Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A Good Day To Die

The Penetrator comes to Mardi Gras, but not to party, in Pinnacle's fifth paperback adventure published under the name of Lionel Derrick. All the Penetrator books were actually penned by two different men: Mark Roberts wrote the odd-numbered entries, Chet Cunningham, the even.

So, it's Roberts who's responsible for the entertaining MARDI GRAS MASSACRE (which is completely unrelated to this 1978 film, which I own, but haven't gotten around to watching). The 1974 novel lures Mark Hardin to New Orleans, naturally, using a mysterious letter posted to his secret California headquarters by a Cajun fisherman who is murdered before the Penetrator arrives.

Teaming up with the fisherman's beautiful (but aren't they all?) daughter Angelique, the Penetrator looks into the Gulfland Fisherman's Co-Op, led by the effete hood Marcel Bouchet, which is bullying the local fisherman into accepting its terms…or no terms at all. Hardin's path of destruction includes blowing up Bouchet's multi-million-dollar cannery ship and a wild boat chase to an island where evidence that can reveal Bouchet's plot to destroy the U.S. economy with perfect counterfeit bills can be found.

Another great Penetrator adventure, most of which I read while waiting for the mechanics at CarX to replace the brake pads on my Malibu Classic.

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