Battle Lines

A really terrific book which keeps you turning page after page to find out what happens next. The plot is good and plausible and the action comes on strong. Two parts of the book stand out in the breaking into of the complex of the secret police and the underwater soft probe of the oil rig. The final assault on the oil rig by Bolan and the partisan commandoes is good reading but a little far fetched. As an aussie I liked the O'riley character and it would be good to see him introduced again in a future book. Well worth a read. my two bobs worth............

Another Leslie yarn that contains more of what you can expect from this writer, not his best work, but I found this to be very entertaining. You never know when someone is going to jump out and assasinate Bolan at any given moment in a Leslie novel, and Battle Lines is par for the course. Plenty of cloak and dagger, relentless action and of course, the mystery Bolan needs to solve. Good underwater scenes at the oil rig, and once again Leslie brings in one of his trademarks, the hanglider, in the final assault on the rig. The action jumps around a lot in the area of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Black Sea. I wish that the mole in the story had been given a bigger role, I had to reread parts of the book to refresh my memory on some of the characters, there are a lot in here. I liked the O'Riley character, the author hints at him returning in another story. I hope he does.

Bolan is investigating some missing chemical weapons. He is dogged at every turn by assassins. Brognola asks him to drop that investigation and check out an oil rig that seems suspicious. Again, hit squads follow Bolan's every move. Miraculously, the both cases are tied together, and Bolan is able to acommplish two missions for the price of one. This one didn't seem to fit well with the rest of the series. Brognola's dialogue doesn't ring true. It was almost as if Bolan was talking to himself--the slang was identical. The idea that Bolan would drop one of his own missions after being shot at to ivestigate an oil rig also felt false. Bolan doesn't work for the government, and has the right to refuse a mission. It was way too convenient that the missions dovetailed together so smoothly. The writing is generally good, but the author spends a lot of time on the technical details of the weapons. While it was interesting to learn that the Stechkin 9 mm SMG has an ultralight bolt countered by an inertia system within the pistol grip that delays the return of the bolt and reduces firing rate to manageable proportions, having this go through Bolan's mind in the middle of an action sequence broke up the flow. It was as if he was reading a "Guns & Ammo" in the middle of battle. The final assault scene on the oil rig was too "James Bond-ish" for a Bolan novel. Leading 15-20 commandoes to have a 3-stage assault on 30 guards seemed like the end of a Connery Bond movie, especially when there are guys in hang gliders firing RPG-7's, and other squad members on sailboards. Creative, yes; realistic, no. The smuggler O'Riley was a good character, and the book had a good tempo, but it just didn't work as a Bolan novel.

Great reading and storyline. This was the first Executioner book I ever read. Found this one in a box of donated books given to my old Marine unit right after we had arrived in Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield. And the rest as they say is history. I now own #s 1-100,have a good start on 101-200,several titles from 201-up,as well as various Stony Mans and SuperBolans.Definitely a hardcore reader here!

A real good entry to the series.

I liked this one. Peter Leslie does good suspense tales, and he always manages to put Bolan in situations that test all of his skills and knowledge. The conspiracy, the penetration of the Bulgarian secret police, and the battles on the oil rig, and Shamus O'Riley were all great parts of a nice book. Solid Entertainment.

A outstanding entry from Leslie. Possibly his best writing. The oil rig action was great!