Night Kill

Really enjoyed this title although I must admit that the subject matter interests me immensely so half of the battle is won if you enjoy the subject before you read a page. Sure as has been mentioned this is not an action orientated title in fact the Big Guy actually plays only a small part throughout but the story makes up for it big time. A Heavy metal band is playing to packed houses wherever they appear on tour and mutilated bodies of young females are left in the wake as they move on. The Big Guy is asked by Hal to meet with a retired Detective to hear what evidence he has and to look into it if he so desires. After that meeting he decides that indeed there is something going on which needs looking into and so off we go. Excellent characters on both sides introduced and on the bad guys side the Hunters are terrific as is the main Satanist running the show behind the bands noses. The reverend preacher who is along for the ride preaching against the band and evil is good as is the White witch introduced and not to forget the retired detective who rounds out the cast. As said not a lot of action until the ending section which is terrific but the story will keep you interested throughout. I loved it highly recommended.

Holy moly! Evil Satanic heavy metal music and cult human sacrifices...we must be in the 80's! : ) I have to agree with the other reviewers. This book was very slow with almost no action, with Mack not being in it very much and doing very little when he was. Seriously, talking to occult bookshop owners while waiting for the next teenager to die? Pretty weak. The Wiccan ceremony was pointless as well, and the excuse to hook up with the inevitably kidnapped "girl-de-jour" was pathetic. However, I enjoyed this way more than I should have because of the subject matter. I'm a huge metalhead and reading Newton's middleaged fuddy-duddy take on "black metal" was a riot. According to his descriptions, this sounds like the kind of band who would play clubs or small theaters, not selling out Mile High Stadium 3 straight nights! If I had read this as a teen, I would have been livid about the inaccuracies and falsehoods; luckily I'm old enough now to get a kick out Newton's imaginings of what goes on at those evil rock concerts. : ) In summary, I suppose I enjoyed this one precisely because it wasn't very good, much like a Troma film. Buyer beware!

This is a rather weak entry in the Bolan series. There is relatively little action; the emphasis seems to be more on intrigue and exploring the worlds of underground satanic rituals and the popularity of heavy metal bands in the late '80s. Bolan seems like a minor character in his own novel, a bit player while the grizzled cop and the hot-to-trot Wiccan try to figure out who is murdering teenage girls in Denver. I was drawn to this one because the idea of Bolan taking on a satanic cult sounded promising. Then I was especially excited when I saw a quote from Maury Terry's book "The Ultimate Evil" in the front. I've read said book and was fascinated by it - Terry presents very plausible evidence that the "Son of Sam" murders were in fact the work of several men, and that David Berkowitz was just a sacrificial fall guy (though he was not innocent by any means - he belongs in jail.) It seems like the author of this Bolan was inspired by Terry's investigation and thought it would be a good basis for a lurid thriller with some social commentary on the reality of TV preachers, who were at their apex in the 1980s. The author then decided to submit it as his next Bolan, and threw Mack into the story. The result is two seperate books blended together. Readable, but not what the typical Bolan fan is expecting. I thought the author was holding out, and that the book's climax would feature one heck of an explosive finale. It never comes - what passes in this book for a climax would be treated as a minor scene in a standard Bolan. If you want to read a frightening, exciting book about satanic cults, read "The Ultimate Evil". It is far more intriguing than "Night Kill". I recommend this for Bolan completists only.

I really do not know what to make of this one. To start with Bolan is barely in it, he is sidelined and when he does appear he is lead around by supporting characters like a dog on a leash. The only time he really seemed to be the Executioner was when he crashed the porno makers and the drug dealers. Unfortunately this was only a few pages of action and nothing was doen with it afterwards. So it wasn't really a Bolan story. But even with Bolan out of the equation it was still a jumbled mess. The long cast list reads like the end credits of a Hollywood movie, but even with all these people the story still isn't there. So we are supposed to believe that a tv preacher has arranged that some cultists sacrifice a few teenagers so that the preacher can preach about evil from the pulpit? Yes folks, that is the wicked plan of the week. The rock band are just a cover, the police are incompetent, the private eye who recruits Bolan after talking to Brognola seems to do nothing other than talk about the situation and "call in markers". Cassandra serves no other purpose that to get captured. Oh was I bored with it. I know I moan about wanting to see Bolan return to his roots and tackle local and organised crime instead on the run of the mill 'Mohammed with a nuke' story, but please don't bore me to death with it. Bolan is meant to be action. Lethal Weapon and Die Hard all rolled into one. This was more like Sleeping with the Enemy, with the emphasis on sleeping. Mike Newton has written some gems, The Trial and Run to Ground amongst them, and he now regularly turns out cookie cutter novels. This was possibly an experiment to try something different. In my eyes it didn't work very well. A top heavy cast of characters and a paper thin plot didn't help at all. Not one that I will read again.

This was my first Mack Bolan book. I was just going through a used bookstore in search of a series to get attached to and saw a whole section devoted to these EXECUTIONER books. So at random I grabbed NIGHTKILL and could not put it down. The action sequences were as if I were watching an old action movie and the one-liners were quick and kept coming. Also, I liked the fact that we were able to read from different POVs and not all just Mack's. It was a fun read and I cant wait to continue the series. The one thing that did not give this one a 10 was the brevity on character development.

This was another great story. The scene where Bolan is at a Wiccan meet was particularly interesting. The most enjoyable line in the book was when the punk at the end of the book is asking for a doctor and Bolan says he called one and said you didn't make it!!!!!!!!!!

Great concept not so great execution. This seemed more like an experimental novel then a regular novel. It was one of the most unique Bolan books I have read. 1) Very little action. Which by itself isn't bad but the action there was it was really just between Otis and members of the cult. Mack's scenes excpet for chapter 1 which was a whole different assignment it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Except for the last scene he wasn't even fired on. 2) There were so many useless scenes. The band members were stooges nothing more, they really as characters added nothing. It didn't propel the story except in terms of people listening to their music. The prayer session with the members and Slate was a very long 12 pages. It added no info that Otis had provided Mack. I also thought the 2 mass scenes with the reverend were way too long. I would have stuck with just the second one. 3) Mack seemed off his game. With the death of the first girl in Denver he should have been in blitz mode to prevent the second instead he went to the Wiccan mass with Cassandra. Why? Seemed pointless and took time away from preventing a second death. Ok he got luck at the mass with Cassie. Do Wiccans actually incorporate sex in their mass? IF yes. I will convert pronto. 4) Repeat after me. Necronomican does not exist. It was a book solely in the mind of HP Lovecraft that he referenced in his stories. To me this was not cute but annoying. 5) I wish I knew more about Slate. I also wiched to know what happened to the drug dealer that Mack gave his medal to. That went nowhere. This story had a very interesting premise about heavy metal, satanism and real satanism but it never gelled. It just seemed like the heavy metal was a prop and nothing more. A 6 but just barely.

Just finished this book oct 1 2002. A longtime reader from mid 80's. after some time off ( a few years ), I am back into this series bigtime. Mike Newton was always one of my favorites. He impressed me with this one.i sometimes am worried that the books he writes will be run of the mill, some of his are, but this one is definitely innovative. A cool story, I like how the preachers world collapses on him at the end. I like heavy metal myself , so it was an interesting subject for a Bolan story.

A little different, but a good read.

A chilling but good entry to the series with some creep villains.

DEFINITELY SOME FREAKS IN THIS ONE. IT WAS GOOD TO SEE BOLAN TAKE THEM DOWN HARD.