The New Destroyer: Choke Hold

The second book in the Remo Williams restart – THE NEW DESTROYER: CHOKE HOLD – builds upon all the things that made the early books such classics. The Destroyer novels always have been a bit political, with the previous book tackling immigration, and this time out, Remo has a much bigger target that everyone can get behind: big tobacco.

Yep, Remo and Chiun are going after Cheyenne Tobacco and its extremely addictive new cigarettes that make heroin addiction seem like a day in the park. But I’m getting way ahead of myself.

Written by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney, CHOKE HOLD opens with an anti-cigarette campaign ad being shot in downtown New York City, where tons of body bags – all supposedly filled with paper or dummies – were being used. No one takes notice – until the smells hit, that is – that 16 people are found dead inside, all with ties to major tobacco companies.

This sets off warning bells for CURE, sending Remo and Chiun to do some investigating in their own style, which usually means barging their way through and leaving a serious wake. But it looks like 15 of the bodies were killed in some mysterious manner that has Chiun extremely upset. It seems a faction of Chinese who stole some Sinanju secrets years ago and thought to be gone are back with a vengeance.

But it’s the 16th body that throws a wrench into things, being killed by a nail gun to the head. This leads our twosome on a mission that recounts what happened to the lost colony of Jamestown and the connection to a secret plant thought to have been wiped out by Sinanju long ago. Along with a girl named Aphrodite, the duo travels to the great wilds of Canada, of all places, all to finish a job that Chiun believes should have been done right the first time by a former master.

To say that the cigarette companies’ plans go up in smoke would just be a really bad cliché on my part. Throw in a CEO who believes it’s sugar that causes cancer and not smoking, and I think you can see how the humor plays out in this one.

Again, Murphy and Mullaney are writing as though they’ve been infused with a newfound energy – I’m talking the glory days of The Destroyer novels. They throw in some thinly veiled jabs at public persons, one being a certain female news anchor and the other a certain new website which gets way too much attention. But this is only a drop in the bucket compared to others who make appearances later on: a California governor who was once a action star and a director who made some sappy love story out of a maritime disaster.

These are the little asides that make The Destroyer series so much fun. Plus, who knew Murphy was a SOUTH PARK fan? –Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• THE BEST OF THE DESTROYER by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
• THE DESTROYER #14: JUDGMENT DAY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #22: BRAIN DRAIN by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #48: PROFIT MOTIVE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #49: SKIN DEEP by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #77: COIN OF THE REALM by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #78: BLUE SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #104: ANGRY WHITE MAILMEN by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #145: DRAGON BONES by Tim Somheil
• GRANDMASTER by Warren Murphy
• THE NEW DESTROYER: GUARDIAN ANGEL by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
• TRACE: GETTING UP WITH FLEAS by Warren Murphy

About Bruce Grossman

Bruce writes the "Bullets, Broads, Blackmail and Bombs" weekly column. He lives in Massachusetts.