in France and London the Big Guy arrives in New York unarmed with a huge welcoming committee waiting for him. Badly wounded while narrowly escaping the trap waiting for him he stumbles into refuge with three women who save his life and protect him whilst he recovers. Something is bubbling in New York something big but while he is investigating what it is one of the girls who saved him is kidnapped and turned into a turkey. No more kid gloves the Big Guy is in a rage and hits them Big Time where it all culminates at a secret retreat that is hosting a meeting between some of the New York capos and a senator who is being groomed for the Oval Office. Stunning attacks follow on the hard site where the Big Guy heaps it on them big time launching rockets and grenades until nothing remains except burning ruins of the once impregnable hard site. Excellent title in the series and certainly one to recommend for reading in the series.

This one I enjoyed a lot! It started out a little slow but those three girls... I suppose I'd enjoy being nursed back to life by those! :D About halfway through, the details of turkey victim of Evie Clifford certainly gave me vivid images of what a turkey looks like. I can't blame Bolan for going after those two-bit hoods hard. I loved the action at the Stoney Lodge. Yet, there are some loose ends that was left there at the end. This one is a fair read and will give you good action! :) Sig

Nightmare in New York was a welcome return to the Bolan action the series provided in books 1-4. After a very disappointing books 5 & 6, Pendleton brought the Executioner to the Big Apple, New York City, where Bolan was up against the Mafia, the police, and an effort to stop a potential national crisis. This book had tremendous sequences of action, planning, vicious displays of cruelty by the Mafia, and even a merciful Executioner. As with many of my other favorite books in the series, the author did a great job of developing secondary characters coming alongside to help Bolan and it really draws the reader in emotionally. Pendleton re-captured the right mix of the first 4 books with this one.

Average entry, most notable for Bolan's first trip to the Big Apple, and Evie Clifford becoming a turkey victim. Picking up from Bolan's re-entry back into the states, he's trading bullets with Mafia hitmen and wounded in the exchange. He's nursed back to health by three groovy gals (sometimes a bit annoying), then he commences his attack on the NY mob. The second half of the book started off explosively, with Bolan rattling cages. Sam the Bomber and Freddie Gambella were fairly memorable characters. The infamous attack on Stoney Lodge was well done, but it seemed to leave a lot of loose ends.

I’m left wondering how this series remained popular in the early seventies with books like this coming out. Sure the series started off with a powerhouse debut but it seems the quality nose dived pretty quickly. Pendleton created something very cool with The Executioner but seemed unable to maintain the level of intensity that he established in War Against The Mafia. To put it simply Nightmare In New York is boring. Disjointed and unconnected action scenes and long male fantasies iconic of the era. The three fashion designer girls are the most ridiculous caricatured and forced characters I have read in a very long time. Bolan is little more then a macho façade that runs around and guns down faceless mafia goons for no more reason then they are faceless mafia goons. The geography is confusing and it seems that Bolan has a teleporter hidden somewhere in his blacksuit so he can just appear places when it becomes plot appropriate. The writing is trite and confusing. I had a hard time figuring out who people were and what was going on and when I could figure it out I didn’t care. While better then some of Pendleton’s later books this one is still near the bottom of the barrel.

A solid piece of writing. There are a couple of minor points I could quibble over, but, in general, this was a terrific entry into the Bolan series.

I can't add much to what's already been said about this top-notch effort from Pendleton. If you're looking for one of the original books in this series and can't get your hands of DAY OF MOURNING or WAR AGAINST THE MAFIA, this one will do in terms of letting you know how The Executioner became the ground-breaking series it was. Simply terrific on all levels.

This was a good reading with some high explosive beginning which sets the pace for the rest of the book. The support characters were great. It is always great to have Leo Turrin around Bolan but the jewels in the story are the three women bail Bolan out of a difficult situation at the beginning of the book and it was such a shame that one of them had to die. Freddy Gambetta was one piece of scum but as usually Bolan takes out rats like that fast and efficiently all though this time there is a lot of burning rage within Bolan after a friend was been brutally slain which pushes him even further in exterminating the Gambetta gang.

For anybody who hasn't read the old Pendleton books, they are missing out. Not all of them are as good as this one however, but I would say Pendleton was at the top of his game when he wrote this awesome story.

A very good entry, I wish that the girls were un affected by Bolan touching their lives. He dose a great job saving them in NJ. But turning one of those girls in to a turkey was prety sick. I gues that Bolan has had an affect on every life he has touched since the very start.

Pendleton in pretty good form here. I liked the way you rarely left Bolan's side, unlike many current entries in the series, when there are always these boring filler chapters overly describing villains and having them give away what they're going to do in the next chapter. In this one, Pendleton keeps cutting to the chase, making you want to hang on for the ride. Would have rated it higher but there was some clunky dialogue and it was just too cornball coming across an Italian-American named Chianti. I take it there's another novel where he has Bolan go up against a black villain named Chitlins, right?

I could just make this a one word review: Wow! But that would be too easy. And this book, the best of the series since War Against the Mafia, deserves more. Action dominates this story with Bolan in the thick of it from the first paragraph to the last. Along with the great action you get Bolan doing a lot of thinking and feeling and it all works to produce a thriller of a hell-ride. I'm stamping this one with a 10 star review. It deserves every bit of it.

Why did the Mafia never learn? If you turn one of his friends into turley meat, Bolan will kick ass at 10 times his normal rate. After the slight letdown of the European wars, Bolan is Stateside again in one hell of a battle. The description of his 1-2-3 hits against the Gambella family. It's a book of contrasts-the wives of Chianti and Gambella are polar opposites; Paula, Evie and Rachel are all diverse personalities. We get the 1st mention of The Big Thing and in the final assault on Stoney Lodge, its implied that Bolan has just killed a senator (US or State is not established). Why wasn't more made of that? Pendleton at his best.

Another excellent installment into the Executioner's war against the mafia. Good villians, characters and action in this one. Bolan takes a bite out of the 'Big Apple'

Fantastic. I loved the way he infiltrated Stony Lodge.

A great book

A great novel. One of the first of his forays against Augie Marinello. From this point on the battles with the Syndicate get quite bloody and fierce. A must read...

Just read this book for about the third time... I've always been a fan of the early Bolan series (where Mack takes on the Mafia head-to-head) and while this one includes another "turkey" scene,(They always bother me) it is Mack at his finest as he unleashes everything he has against organized crime after yet another of his friends becomes a victim of the mob's "turkey masters" A quick, compelling read and one that should only take a couple of hours to complete. Well worth the investment of time. It's the Executioner at his finest, IMHO