Shot to Hell

The story wasn't badly written, in fact it was an easy read. The book is shoehorned between parts 1 and 2 of another story, probably for editorial reasons, so doesn't fit that narrative. And judging by the way it makes no mention of past adventures in Central America I would hazard a guess at it taking place 10 books earlier. However, the plot was paper thin and very poorly researched. The author had little grasp on what he was writing or on real world situations. Why would the KGB be in charge of a missile installation and not the GRU? Why would a meer major have the arming codes to fire the rockets at will? That made no sense. And then there was the traitor whose lack of motives made even less sense. And why would a general be ordering the navy around? And how come the author didn't know the difference between an aircraft carrier and a battleship? But it was the Stony Man side of things that jarred the most. The General and his lackey are allowed to wander around the Farm! Brognola takes orders from them! Gadgets teaches the Bear how to use a computer! And most glaring of all, the Bear can walk around normally, but by the end of the book, when he suddenly becomes a master sniper, he is back in the wheelchair!! Added to the voodoo mumbo jumbo and this is a poor entry into the series.

Fantastic read by this first time author. He has captured the character traits of the team down pat and even added some supernatural powers to Gadgets which was a bit strange. The banter/joking/ribbing between the team members is without doubt the best in the series to date. A section of this involves why underwear is not worn when in a tropical jungle and involves the mention of knees and ankles. This is so funny that by myself reading this I couldn't stop myself from bursting out in laughter. The action scenes are excellently done and some of the stuff involving Lyons at the end is GREAT reading. First book by this guy I can't wait to read more titles by him coming up in the series. Highly recommended reading in this series.

Able Team is on a classic "blow up the missile installation" mission in Honduras. On the way they tangle with a warehouse full of thugs and discover that somebody on the inside of the mission wants them dead. This story is bookended by enough text to make it a flashback so it fits into series continuity of Lyons being captured in the previous story. This would be pretty much straight Able Team except for the weird stuff. Gadgets has been re-imagined as some kind of psychic and even Lyons seems to be feeling the magic powers of some voodoo shrine. Lyons gets distracted talking to an ancient skull and seems to have some crazy kind of ideas about luck. All the supernatural stuff just seems very out of place in Mack Bolan's world. The story itself is straight ahead and not awful but there is too much wasted with the uninteresting subplot of the betrayal. The traitor's motives was. . . what exactly? I couldn't tell. And the whole thing really didn't make any sense. Those pages would have been put to better use with another action scene. And the same goes for the mumbo-jumbo stuff. A firefight would have been more satisfying and fit better into the story. And Able Team using just basic Government Colts and M-16s seems somehow unsatisfying. 6 stars for this one. If the subplot and supernatural stuff had been replaced by a couple more action scenes this one could have been an 8 star book. Maybe even 9.

This is one of the best of the Able series. It's told in a flashback style but it really was a well written book, if you havn't read much or any Able Team, this is worth finding.

One of my all time favorites. A lot of action, with some rather odd scenes, like Lyons talking to a skull. The Ironman kicking ass in the end is a real thriller.