After watching THE DOGS OF WAR for like the 30th time — yes, I know the book is different; at some point I’ll tackle it — I felt it was time for a tribute to those soldiers of fortune. You know, that little-known fun bunch of guys who like to call themselves mercenaries. They’re mean and ready to shoot anything for a price. (The film I stole this title from is finally making it to our shores in a nice, big DVD edition. It’s a low-rent DIRTY DOZEN with Fred Williamson and Bo Svenson. If that doesn’t get you excited, nothing will.)
CAPTIVE IN THE NIGHT by Donald Stokes — What you can do instead of read this 1956 book and still know more about the Algerian War? Either read the book THE BATTLE OF THE CASBAH or, even better, rent the movie THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. Wow, does nothing really happen in this book for a long time!
Blair Hansen is a professional soldier teaming up with the resistance to fight the French. Sounds exciting, but this novel drags its feet to the point I was rooting for the French to kill him. There is very little plot to keep a reader enticed to finish this one, which might have been an eye-opener for its time, but today, there’s much better material out there that covers the goings-on a whole lot better.
Blair’s reason for helping out is that a former lover is tied up into it all and she has a daughter who is dead center in the resistance struggle. To be honest, my interest waned so much that even when Blair shot someone, I was like, “Oh, really? Maybe something else will happen.” In the last two chapters, there are finally explosions, but it’s such a tedious buildup that most people will have given up by then.
The payoff is not worth the time. Oh, they blew up some tanks? Big whoop! I probably would have been better off reading some cheesy soldier of fortune tale that might be mindless, but at least would keep me entertained.
MARC DEAN: MERCENARY #2: THE SECRET OF SAN FELIPE by Peter Buck — Who knew that before he played “Don’t Go Back to Rockville,” Buck wrote mindless men’s adventure books? (That’s a joke, son.) In this 1981 paperback, a couple of women die in car accidents while working for a philanthropic organization called SISTERS. They go right off a bridge with no apparent cause — was it foul play?
That’s what the local cops think in some small town in Brazil. What’s weird is these two women have no I.D. on them, and no one from SISTERS will say they worked there. It turns out these two girls were actually ex-cons, but why are they using a cover? To find out, the CIA hires the only man it can trust: Marc Dean, a soldier-for-hire who’s on the company payroll, but well-hidden on that ledger, if you catch my drift.
Once he arrives in town, all roads lead to some mysterious construction site. The area is supposed to be a brand-new town with a huge dam, but after some investigation, all that is there is that dam and a whole lot of construction gear. That’s when Marc calls for his pals to meet him so they can get to the bottom of things. We’re about 100 pages in by the point this happens.
Now, there are action pieces, but nothing of the level of other books of this ilk. Sure, a guard getting eating alive by piranha is cool, and so is the revelation that the base is the start of a new Nazi regime. But it takes its sweet-ass time to ever get to the point. It doesn’t help that Marc and his crew are so indistinguishable from each other — except for color — that it taxes your comprehension. It’s for reasons like this why I chose to close out this column with …
MACK BOLAN: THE EXECUTIONER #60: SOLD FOR SLAUGHTER by Mike Newton — Nothing can touch the big stupidness of a Mack Bolan book. That’s not a slight at all, but a compliment to a series which still continues today. You know exactly what you’re going to get when you pick up one of these excursions into things that go bang or blow up. (Also, to bring the column full circle, the cover of this 1983 book shows the same gun as Christopher Walken uses in DOGS OF WAR.)
It must be a requirement of all men’s adventure writers to watch PRIME CUT, since so many rip off one of its central ideas: a farm that is really a front for a white slavery ring, right down to the drugged girls lying in stables. That’s where Bolan is headed, to free a fellow agent named Smiley, and that’s about as close to a John le Carré novel as this series will ever get.
The farm in question is run by a local mob boss — big surprise — so once there, Bolan claims his friend and then all hell breaks loose in typical gun-toting fashion. It blows up real good! Bolan wants to shut down the ring completely, first making a stop in New Jersey, where he finds out that it’s all based out of Algiers. Once in Algiers, Bolan tries to infiltrate the syndicate of slavers, only to see Smiley get herself caught.
To go further is really pointless. I mean, it’s a Mack Bolan book — lots of bullets flying and Bolan being that Superman of shooting. It’s just mindless fun, which is a nice change of pace. Newton knows the audience he is playing to; no one is going to confuse this with Graham Greene or, for that matter, Tom Clancy. The novel is like a mind enema: You’ll feel refreshed as it clears out all the cobwebs and clutter to start something with a bit more substance. Sure, you won’t remember it the next day, but man, it’s a fun ride while it lasts.
Next time: Danger is their middle name! —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THE EXECUTIONER:
• ABLE TEAM #1: TOWER OF TERROR by Don Pendleton and Dick Stivers
• THE EXECUTIONER #6: ASSAULT ON SOHO by Don Pendleton
• THE EXECUTIONER #15: PANIC IN PHILLY by Don Pendleton
• THE GUNS OF TERRA 10 by Don Pendleton
Related posts:
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Shoot First, Think Later
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Go, Team Venture!
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Trio of Testosterone
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> They Wrote Other Stuff?
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Creative Bankruptcy
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Peter Buck is apparently a house name used by Peter Leslie on this Mercenary adventure. It’s a direct lift from the Man From UNCLE Ace paperback-The Diving Dames Affair by Leslie that was published back in the 60s. Leslie also copied some of his UNCLE stories for a couple of Mack Bolan stories.
Thanks for the info Larry E. Have a few other UNCLE books including The Radioactive Camel Affair which Leslie wrote.. I’ll look to see if I have any of his Bolan titles so I can skip those.