Vendetta has a lot of good things going for it. A mafia story, a big one, with characters from the early days of Bolan's war. Grimaldi, Johnny Bolan, Leo Turrin, what more could you want? This is a classic blitz, Bolan even pulls out his Omega persona. He hits San Diego, Chicago, New York, Miami, Barbados. Told in Newton's hard-boiled old-school mafia books style with lots of wisecracks and tough-guy talk, it was a heck of a story.
Vendetta suffered from two problems however. One is that I felt the story was too long. Too much repetition in the blitzes in several cities, it got to the point where scenes kind of blended together. Some scenes with Grimaldi or Johnny could have been dropped, and I would have dropped the whole Chicago part of it, and even some of the Miami, and just gone with the other cities. This book, if pared down to a sleek 220 page book, would have been one of the great mafia books of all time.
This leads to the other problem with this book. Being that it is by Newton, if you have read many of his books, there are predictable scenes and situations that are a rewrite of sorts from other novels he has done. If you have read several dozen of his books, you may find, as I did, that this book would have been much better as a normal 220 page book of the time. However, if you haven't read much of Newton, I would highly recommend this novel, not only as a great mafia story, but as an all around ass kickin SuperBolan and with classic characters and villains.
Newton manages to up the ante with an impressive capstone to this novel. I was impressed with the final showdown in Barbados, with more of a thought out final violent series of scenes when the capos finally get together to discuss Don Julio's bid to be the Don of all Dons. Guzman and Frost were more than just additions early in the book, they play a key factor in the end, and it is a ending worthy of a SuperBolan. All around, I thought this was a great book.
Well it is a Mafia book and the big guys younger brother features so it has a lot of plusses going in.
But firstly it is a blatant rip-off of Executioner #4 Miami Massacre in plot line and opens oodles of opportunities for the author to do some cut and pasting and he leaps at it with glee.
It's all here folks with four locations to visit and rattle those cages. The usual strategic strikes on the intended victim's property, the usual back door casino with the half witted Manager who will open the safe as a raid is about to occur, the usual trucking depot/warehouse which can be taken care of with thermite canisters, the usual drug cutting location where he has to wear a mask to prevent inhaling those toxic fumes, the usual passing along a message to the intended, the usual sniper scene but he actually manages to include two this time, the numbers collection depot, the bookmaker location, even Omega is slipped in to gobble up a few more pages ya de ya de ya...........
Said it all before but 2 stars added the ending is quite good in the hotel where the Columbians and Jamaicans arrive.
Again if you have read none or little of this authors work in these series you would most likely very much enjoy this title.
this is one of the best bolan's,I've read, maybe topped only by the one with Fracisco who get it in dallas. What's that book called. There's a hgreat descriprtive scene at the end
