Something I find funny about Pinnacle's paperback series about Mack Bolan, the Executioner, is that I was exposed to them all the time when I was a kid, but never read them. The reason I was exposed to them (this is the funny part) is because my mother read them. She was a voracious reader, often staying up well into the night to munch sunflower seeds and read. A lot of what she read were Harlequin romances, which she would store in brown paper grocery bags and trade with her friends, but I also remember her reading Mack Bolan novels, and I have no idea why I never did, since I was also (and have always been) a huge reader.But I have many of them now, and there are few better ways to entertain yourself alone for two hours or so. Author Don Pendleton, who quit the series after #38, knew how to tell a tough, quick, violent yarn, and without spending very many words on it, managed to give his characters some personality.
Book #14, SAN DIEGO SIEGE, published in 1972, is not structured a whole lot differently than earlier Executioner novels. Once again, Bolan enters a new city, assesses the Mafia's threat to that city, and sets about to cut the cancer out using firepower and guts.
The twist this time is that Bolan has help. Returning from 1969's DEATH SQUAD, in which Bolan reunited with some Vietnam buddies to extinguish a threat in Los Angeles, are the survivors of that adventure: scrounger Politician and electronics expert Gadgets. This time, they reunite to investigate the suspicious suicide of their former commander in 'Nam, Howlin' Harlan Winters, and what looks like his involvement with a San Diego mobster named Little Ben Lucasi.
Pendleton creates something of a mild mystery to go with the flavorful action and brisk pace, making SAN DIEGO SIEGE another entertaining Executioner entry. And, as always, you gotta love the painted cover, which is even semi-accurate for once.
5 comments:
In addition to all of the spin-off series (Able Team, etc.), you probably know about Don Pendleton's The Executioner comics from 1993, published by the defunct, Wheeling, WV-based Innovation Comics.
If not, enjoy!
http://www.donpendleton.com/theexecutionercomics.htm
That series was never completed, is that right? It was a 4-part series, but only 3 issues came out?
Hi Marty,
Thanks for the nice comments and review of my late husband, Don Pendleton's book. I'm not surprised to hear your Mom read them as about 40% of Don's fans were said to be women.
The first Comic, War Against the Mafia only had 3 parts published and the company, Innovation, went bankrupt before part four was published. It was disappointing. Don and I scripted the comics, and then, following his death, I adapted the second novel in his series, Death Squad, to a b/w graphic novel published by Vivid...which was Sandu Florea, the artist on the first comics and on Death Squad.
Linda
Hi, Linda! Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Executioner comics when I drop by the comics shops and conventions this summer. I've really been getting a kick out of the novels the last couple of years, and I'm sorry I never got around to them sooner.
Would anyone like to purchase a collection of these. They belonged to my late husband.
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