St. Louis Showdown (The Executioner #23)

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Title: St. Louis Showdown
Series: The Executioner
Author: Don Pendleton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 181

Synopsis:
Mack Bolan realizes that he can't keep playing whack-a-mole with the mafia and so changes tactics. Instead of just indiscriminately killing, Bolan decides to not kill old mafia leaders who aren't young bucks looking to take over the country. Let the seniors and the bucks try to kill each other. Playing the mafia against itself, so to speak.

At the same time, Bolan hooks up with Able Team yet again as they are on a mission in St. Louis and could really use the help.

And to make things really complicated, Mack's kid brother, who is now 16, wants to team up with his big brother. Not because he wants justice, but because his guardian, Val, former lover and True Love of Mack Bolan, is marrying someone else who wants to adopt him when Val gets married.

In the end, Bolan solves the problems and marches on, alone as always.

My Thoughts:
Pendleton is definitely leading into a more Team Oriented Mack Bolan with his introduction in an earlier book of Able Team. Since he's using them again, I can see Mack joining for at least a while. Until someone else dies and he goes all lone wolf.

I also liked how the whole Val and kid brother thing is being taken care of once and for all. Married, adopted and out of the picture completely. Sucks for Mack, that is for sure. Now he is really alone.  If I had been him, I would have taken a year off from my war, trained my brother and then gone back with a vengeance with a competently trained soldier watching my back. However, it certainly makes more sense story wise to just remove them. Glad Pendleton didn't decide to gruesomely kill them.

I really enjoy these books, as shallow and plot by numbers as they are.