Sparks

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.

Lord have mercy..this is the worst piece of junk I have ever read in my entire life. Poor sentence structure, dull dialog, no grammatic skills what so ever from the author,. This book had no business being published by Gold Eagle. As an avid fan and reader of the Mack Bolan Series since 1978, I was offended. I hope this Arnett guy never writes another Bolan book again. The scene description was confusing, the bad guys were boring and there was absolutly no suspence. I only read it to keep up with Bolan story timeline. I could write a better book than this. This person must have flunked 7th grade english. This book gets only one star because ther is no -7 stars. By the way the correct slang expression is 'Whats going down ?' not 'whats coming down ?' This expression pops up about 10 times in the book and was very iritating. Get a job Arnett! Only for true Able team fanatics.

Mack Bolan goes gunning after Italian terrorists with a modified AutoMag and lots of poorly written action scenes from this amateur author (or maybe he was just under pressure to finish the story real quick). This was definitly the worst Executioner book I have ever read (out of books 1 - 52). The only evidence of a plot was the caption on the back of the book. The ultimatum was never discussed in the book, only that the family of DiAlto was being held hostage for some reason. The book was crammed with lots of action and thats the only reason I gave it 4 stars. Its started out with a bang and I was enjoying it up until Leo shows up from the states. Then it really dawned on me how poorly written this book is. Ive read other books from Mertz (of course I was in the 8th grade then) and don't remember them being this bad. This book just did not have any soul ! The supporting characters were mediocre and the two main villians were the first ones killed in the showdown at the end. Null suspense. Null tension. Then it just ended. The story was way too short. 1 star more for 'The Guns of Col. John Phoenix'. The added section at the end was pretty informative. Maybe the author should have read it before he wrote the book. 5.1 Stars for this entry

An average start to a pretty cool series as Phoenix Force assembles for the first time to rescue American Hostages held for ransom in Argentina. I would have liked the book much better with more details on the backgrounds of each individual character and them meeting maybe near the end of the book. For me they were all too quick to say yes. I also thought... the character of Keio Ohara did'nt really fit into the team; he had never even killed anyone before. This did however provide some morbid suspense in the scene where Yakov is rescued from the germans. Ironicaly for me, it was the highlight of the book. also... David Mc Carter and Rafael are definitaly cool characters! I liked the authors style alot as well as his use of dialog and improvised weapons. Other than that the book was mediocre and the real plot, the rescue of the hostages, was no big deal. The main villian was also not very menacing. Nevertheless, I look forward to more Phoenix Force. 5.4 stars for this Action-Adventure.

hey, not bad at all! Another wierd mission for the boys as they go 'Apocalyptica' style deep into the heart of the Amazon to shut down a Plutonium enrichment operation commandeered by Khmer Rouge exiles and a band of international scumbags. It was very entertaining watching Lyons sucuumb to native traditions and dawning warpaint as he turns into 'Rambo on mescaline'. lots of cool action scenes and combat tactics and strong support provided by Thomas Jefferson Xavante (an indian native) and Lt. Silveras of the Brazilian Army, whom the team rescues from near death at the hands of Chan Sanns mercs as well as being at the mercy of all kinds of jungle critters; including wasps the size of birds, alligators and pirahna. Able Teams job is to go in and gather information only. A soft probe. Yeah right ! Within 24 hours they begin assembling a pretty big army and have tons of weapons, munitions and supplies being flown in from the states. Although an ally, all of this leads Lt. Silveras to think the team is really CIA planning to invade Brazil. Naturally the CIA is a joke compared to Stony Man. Of course Silveras can't seem to get it through his thick skull that Able Team are the good guys and he once again turns the gun on them. Finally Lyons lays it onto him hard on page 125. This part of the book had me howling aloud, yeah man!! "This punk's a dunce. He does not understand the real world of Mack Bolan. But let me keep it simple. Step out of line again-you die. No talk. No Philosophy. A bullet ! Man, that says it all. Classic. this book also had excellent dialog, good weapon descipt's and a cool cameo from the Executioner. The final scene in the book however let me down. It was kind of a weak finale. Too bad the author only wrote this one book. I liked his style and the book provided many funny moments. 76 points from me out of 100.

I was pulled into this classic Bolan bloodbath from the second chapter on. This one reads like a Pendleton book, and it seems the author really knows the Bolan character well. At the end of the book is a real treat for fans...a de-classified profile of Stony man One - Mack Bolan a.k.a. Col. John Phoenix with some interesting info which I did not before. His age for instance. According to the report Bolan joined the Army at age 17 and since then has undergone 25 years of on the job military training, including his missions with 'Penetration Team Able' in Vietnam. That would make Bolan 42 years old when this book came out. Man!! I wonder how old he is now ? I haven't really read any of the new books, but on the covers he still looks 42. Maybe Mack Bolan is like the guy in Highlander and doesn't really age and you can't kill him unless you cut off his head. It's the spirit that lives on and can never die. And speaking of spirit..this book has plenty of it. This book is filled with lots of Bolan philosophy and outtakes from his journal as Bolan finds himself out in the the Florida Everglades trying locate a missing Bio-Chemist connected with the death of an FBI Agent, who has died from a deady baccilus (the black plague). The Scientists Boss is a real a twisted dude and has set up a secret military base for his private army and a labratory to develop a powerful Biological Weapon which he intends to use to take over an island in the Carribean. That is after he wipes out the entire population and then shows up as mother Theresa with an antidote. But he doesn't get very far after Bolan shows up and finds out what's going on. What made the book fun for me to read was Bolan finding the scientists attractive daughter sneaking around out in the swamp with a gun. Of course she has no idea was shes gotten herself into or what the hell she's doing either and luckily has the big guy on her side to help get her father back. The interaction between the two was well written by Newton with some entertaining moments; as well as Bolan finally catching up with an old enemy..Nicky Fusco (a la Miami Massacre) who is in leauge with the mad-millionaire and Cpt. Charles Rosky, who Bolan also knows as 'Can-do Charlie' from his days in the nam. The scene where Bolan rescues the scientist and daughter from the Paramilitary Base and then escape per airboat while taking out half of Rosky's entire Army is Bolan at his bad-ass best! It's a real romp ! I gave the book 7.4 stars for this quick moving action-thriller plus 1 star for the de-classified report at the end.

I just started reading my Mack Bolan/Stony Man Collection after about a 20 year break (although I kept collecting) and this was one of the first books I started back with. I really do not understand how the book got so many good reviews...its just not that good compared to other Able Teams. This mission finds the boys sneaking and surfing out to Catalina Island to diffuse a, Psycho Bikers from Hell, hostage situation set up by a KGB mole who wants to go back to the USSR with a stolen US Nuclear Submarine. Not a bad idea for a story and the bad guys were really baaaaad!! I can see why the author probably got fired after only a couple of books. I think he was probably a sixth grader. Really. The writing is terrible. The scenes were so badly described that I was having real trouble getting through this one. Horrible grammar and silly sentences. however.. the scene at the Seaplane Terminal was awesome and that kept my interest til the end. It was classic pulp trash and a well written action scene. For that scene alone I gave the book 4 stars. I was disapointed at the last scene in the casino with the fire hose the was supposed to spray gasoline on the hostages. The whole scene was rather cartoonish and silly. I give the book one more star for weapons description. but... This book is so bad and trashy that it reads like a cool action B Movie.For Able Team Fans it is a must read. This book is "Cult"