The Killing Rule

WOW Bloody Hell a reality check here. I rate this author in the top three authors in these combined series (check my reviews on this guy's titles) and maybe as a result of that have higher expectations on reading his titles but gee I reckon this one is ordinary at best. Characters introduced are normally a strong point actually some of the BEST EVER introduced thinking Savage Game here but this tile falls very flat for me, not sure maybe I scorn the English monarchy system and cannot wait for us (here down under) to become a Republic so I instantly disliked a couple of the characters introduced but seriously the rest of the bunch introduced are only there for a short time before being blown away so why bother as they are quickly replaced with more cardboard characters. Before some of the action scenes characters were introduced in the prior paragraph and then blown away two pages later? I also enjoyed the trek across the Sahara and the characters introduced and the Big Guy's character being displayed to it's fullest with the releasing of slaves and the payments made for jobs done and how the ex slaves returned the payment in full with their subsequent actions very good stuff indeed (one star added in fact). Unfortunately the rest of the title is strictly copy paste stuff which can be read in so many titles released in these series. I am reading this series in order so have no choice but to finish each title I come across but unless you are doing the same as much as it pains me to say give this one a miss.

Special guest star: David McCarter (briefly)I am really split on this story. Some areas I enjoyed, other areas were a major let down.The good bits: Hey, I have been turned into a Lord of the Realm. Lord William Glen-Patrick: adventurer and womaniser and sometimes rolling in money. Cool!For the first time ever (to the best of my knowledge) Bolan visits Wales! I have been waiting for that since 1985! Okay, it is only a brief stop in Cardiff for a shoot out, but something is better than nothing.I enjoyed the trek across the Sahara. This was probably the highpoint of the story for me. The weaker bits: Once again, as always with a Chuck Rogers story, there is no regard for distance and time. Bolan hops all around the world and it seemed that the villains just waited around for Bolan to show up.The cast of characters is huge. Bolan ended up with around 15 to 20 hangers-on. Theses cardboard cutouts were picked up and dropped off (and sometimes forgotten about) in almost every chapter. Of course they all die in the end (which was more often than not needless) and it became tiresome to remember who was who. The cardboards were also extremely shallow. When Lord William loses his two favourite dogs, he barely even notices. When Lunk dies he barely notices (no mention after the firefight - so who owns the company now? Pope just disappeared from the pages). When Yuliya Tymosh's companion dies she doesn't notice - in fact Tymosh was supposed to with Bolan from Cardiff, yet she is almost completely ignored during the African trek and barely puts in an appearence up until her death in the Middle East. So the characterisation in this novel annoyed me a great deal.Lord William was so typecast it was unbelievable. He was what Americans imagine English lords to be like and has very little bearing on reality, kind of like the image that all Americans are cowboys and do nothing but shoot each other and say Yee-Haw all day).Stolen nuke of the week. The mad mullah as villain. Yawn.The sand in my eye: This little bit really irritated me. In the first part of the book Bolan is in England, Wales and Ireland, and the characters (all of them) constantly said things like "English army" and "English isles". The word that you were looking for Mr Rogers is "British" as in British Isles and British army. I am surpised that the Canadian editors didn't pick this up, they should know better. Canada is now banned from the Commonwealth as a consequence ;p.So, sorry, but I didn't find this Chuck Rogers story to be as good as previous entries by the same author (it is his own fault, he set the benchmark too high), hence 7 stars.