Running Hot

I bought and read this book 40 years ago, so high time for a re-read. First off, the cover gets 10/10 from me. This was the third GE book that I read and one of the first that I bought. I love this painting. The wet road reflecting the motorbikes and Bolan semi-hiding around the corner sold it to me. I would love to own the original painting, or even see it somewhere. The good points is that this story has barely aged at all. If you ignore the lack of technology then it seems that nothing has changed in the world. France is still subject to terrorist bombings and Russia are still interfering in political elections of foreign countries. The bad is that the story is a slog to get through. The writing isn't that great and the story is sometimes repetitive. I lost track of how many times Bolan was ambushed and how many rental cars he smashed up. He fumbles and bumbles his way around France, his enemies are even more inept than he is, and as previously reviewed, he says weird things to people like "You want some bread?" American slang would have gone over the heads of all French people back in the mid 1980's. Not forgetting that everybody in this book speaks perfect American English. I also found the ending silly with the magnesium strips. Suddenly they are in Bolan's pocket and somehow he drops them on to an attacking paraglider without them drifting to far away. I found this daft back in 1986 I I still find it daft today. Cover brillinat. Story so-so

I didn't like this book at all. The story was okay at best, but there were so many corny lines in this book...many of which didn't seem Bolan-ish at all. It's rare that I'm so hard on a book given my average ratings, but this book was not good.

No author credited which annoys the christ out of me surely after all this time someone out there knows who wrote this title. (Do you ? If so please inform us). I actually thought the title wasn't too bad a read unlike a lot of the previous reviewers. The plot was good where giving out cheap/free drugs to homeless youths seems to me like a good way to create an army of zombies. The training they were going through would have made a huge difference to their capabilities. The KGB coordinating things in the background was good as was the appearance of Strakhov. The assault on the bad guys fortress via the hang glider was good as was the ending with it and the ultra light. I didn't see the magnesium strips coming and am still shaking my head about the lighting of them with a disposable lighter but hey it worked didn't it (lucky she smoked hate to think what would happen these days). An entertaining read which is a lot better than some of the crap that has been released in this series go for it.

Hey guys give Peter Leslie some credit. Leslie is a great writer, he"s in a completely different league. This book is absolute crap. It is hands down the worst Bolan book I have ever read. There is no way Leslie wrote this. This writer made a mockery of the Mack Bolan character. "Shame on you.." whoever you are. I cannot believe this trash was published. It was the only Bolan I could not finish. 100 pages and I had to chuck it. Every action scene was so far-fetched that I felt embarrased reading it. For instance: there is no way that by rigging a snare, with electrical cable, on that road leading up to Treynets Chateau, that the trap could have decapitated that biker and led to the destruction and death of 4 motorcycles and 4 men. Notice that Bolan just watched everytime from a hillside. All he did was string the cable from tree to tree. This author must take us readers for total idiots. maybe thats why the authors name was not revealed. Leslie is such a cool writer and could never had written this book. My advice skip this trash. For me it will never be considered an Executioner book. 1 star for this insult.

An explosive start in every sense of those words is the best way to describe this book. It had a great plot and it was great mystery for the first 80 pages or so with a constant twist and turn of the plot and the pace of the book. It was strange though how the villain always knew here to find Bolan like there was an army of drugged out minions on every corner in France This book is actually two segments........the first one a exciting mystery and a brain puzzle and the second one is straight and very dull infiltration action sequence and this second part was way too average and downgraded the book in my mind. The conclusion was unimaginative and disappointing and I was actually glad that the book was finished. With the huge potential in the beginning this book could have been a great one........yet overall it failed to deliver and with the huge body count in the end it crashed and burned and left nothing in the end. Shame, shame, shame. (Iceland - 2006)

In this very poor story the Executioner is in France to stop a wave of terror violence orchestrated by a rich family to destabilize french society. The entire book just felt wrong for a Bolan adventure. One annoying thing was the ease with which Bolan could be ambushed. Either the villains had minions stationed at every corner and parking lot in France or they had a crystal ball. Every character in this book knew more than Bolan about what was going on and about the tactical situation. Another sore spot was the amazing amount of equipment lugged around by Bolan everywhere he went. Whenever the author wanted him to have something he just pulled it out of his pocket. Insulated pliers, rubber gloves, magnesium ribbon, etc. The Executioner's pockets must be the size of flour sacks. It's a sloppy way for an author to write his protagonist out of a jam. It's possible that the author didn't know the Bolan character very well. Bolan is presented as the kind of "wild assed warrior" that Don Pendleton took such great pains to avoid him being. He never stops to recon when he can just walk right up to the front door of the bad guy's house. There is plenty of action here because Bolan walks into more trouble than even a slightly cautious hero should find. Most of the action is contrived and not very satisfying. I could go on about this stinker but I just don't have the heart for it. 3 stars for some decent action when Bolan is chased by KGB goons and for the cool scene in the caves.

I also suspect its a Leslie novel. His use of caves is pretty much gave it away. The only flaw in that is that the book seems to be two novels stitched into one. I suspect Leslie wrote the last half. The first half focused far more on the victims of Jaques and how they are using drugs to win votes. I thought it was interesting seeing Mack infiltrate the school camp. I wish there was more of those scenes. At one point after that drug-user girl came to him wanting help it seemed like he wanted to help these kids. Why did this go away? Suddenly its all about destroying the main headquarters. The helping these poor kids is gone. Also it would have been nice if Mack found out what happened to the old man who tried to help him? Three good people died helping him not two. An 8 for the first help and a 3 for the second. Total of 6 average - rounding up. The last half is so standard infilitrate and destroy.

After reading this thrilling book, i suspect that the author missing from the credit might be Peter Leslie.I could be wrong but the writing style seems to be consistent with his. This is the first book i ever loaned to a friend, And he loved it, so it's good enough to introduce to new people.

An interesting entry into the series.

I ONLY GIVE THIS ONE ***

An entertaining entry.