Blood Sons Of Allah

After his way-out adventure 20,000 leagues beneath the sea in THE ZEMLYA EXPEDITION, the Death Merchant's next adventure, set in North Africa, seems almost staid in comparison. NIGHTMARE IN ALGERIA certainly has less story and may be the most thinly plotted Death Merchant book I've yet read. #18 in the long-running Pinnacle series, Joseph Rosenberger's 1976 novel finds Richard Camellion undercover in Algeria with Palestinian terrorists calling themselves the Blood Sons of Allah. His cover is blown in the first chapter, however, by the unexpected arrival of Irina Golbov, a KGB agent of Camellion's acquaintance.

After some very graphic bloodshed, the Death Merchant escapes, but his assignment remains: to prevent the Sons of Allah and black American traitors called the Black Avengers from succeeding in their plot to assassinate Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger and Anwar Sadat. However, they don't really get very far, and as per usual for the series, at least half of the book's 180 pages are dedicated to describing various methods of destroying the human body. Frankly, it becomes monotonous after awhile, very much like a Michael Bay movie where one is just pounded over and over with action and violence without style or motivation. Rosenberger has no interest in story or pacing, just killing. The Death Merchant books are sexless and the definition of "in your face," yet they do serve as perfect mindless fodder for reading on the train or at the beach, though Rosenberger's racist, xenophobic, atheist and vaguely anti-Semitic attitudes may be a turnoff for you.

Oh, and Rosenberger also reveals the real truth behind the JFK assassination, as it is told to the Death Merchant by a reliable source. Now you really have to read NIGHTMARE IN ALGERIA.