Reviews (10)
This was a good book. The scenes with johnny give it 8 stars in my book. I started reading The Executioner series in the mid-80's and for me its good to go through the original series again. I went through the original books about 15 years ago. I didnt like it back then. I was more into the Gold eagle books. But Im really glad I have given it a second look. Looking forward to the rest of the series. Starting Canadian Crisis.
Pol, Gadgets and Toni again feature in this title where the Big Guy again assists them to get their collective butts out of the frying pan perhaps he should have shares in their company he has had to do this so many times now.
Arturo (Little Artie) Giamba, titular head of the St. Louis mob for many years. Giamba is one of the old guard, an aging nickel-and-dimer of little imagination and limited ambitions who had been content to sit atop a crumbling empire and watch it fade away in concert with his own life.
According to intelligence sources, Jerry Ciglia had been sent down by New York to "revitalize" the territory, bringing an army of torpedoes with him and so starts a title so very different than the previous where the Big Guy thinks Artie and Jules are more acceptable jacks than Ciglia and Annunzio and actively assists the aging Capo to retain power against the invaders sent from New York.
Very much another action based title here with some wonderful reading to be had as Able Group plus one go about their business.
Very good scene where a local cop is trapped in a vehicle near to and as a result of a strike on the bad guys and how he is released by the three yet again shows deep character traits to do the right thing.
Another noteworthy incident happens when younger brother Johnny demands a personal meeting with the Big Guy via a gun held to the head of Leo Turin to discuss events occurring in his life.
Again recommended reading here.
Another 10 in my book…Pendleton in best form!
Bolan's former pals (Gadget, Pol, Toni) invite him to St Louis as something big is quickly taking form. They all pull together to confront a building mob play to make St Louis the pinnacle of mafia action. However, DP breaks the former mold and Bolan doesn't just destroy the mafia leadership and move on, rather he has a plan much more in depth than that.
In this book, we have tremendous insight into Bolan's character, as well as that of Pol. We see the Executioners motives (hell vs heaven) in discussion throughout the book. Further, for a 3rd person POV, we see that Bolan is tired and worn out. The author give us a very personal side to Bolan.
Further, Johnny B is brought into the story, and we see the inner struggle of those in this war against the mafia is Johnny, Mack, Leo Turrin, and Val.
Pendleton included more detail on the warwagon and a few really well-written attack scenes.
I greatly enjoy seeing the Able Group, Bolan's personal side, and more cops edging toward Bolan's side.
This book started out fast and good, then it went straight down from there. There was some action though out the book, but it did not stand up to my liking. The best part was meeting Johnny, Macks brother. Mack sees them for a little time then sends him back out of danger. Too bad that both Bolans can not fight the mob together.
What can I say about this book? Well, it had a fresh and exciting start but sadly the rest of the story was rather average without the magic of the first few chapters and like most Mafia war books I have read so far the books just flats out as it goes by and doesn´t leave much in the end.
One thing did however stand out in the book and made it much different and special than other ones but this was the personal issue with Bolan´s brother and that part was great and beautiful yet sad and tormented at the same time as Bolan can´t have another person involved in his everlasting war and this was a huge struggle for him during this book but was solved in a beautiful way which enriched the book and took it to a higher level than the rest of the book was on............ (2004)
I give this one a 6 star because of the action, but otherwise this book wasn't all that great because there just wasn't anything I could remember about this when it was over. No scene in particular really stands out, so I guess it wasn't as good as most of the Mafia books.
The Executioner is invited to St. Louis by his old death squad pals and they team up to foil a mob powerplay.
From the opening hit on the capo's mansion this one packs quite a wallop. Action continues with the team's hit on a mob head party and moves on to their very hard hit against the head party's base. They wrap things up with an ambush of the prospective new capo and all his underlings. Moving the action along in this story is a different kind of mission objective for Bolan and the plot works pretty well.
Great action in this one with that Pendleton touch. There are some familiar faces on board and a new police officer who is written as a living man. And Mack also deals with the business of his personal life.
This one is a solid 9 star tale in my book.
One of my favorites from the Mafia War, this features Pol and Gadgets along with Pol's sister Toni (that's the blond on the cover) *and* a surprise visit from someone Bolan doesn't expect.... I think this is one of the first books I read in the series, and one that really hooked me into reading more. Explosions, dead Mafia guys, Mafia intrigue with Bolan helping to stir the pot, and Bolan-the-warrior gets a chance to be Bolan-the-guy-who-came-home-to-another-war.
AN ENTERTAINING BOOK. THE SCENE WITH JOHNNY DEMANDING TO SEE HIS BROTHER IS BOTH EXCITING AND SAD. MORE TEAMWORK WITH POL AND GADGETS WORKING WITH BOLAN IN THIS ONE TOO.
