LandRover

A solid effort on all fronts, chock full of hands-on information without getting bogged down so much with that the action lags. Some great subplots and good character development, too, and far better dialogue than in most books in these series. In light of all the merits it's had to fault such minor things as a few plot convtrivances. Highly recommended!

This book was so front-loaded with exposition and wooden dialogue that it was difficult to hang with it long enough for the payoff, which came as the pieces finally started to fall into place in such a way that there was more action than explanations and unecessary description.

Super spin on TRAFFIC, with Bolan proving to be the weapon the czar guy in that movie could've used. Good pacing, great characaters, action galore: An excellent addition to my collection.

A good, nearly great book that suffered only its failure to fully milk what should have been one mother of a climax, given everything leading up to it. I give the other two books in the trilogy 8s also, only because I think this whole tale would have benefited by being leaner and meaner, i.e. in the context of one of the SuperBolan books. Still, some of Mertz's best work here, at least what I've read of his.

A somewhat padded, been-there-done-that thriller that might have read better if the followup was rolled into it and maed into one faster-paced book. Some great bits of dialogue and some intriguing chemistry with Bolan and his FBI femme sidekick, but the whole neo-Nazi stuff felt very color-by-number. Newton's done better.

What I liked best about this book were the twists, like with the would-be call girl who winds up being a bounty hunter who's husband is a CIA agent on the same case. And it didn't seem hokey. And there were other twists like this that came across as totally credible because of the writing. I even thought for a minute that Encizo had indeed been killed off. All around a fun, keep-you-guessing book. I'm betting the woman bounty hunter turns into a regular character down the line.

This came across to me like an attempt to run an old-fashioned jungle thriller through the Able Team formula. Nice try, but not the best fit for this series, though the writing itself was above par, as was the characterization and dialogue. I agree with Gunslinger's kudos about the torture-by-ants scene but otherwise think he was way too hard on the book. I see that Renaud has a new book out after what looks like a long layoff. It'll be interesting to see how the new stuff stacks up.

Hate to disagree with Tim P., who sounds suspiciously like Guenther writing his own reviews, but I found this book a bit labored and forced. There were some decent moments with Bolan going undercover in Colorado, but otherwise this was all pretty standard fare filled with scenes and plotlines that seemed overly familiar.