Red Horse

I wish I could give this book a higher rating, as I am a Will Murray fan. But, there may be a reason why this was his only Bolan book. The story made no sense whatsoever, and Mack was portrayed as bland, totally wooden. His dialogue is robotic. It's like the author thought it'd be a great premise to have a cat and mouse type chase , using souped up and armoured cars as the plot devices. Bolan and the bad guys both have cars with machine guns mounted on them. The rest is the usual " rich corporate slum lord hires mercs to drive out the poor people from the land he wants to buy". Why would Mack assume the identity of the cop that was killed? Also, wasn't it a tip off to the bad guys using the cops call sign? Why did Mack drive around Boston almost as if he was hoping to trip of the bad guys? With all the resources Stony Man has, he could have used satellite tracking. This is totally not his M.O. It's not that the action scenes were bad, but they weren't good either. You can skip this one, Will Murray has MUCH better books out there.

Will Murray’s only Executioner novel to date. This was published right after he was released from writing the Destroyer series after a successful ten-year run. I’ve read them all. Therefore, “Red Horse” was interesting novel for me to read. Murray’s Executioner is more of a studious, planner-type than I’ve seen lately. The rest of Bolan ring’s true to the sense of characterization and motivation. “Red Horse” is about an arson gang outfitted with killer cars and mysterious motives. The entire point of the novel is learning the secrets of the Red Horse killers. As a mystery, it was sufficiently twisty and held the interest. It had a dash of the off-beat, a sense of humor and social commentary about cities. In this case, Boston. I wish I knew more about Boston. There are at least fifty streets that are named in this novel. I’m not exaggerating that much. If I lived in Boston, I probably would have scored this a bit higher. There are some in-joke Destroyer references as well. One notable example, Bolan’s safehouse is identical to a long-time (ironically torched as well) safe house of Remo and Chiun. Right down to the same location. I sense this novel is more of an experiment than a resume padder. Experimenting to see if he can write an Executioner novel. Experimental to see if he can create a novel dealing primarily with dueling cars. Something he would not be able to do with a Destroyer novel. “Red Horse” was a quirky with some very good moments, but decidedly average frame of a story. I would rate this novel the same way if a John Smith would have written it.

This is Will Murray's sole Executioner title and after reading this I can only hope he will write another. The book is a very good read and I thought the cruising in the taxi cab one of the better parts. Also Bolan's vehicle for the final section of the book duelling with the other vehicles in terrific reading. Terrific story and a very good read.

This is probably my most favorite Bolan book so far. The best part would be the spot near the end wear Red Horse 1 gets his head vaporised by Bolan's M-60. Speaking of the M-60 and the cop car in general, the car made the whole book what it is. The intricate detail of how it was put together and how the M-60 worked was amazing.

Gotta admit, I'm a fan of Will Murray from his work on Doc Savage, so I was much interested in his take on this modern "pulp." Wasn't disappointed. Murray tackles Bolan with a vengeance. For a while, Bolan was becoming a bit bland, but this tale, with its smaller scale was a breath of fresh air. Finally Bolan gets to do something other than save the world. Of course, no Bolan would be complete without a showdown with the main villian and Murray has Bolan do it with style. Cool and calculating. One of my favourites and hope Murray will be back soon.

I really cannot decide whether this story was good or bad. It wasn't bad, it wasn't brilliant, so I'll have to settle for good; good but bland. The story itself was an original for a Bolan in which almost all of the action does take place during car chases across the extremely well described city of Boston. The plot itself was nothing special, a typical A-Team type story where a big business man and his henchmen terrorise a small community so that they (the business man) can take control of the neighbourhood and build a shopping mall etc. Bolan becomes involved in this low key mission because of the manner in which a cop was killed. He takes the unusual stop of assuming the identity of the deceased police officer to spook the enemy. And eventually, after several car chases, and with a little help from Stony Man, he finally kills off all of the bad guys and rides off into the sunset without anybody knowing who he really was. But the story was bland. It was lifeless and Bolan had little personality. The henchmen are all faceless, literally since they continuously where ski masks, and the villain himself, Kirk Weatherly, was as dull as dishwater. One reason why the story felt so empty was the lack of characters, in fact there are only three: Bolan, Weatherly, and a radio presenter, Lark Youngblood. Then there were two big coincidences that helped Bolan solve the mystery as to who was behind the firebombings. After listing to a radio show faturing Youngblood and Weatherly Bolan immediantly guesses that Weatherly is behind it all, with no other reason than Weatherly was offering to buy the burnt out properties. The second coincidence was that Bolan drives around Boston looking for a greenhouse that grows an unusual drug, and finds it with very little effort whatsoever. Boston Homicide must be really slacking if they couldn't have done the same. So the story was okay but not great. It would have been interesting to see more Executioners from Murray, but I guess that he liked the Destroyer series a lot more.

I was a big fan of this one too... even though I just about choked when I read the opening chapter. Y'see, Murray used this chapter as a sample of the Extinguisher novels in Destroyer #102, as part of his gentle parody of Mack Bolan there. Heh. :)

This was an awesome entry into the series, this was classic Mack Bolan in action. Bolan's guise of the 'Mr. 1908' aka the murdered trooper from the beginning of the book absolutely set the tone for this story. I really liked how this was more of a suspense thriller story than an action story. All the car action in this one rock & really added to the overall story. I wish Mr. Murray had done more Bolan books as he really had a feel for the character of Bolan.

This book rocked!!!!! Mack basically turns into a wraith (taking the identity of the dead cop to take on people who under different circumstances he might have been sharing a beer with after a mission together.The way he took out the mastermind was poetic justice.

Now this is an Executioner novel. Bolan is in Boston taking out a gang of arsonists running rampant in the city. Almost all of the action takes place in cars on the streets of Boston. This book is like Mack Bolan meets Grand Theft Auto! The action grabs you from the beginning and never lets go. Having a road map of the Boston area would be a help, a lot of street names are mentioned, but Murray does a good job of describing the area so I didn't get lost too much. This is a book that reminded me of the Executioner of the Pendleton days, Murray is an outstanding writer, and it is unfortunate this is the only Bolan book he has written. I enjoyed the hell out of this one, this is a book you don't want to miss out on. I highly recommend it, the last Bolan fan to read this book is a rotten egg!

This story was perfection. I loved how Mack used the night to track down the vlilians and kill them. The vilian was great and fiendishly brilliant on how to get people to vacate - arson the area. Now I did have one problem. Mack seemed off. Remo would play these games by taking the identity of a dead cop to haunt the bad guys. Mack plays games yes but I can't recall him ever going to these lengths especially with the cab number. Its like Murrey took the best portions of Remo's personality and merged it with Mack. Plus the motivation seems pure Remo. Yes Mack would be outraged with the cop's death but he wouldn't personalize it so much. Remo would. Remo would drop a mission to do this one. Mack would be more practical. I can picture Mack asking if Able Team could do it while he finished a case. The characters were great also especially the radio host. I really liked how she was so afraid of guns and had a distaste for Mack then realized he was correct The description of Mack's safehouse was a riot - it matched. The story was a classic, great action scenes, focused but Mack had too much Remo in him. Fantastic first book and easily matched 90s quality.

This was an amazing book. Author Will Murray managed to make it seem as if he were channeling the spirit of Don Pendleton. "Red Horse" wasn't a big menace book, but Bolan's adversaries were just as vile as any terrorist. The pyschological war he played with them which was reminiscent of "High Plains Drifter" was very compelling. Bolan's own "Kill Car" was a really nice addition to the book as well. I wish he kept it. I know Murray wrote the Destroyer for many years and even Doc Savage novels. It's a shame he never wrote another Executioner novel since he seemed to have a real feel for the character.

One of my all time favorites i have read this book again and again. i have not read as many mack bolan as some but the psychological aspect of how Mack hunted the red horsemen was very well done and i liked the automotive style of warfare. Very well done indeed.

It's the little things that matter. For instance, many of these books feature a prologue where we meet a character and then he gets plugged by the Bad Guys and we never hear of him again. Here the prologue death is actually weaved through the entire tale and given closure at the end. Throw in the memorable storyline and attention to detail and we have one of the strongest entries yet seen.

I didn't put any stars to rate this book when I said my peace before. It is one of books that was so unique, so original a plot it blew me away. It is also one of the few books that I can specificully remember what the book was about without reading the description, just seeing the name reminds me of this awesome book. Part 'masked avenger', part executioner, part-only the Shadow knows...

I really liked this book. You take a movie (Turk 182) and turn it into a taxi. Then Bolan becomes the avenging angel with his symbol that haunts the baddie. Very entertaining.

Not much else to say that hasn't already been said. It is a great book. It really captures the feeling of a Boston Winter. I really liked how he assumes the dead cop's identity and becomes the "avenging ghost". Scale 1-10, a strong 8 (almost a 9).

This was one of my all time favorites. Will Murray has caught the icy Boston winters perfectly (I'm from the area) and the idea of a ghost-like vigilante is carried out extrememly well. Mack is in true form as one man trying to take down a greedy real estate magnate that is trying to burn down key sections of the city. Bolan has a scene where he and his partner has to escape captivity that has to be read to be believed. I felt this one was very hard to put down. One of the best- Dave

I agree with Dave. This was a very good story. I think I prefer the tight, focused stories like this one - ones that take place on streets of America, involving only a few key characters. A lot of fun. Bolan has quite a few good lines in this one and some good wording. I especially liked various allusions to "hunting Red Horsemen". :) I think the cellar scene that Dave was referring to was a little hard to believe (but still very exciting).

I love the tight focus in this story, the way the streets' grittiness and the Boston weather seems to come alive in this book to form a vivid backdrop to the action and plot. One of my favorites, and on my short list of "Best of #200 - Present". Vivid descriptions, strong characterizations, well-crafted plot, delivered with good timing, add up to a standout entry in the series.

this had a great story line. Also some great action, including a car to car shot out!!! One of the best.

Buy far, this is the best Executioner book that I have read yet.

Oh, this was a good one. Murray has an excellent talent for taking a series novel, stripping it to its basics, using loads of back continuity, and still craft an original, gripping, thrilling tale. He did wonders with the Destroyer series, and I was wondering how he'd handle the Executioner, and boy was I happily not disappointed. If anything, he wrotes Mack more like Don wrote him than Mike Newton. And that's not ragging on Mike. That's me saying how good Will writes.

Very powerful story. I really like this one.