This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Romanoff Jewels Series: The Shadow #19 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 142 Words: 43K
Commies, Czar’ists and The Shadow all collide! Man, this was a weird read. Russian Royalty simply hasn’t been a part of our world close to 100 years now and so to read a story about it just after its heyday, still a force to be reckoned with, really threw me. It was kind of hard to take seriously too.
The Shadow really plays up the human factor in this story. He’s fully Lamont Cranston as much as he is the Shadow and he gets shot and beaten up and generally manhandled as any one person would in these circumstances. I’m used to The Shadow utterly triumphing, not surviving by the skin of his teeth.
I’ve never heard of the Romanoff Jewels, so everything about them, (a fabled stash of jewels representing the sum wealth of the Czars that was hidden away for their eventual return) was brand new and any info in the book I just took at face value. I did have some problem with the revelation that they were all fakes at the end. I had to roll my eyes at the naivete and stupidity of both commies and czarists thinking they were real. One jeweler is all it would have taken to prove things. It was shown that The Shadow’s ghirasol ring WAS one of the originals, and while it seems to have no purpose or function, it has a mystical mystique about it that in turn conferred such a feeling on the rest of the horde (that turned out not to exist). It would be like finding out that my food pantry was made up of a piece of wood from the Ark of the Covenant and that Putin and Kamala Harris were both after it.
Another good read and I enjoyed it. Overall, I don’t ever see myself re-reading these Shadow books, but that’s ok. Not every book is written to be re-read. Once and done is sometimes ok…
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Click to Open
The lofty towers of the Kremlin loomed like spectral spires against a darkened sky. Senov – master spider in a web of espionage – was about to ensnare America in the most nefarious deal of all time: behind the guise of a trade detente, he and his treacherous American trusties will swap the Romanoff jewels for help in restoring the ancient Russian monarchy! Only a certain black-clad form, swept like the shroud of night itself across the oceans and mountains of a desperate world, could hope to challenge such global enemies… and from the mysteries of New York’s Cobalt Club to the thrills of a breathtaking submarine voyage the Shadow carves a dark and hidden path for the forces of justice: beware The Shadow as you beware the darkest unknown!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: False Flag Series: Jason Trapp #2 Author: Jack Slater Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 362 Words: 114K
This was an absolute piece of garbage, trash, whatever word you’d like to refer to it as. I’ll be done with this writer after this.
To give any of those of you who have hung around for awhile a comparison, this reminded me exactly of the Agent Zero series and the Jet series, both of which were also about supposedly super duper secret agents written by authors who obviously don’t know a thing about that subject, and I do mean absolutely nothing about it.
I ended up emailing Fraggle to run some things across her radar to make sure I wasn’t completely out to lunch. I wasn’t. So I’m going to copy/paste the majority of that email to show just how stupid this author this and why a brick wall is smarter than he supposedly is.
I didn’t start taking notes until later. I wish I had started from the get-go. But I’ll try to list the chapter, the relevant sentence or sentences in italics and then my question or comment.
I also had a ton more notes after where I leave off, but most of it was around Trapp being wildly inconsistent in his methodology (who he kills, why, etc) that shows he’s not a professional at all. We’re just told that he is. I was getting steamed, again, so figured I’d leave off 😀
Plus a lot more pro-China stuff. The President of the United States would NEVER lower himself to talk to some random ambassador. He’d be on the Red Phone, or whatever color it is, with the General Secretary (ie, China’s president) himself. And this is an instance of the author just not getting the American mindset. Whether it is of Trapp or anyone else, they do not THINK like Americans who are in those positions. It is Hollywood’ized beyond even Hollywood.
Chapter 14: about Trapp
“Maybe he was being irrational, but he couldn’t help it.“
The “best in the business” agent, like Trapp supposedly is, has that kind of feelingzzz trained out of him. He CAN help it, or he would have been dead long before this.
Chapter 23: about Ikeda (female agent)
“Alstyne was her first kill. He deserved it, but the CIA operative was no psychopath. She should have been flown directly to an Agency shrink after completing the operation, for a debrief to check he mental state.”
Is equating killing of any kind with being a psychopath. I can’t even begin to describe how wrong that mindset is. Especially for those in a military/black ops situation.
Killing is part and parcel of an agents job. It is beyond unbelievable that she would have immediately flown back to have her little feelingz coddled. She’d get a 10min exam to make sure she didn’t enjoy it and that would be it. She’d spend more time on paperwork for the poison lipstick. And only a naive idiot in the business would think otherwise. Or an uninformed writer.
Chapter 28: about Trapp arriving in China
“he knew that if America picked a fight with this country, it would be like Germany invading the Soviet Union in 1941, or Napoleon doing the same a hundred and fifty years earlier.”
Choice of the word “picked a fight”. The whole book is pro-China, anti-America and no agent of the United States black ops would even THINK that way. And numbers aren’t everything. Sure, China has 4 times the US’s population, but 9/10ths of them are still uneducated peasants, because China’s communist party keeps them that way to control them. We’d kill the leadership and let the country wallow like a ship without a rudder. I’m a civilian and even I know that much military doctrine.
Chapter 39: about Trapp and his boss talking about Ikeda
““Ikeda isn’t the priority,” Mitchell said sharply. “She knew what she was signing up for. Those are the risks in this business.” Trapp’s fist clenched, and a pang of anger shot through his body. He knew that Mitchell wasn’t saying anything that he himself didn’t believe. Hell, he’d said exactly the same to others many times. But this, somehow, was different. It wasn’t academic, or cut and dry. He had sent Eliza into that room and hadn’t been able to protect her. She might have known what she was signing up for. But she couldn’t possibly have expected to have been failed in that way. This was Trapp’s mess. And he damn well intended to clean it up.“
He obviously doesn’t believe it, otherwise he wouldn’t be “reacting” this way. He’s no professional. It isn’t different. Every agent can expect to die on a mission, and to be tortured first. Trapp knows this, Ikeda knows this. And it isn’t Trapp’s job to “protect” Ikeda, she’s a full fledged agent after all. Nor is it his “mess”. His job was to kill the scumbag and recover the info/flash drive. He did both of those. Rescuing Ikeda is a good thing, but it’s not priority, just like his boss says at the beginning.
Chapter 42:
“”But in all those years, at least since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the real threat had come from terrorists, not nation states.“
And those terrorists were and continue to be, funded by Nation States. It’s a series of proxy wars. 9/11 was funded by the Saudis. Libya trained and funded terrorist cells all during the 70’s and up until Qaddafi died. And a “trained agent” would know this and not make asinine statements like the above.
★✬☆☆☆
From Devilreads.com
Synopsis – click to open
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But Jason Trapp is losing his taste for it. For six months, his personal crusade has taken him around the world, mopping up the last of the Bloody Monday conspirators. There’s only one left, and after the crooked financier Emmanuel Alstyne meets his maker, Trapp’s debt will be paid in full. He vows he’s done with the business of death. Unfortunately, it isn’t done with him. After a simple kill mission goes sideways in Macau, leaving a CIA spy kidnapped, half a dozen Chinese agents dead, and America’s satellites burning in the skies, Trapp is propelled back into the game. Eliza Ikeda was taken on his watch, and he’s determined to get her back–no matter the cost. The problem is, he has no idea who took her, why, or what they plan to do next. Trapp knows he’s being played. And with the world’s only two superpowers hurtling toward the precipice of war, time is running out…
ps, Due to work, my online presence for the next couple of days will be very sporadic.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Dead Men Live Series: The Shadow #18 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 150 Words: 45K
We get to play in a full sized castle, In America!
The Shadow is American+Infinity!
The situation is one anyone familiar with Atlas Shrugged will recognize. Only instead of all the egghead geniuses being whisked away voluntarily, they are kidnapped and doppleganger corpses left in their place. They are then kept prisoner in the aforementioned castle and made to work on whatever it was that brought them to the attention of the bad guys.
The Shadow has one of his men infiltrate them, infiltrates the gang himself and then causes untold havoc. Guns blazing, fists flying, bodies lying dead all over the place. Just what the Dr ordered in fact.
One interesting thing about reading older books (this was published in the 1930’s, so almost 100 years ago) is you get to see “new” ideas and how they have no idea of the limitations yet. Much like fiction writers of today with their “dna’s” and “black holes” and “quarks” and other scyenze schizzle that they don’t actually understand beyond the most basic level (and that’s partly not their fault, because NOBODY understands the limits of those just yet). In this novel, it is plastic surgery. The bad guys kidnap hobos, etc, who bear a similarity to the people they want to kidnap, the doctor does his presto-chango magic plastic surgery on them and two days later they look just like the guy who is about to be kidnapped. Most of said hobos were then killed in some sort of fiery explosion to deal with fingerprints etc. And nobody is the wiser. I’m not knocking it, it’s just fun to see how those kind of things have change with the reality of the situation. Which is why I’m always skeptical of “scyence” people extrapolating something from a starting point that they barely understand themselves, much less non-specialists.
Another good thing about this story was that it was Harry Vincent’less. I do not like Harry. He’s the male version of Nell Fenwick, who only exists to get tied to train tracks and be rescued by Dudley Do-Right. Or in these books, The Shadow. So a story without Harry getting shot, bopped on the head, kidnapped or almost killed and then miraculously rescued by The Shadow is a good story in my opinion.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis – click to open
A trio of criminal masterminds kidnap geniuses from various fields for their own personal gain. The Shadow gets wind of the plot and sends in his man Marston to stop it. He also personally gets involved. It ends with the 3 criminals dead, the geniuses rescued, 2 stepbrothers reconciled and The Shadow triumphant.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Cthulhu Resurgent Series: Cthulhu: Harrison Peel #2 Editor: David Conyers Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Short Story Collection Pages: 262 Words: 108K
This is where I get off the Harrison Peel train. Once again, he goes through some mind breaking experiences (his fiance is killed in front of his eyes by a shoggoth masquerading as a human) and while not shrugging it off, pretty much does shrug it off. He should have been left a mindless, gibbering wreck. Instead, he just soldiers on. Usually, that’s what I want. But as I discussed in the review for the first book (Cthulhu Reloaded), that is NOT what I want, or any true fan wants, when it comes to Cosmic Horror. Conyers continues to snub his nose at convention, so I say “phooiey” to him!
Not a very good start to my reading month, now is it?
★★✬☆☆
Table of Contents & From the Publisher:
Click to Open
“The Spiraling Worm” (2007) (by David Conyers and John Sunseri)
“The Road to Afghanistan” (2013)
“The Eye of Infinity” (2014)
“The Temporal Deception” (2015) (by David Conyers and C. J. Henderson)
“The Gravity Museum” (2021)
Humans are a mistake. The laws of physics prove it.
Army intelligence officer Major Harrison Peel has spent a lifetime fighting eldritch horrors, constantly clawing through the veil of reality ready to annihilate our world. But how do you win the war when these alien gods — and not terrestrial life — are the true nature of reality? In Antarctica, a new threat emerges. Shape-shifting aliens called Shoggoths that can mimic people and integrate into human society, who are manipulating us from within. Then Peel discovers their true intensions… If Peel can’t defeat these Shoggoths abominations, they won’t just destroy us, but enslave humanity into a billion years of servitude…
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Deep State Series: Jason Trapp #1 Author: Jack Slater Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 391 Words: 124K
I started this book and something just seemed “off” to me. Nothing huge, nothing glaring, but something just wasn’t right. So I started highlighting and taking notes whenever something struck me. I finally twigged to what the root cause was when I saw the following sentence: “As Perkins and Winks manhandled the prisoner inside, Trapp gently grabbed Dani’s arm. She was dressed in black jeans, a warm JUMPER and an FBI windbreaker.” ~Chapter 40
That explained everything, and I mean everything. For those who don’t understand, I shall explain. The English Language is not a monolithic entity. It is broken up into two main spheres of Influence, The King’s English (booo, hiss, fart noises) and American English (patriotic singing, manly muscles, rah rah rah). In American English, which this book should have been written in as it is dealing with the American Government and a member of a black ops CIA team, a jumper is someone who is about to or has already, committed suicide by jumping from a high place, usually a building. It would be quite UNUSUAL for someone to wear a dead body as part of their clothing outfit, even if they are an FBI agent. However, in the King’s English, a jumper is a warm, long sleeved garment that is between a shirt and a coat. In American English, we call that garment a “sweater”. So this author, which I shall get to next, is some bloody foreigner acting like he knows what the feth he’s talking about when it comes to action and adventure and American Patriotism.
And he gets it wrong. Completely wrong. Jason Trapp is supposed to be this super patriot, a Mitch Rapp as it were. He views himself as a sheepdog for the sheep of the American Public. The problem is, he despises the sheep for how they act, thinks he’s innately better than them and doesn’t come across as serving them at all. He comes across as a macho blowhard with an attitude. Big Government is here to help and damn any of you peons who thinks to get above himself by actually trying to better himself. Eat dirt slave. THAT is the vibe I get here.
After that blinding revelation that this wasn’t written by an American (rah, rah, rah!), I tried to find out some info about the author. I usually regret doing that, but there are times when my personal enjoyment doesn’t matter and I need to know the truth. There are several Jack Slater’s. One of them is this author. Another appears to be some Brit who writes police procedural novels. But the biggest hit on google is for this Jack Slater:
The main character’s name is Jack Slater
Maybe this author’s name really is Jack Slater and it is not a pseudonym. I can’t say. But his website has even less info about him than my About page has about me and the “photo” just screams anonymity. My skeptometer is running above the 100% mark concerning this guy.
There is also the very typical European outlook on individuals owning guns and using them as they should. The lady FBI character spouts off a thought about how “the good man with a gun” is just a myth and that situations are never solved by such a mythological being. The problem is, for the author, that’s a lie. Not misinformation, but a damned lie. The reason the public doesn’t hear about the many instance of “the good man with a gun” is because it doesn’t fit the mass media’s narrative here in the United States and thus they never run with the stories. But you can find those stories in the local papers, etc. Lest you think I am simply making up crap (like the author did), this is a documented phenomena that Larry Correia writes about in his book, In Defense of the Second Amendment. Full set of footnotes in the rear of the book.
I have now written over 600 words condemning this book. Most of my reviews are half that length, even including the synopsis (remember, short stocking bald men are the most attractive and the same goes for reviews), so I can understand if you are totally confused about why I still rated this 3stars. Two words
The Fething Action. (fething isn’t a real word so it doesn’t count, ha!)
Jason Trapp takes on terrorists with an aluminum baseball bat. He is attacked by a fighter jet with a big ol’ bunker buster missile and survives. He takes on a whole squad of Israeli mercenaries who are the best of the best (but not good enough). And he poisons the Vice-president of America with a Batman level poison pen. IT. WAS. AWESOME. In a previous review I joked about parachuting in and killing you with a nuclear bazooka. Well, Jason Trapp would have actually done it.
All of that being said, the next book will make or break Jason Trapp for me. If I get even a whiff of anti-gun propaganda, I will dnf the series like Mitch Rapp putting a bullet in a terrorist’s skull. No fear, no hesitation.
Mitch Rapp approves this drink
★★★☆☆
From the Publisher:
Click to Open
If you come after the CIA’s most feared assassin, there’s one cardinal rule: Don’t miss. America is under attack. Thousands lie dead after simultaneous strikes across the country. The day will come to be known as Bloody Monday. Jason Trapp, codename ‘Hangman’, was a covert operative whose feats became the stuff of legend. He was the tip of the spear—the man his country unleashed when all hope was lost. Six months ago, someone sold him out. The Agency listed him as killed in action. He lost everything—and everyone—he held dear. But Trapp’s not that easy to kill. As his country reels from the deadliest terrorist attacks it has ever witnessed, Trapp’s personal vendetta leads him right back to where he started: duty to his country. The violence, the terror, the assassination of his partner… It’s all connected. And now the Hangman is coming for the guilty.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Five Chameleons Series: The Shadow #17 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 128 Words: 40K
This was probably the first book where the Shadow really takes a beating. He’s been shot before, but this time it’s to the point of incapacitation. Never seen him so weak, but he still kills the bad guys. That’s how it should be.
I was expecting more from the Chameleons. Turns out they are just crooks that can pretty much blend into any situation and become whatever the circumstances demand. In this case, it was a bank manager, some bank tellers and a mortician. Not quite what I had in mind from the title. But, the leader, the guy playing the bank manager, manages to out think the Shadow and shoots him. Of course, the author sets up “circumstances” so the gang can’t immediately shoot the Shadow dead, which gives him opportunity to revive and fight back. A knife to his throat would have been just as effective at that point and it would have been silent. Lesson Number 1 in Villainy is always make sure the Hero is dead, really, totally, utterly dead. Or else he’ll come back and get you. Just like the Shadow does 😀
Speed of communication is the lifeblood of a society. I wrote about it in Kalin (A Dumarest book) and it has shown itself throughout the Shadow books as well. The crooks plan depends on people and the Feds not finding out about the counterfeit money until they are long gone. They are planning on days and possibly weeks. The Shadow counters that with a highspeed plane that gets information to his confederates in a day and brings those same confederates back to help him out. It still amazes me how the speed of information changes a culture. How much faster can we get? I’m kind of afraid to find out…
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis – click to open
The Shadow seeks to unmask The Five Chameleons, master villains whose uncanny ability to blend with their surroundings rivals his own. Having hit upon a plan to funnel counterfeit money through a bank and steal genuine money, the scheme soon turns to murder and the Shadow becomes involved. He kills them all and saves the community.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Ghost Makers Series: The Shadow #16 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 120 Words: 37K
A bunch of scam artists pretend to be able to talk to the dead and bilk idiots out of their money. This is only possible if you don’t believe in soul sleep. Which I doubt any of you do. So prepare yourselves to get bilked, because the Amazing Bookstoogio will now do something that no one has ever done before.
I will end this review before it even gets started. Tada!
Now give me your money!
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Fake Mystics from India are fleecing the dumb and gullible nitwits here in the United States. The Shadow can’t stand for that, so he steps in and sends his own gullible nitwit against the fakirs, Detective Cardona. The whole gang is wrapped up and Cardona gets the accolades.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Betrayal Series: Jet #2 Author: Russell Blake Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 238 Words: 75K
I am a fan of the Bourne movies, not the books. The books are slow and while not technically boring, are not action/thriller books. They are 1980/90’s spy books. I bring this up because in the synopsis it claims that fans of the Bourne trilogy will be delighted by this book. They lied. I was NOT delighted. I wasn’t enthralled. I was not even amused slightly.
Pretty much everything I wrote in my review for Jet (book 1) applies to this one as well.
Jet is not professional. In fact, I might be a better assassin than she is. She’s just lucky. All the time, every time. Even when she’s not, she’s still lucky because she lives and doesn’t die.
Jet is stupid. Plain and simple. This book starts with her heading to the US to kidnap her daughter from the family she was hidden with to protect her from any enemies that Jet has. Does she give ANY thought to the family she is taking her daughter from? Exactly zero fucks were given by Jet about them. As far as I could tell, she didn’t even research who they were, beyond where they lived. Are they good people, are they bad people, are they stable people? None of those questions are asked by Jet because all she wants is her daughter and she doesn’t take even one second to think if she SHOULD take her daughter or what is best for her daughter. It is all about Jet and nobody else.
Jet is too emotional. In fact, Jet reminded me of Agent Zero, in every worst possible way. She regularly jeopardizes whatever current mission she is on because she reacts to circumstances she encounters. She also regularly has emotional outbursts that translate into violence to those around her, with no regard for what those outbursts will lead too. Which in most cases would her being killed, if it weren’t for the author making her so lucky and staying alive (see the first point above).
The action was still awesome. In some ways, it was even better than the first book. But that is not enough.
I will be abandoning this series and I’m going to be avoiding this writer. Someone who writes such stupid people and saves them from their decisions by authorial fiat is not a writer who I want anything to do with. That is bad writing folks, just plain bad writing. There is no need for it and I won’t contribute to its perpetuation any more.
So adios Blake. You’re a wanker, a bad writer and you are making the world a worse place with your subpar crap.
★★☆☆☆
From the Publisher Twenty-eight year old Jet, the former Mossad operative from the eponymous novel JET, must battle insurmountable odds to protect those she loves in a deadly race that stretches from the heartland of Nebraska to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., from the lurid streets of Bangkok to the deadly jungles of Laos and Myanmar. Fans of Kill Bill, The Bourne Trilogy, and 24 will be delighted by this roller-coaster of action, intrigue and suspense.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Green Eyes Series: The Shadow #15 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 158 Words: 48K
For whatever reason, I really enjoy when the Shadow goes up against a Chinese villain. Part of it is that those villains tend to be extremely smart and clever and aren’t reliant on guns and muscle alone (like many of the mob bosses the Shadow regularly takes down). They have a brain and they use it. At the same time Grant (the author) isn’t promoting the “Oldskool Gangsta” lifestyle. The badguys get theirs every time. But it feels like a battle between almost equals instead of just the Shadow mopping everything up like a janitor.
In this story, the Shadow is on the West Coast of the United States, in that most evil and iniquitous state called California. The Feds are hot on the trail of a supposedly pacifist Chinese cultural movement that plans to start a new empire. Massive drug smuggling is involved and the Shadow is captured, good and proper. Sadly, the Mastermind falls into the typical villain hubris and doesn’t immediately kill the Shadow. Remember kids, if you’re going to be a villain, kill the good guy immediately! No gloating, no monologues, no torture. Just kill him. Or else he will escape and get you. It always happens that way, and it happened that way here too. Of course, I was rooting for the Shadow, so that was a good thing.
My one big disappointment was that Green Eyes did not end up referring to a Femme Fatale. I was picturing some sort of Shadow’ized Catwoman’ish lady who could take on the Shadow and then fall hopelessly in love with him. Nope. Green Eyes simply refers to a guy who can mesmerize people with his eyes. Poop to that!
But the cover. Ohhhhhh, that cover. Pure Awesomesauce! Twin automatic .45’s, the only thing better is an assault shotgun.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
There is a criminal empire being run by a mad genius out of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Nobody knows who they are or when they will strike again. Only one man can bring down the vicious criminal operations. The Shadow!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Wicked, wicked nasty politics. And Irene Kennedy is pretty much helpless.
Yeah, I don’t buy it for a second. Kennedy was trained by one of the best CIA agents whoever sat behind a desk. She knows how the game is played and even as the game changes, she is brilliant enough to stay ahead of it. Instead, she’s a stupid lackwit running three steps behind everything. I’ve complained about Mills not knowing how to utilize Kennedy and this book spotlighted that weakness. Like a prison spotlight on an escaping prisoner.
Gahhhhhh! While I’m not a fan of politics, the original author did a great job of working it into the series. Mills can’t do it, so he needs to stay away from that arena all together. This was ham handed, ham fisted, heck, it was Christmas ham’d. I can’t read this kind of thing any more. So I’m stopping Mitch Rapp until a new author takes over the franchise.
★★★☆☆
From Kylemills.com
A toxic presidential election is underway in an America already badly weakened by internal divisions. While politicians focus entirely on maintaining their own power and privilege, ISIS kidnaps a brilliant French microbiologist and forces him to begin manufacturing anthrax. Slickly produced videos chronicling his progress and threatening an imminent attack are posted to the Internet, intensifying the hysteria gripping the US.
ISIS recruits a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle the bioweapon across the border, but it’s really just a diversion. The terrorist organization needs to keep Mitch Rapp and Irene Kennedy distracted long enough to weaponize a deadly virus that they stumbled upon in Yemen. If they succeed, they’ll trigger a pandemic that could rewrite the world order.
Rapp embarks on a mission to infiltrate the Mexican cartels and track down the ISIS leader who he failed to kill during their last confrontation. But with Washington’s political elite increasingly lined up against him, he knows he’ll be on his own.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Hidden Death Series: The Shadow #14 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 138 Words: 42K
Good enjoyable pulp. The Shadow has to take on the machinations of a dead genius who is apparently killing people from beyond the grave. At the same time, the police bring on an eminent psychologist because facts just aren’t enough apparently. And no surprise to anyone, said psychologist turns out to be a bad apple. Throw in a massive attack on the Shadow by the combined might of the lowlifes of the city and you have yourself a pretty good story.
I did notice how amateur everything is (except the Shadow and his procedures). The cops are like the Keystone Cops and I have to assume that is deliberate on the part of the author and not an actual reality of the times. Individually, some of the cops are pretty good, but overall, yeah, they are a mockery of law and order.
For a much more indepth and excited review, please visit Riders of Skaith’s “Review from 2020”.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Murder of a Genius When a mechanical genius is murdered at the moment of his greatest invention, THE SHADOW decodes a plan of linked deaths and traps a master killer in a bizarre and brilliant intrigue…
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Red War Series: Mitch Rapp #17 Author: Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Thriller Pages: 316 Words: 96K
On his author page for the book, Kyle Mills shows how his speculation about powerful world leaders and specifically Putin, formed the basis for this book. Published in 2018, it was very prescient of how Russia would act in the coming years. Thankfully for us, Russia chose to invade Ukraine instead of starting World War III by invading some NATO countries. So I consider this book alternate future history.
At the same time, it was very uncomfortable as we know how the conflict actually has turned out and there is no super action hero to save the day. Men like Mitch Rapp are purely fictional, unfortunately. I’d have much preferred a truly fictional story for a truly fictional character. War is only enjoyable to read about if you know what is happening isn’t real, can’t be real and never will be real. Once it takes a turn into the possible, then you are forced to deal with the horrors of real war.
It was a great action story. With the retired assassin Azarov being forced out of retirement and working alongside Rapp, the dynamics were great. I was able to put aside my dislike of Mills’ handling of Rapp as a purely action hero’y kind of guy and just let the story carry me along, like I had just jumped out of an airplane for a HALO insertion.
And I just landed in your back yard. And killed you. With my nuclear bazooka. So I win! Just like I did when I read this book.
★★★☆☆
From Kylemills.com
Synopsis – Click to Open
When Russian president Maxim Krupin discovers that he has inoperable brain cancer, he’s determined to cling to power. His first task is to kill or imprison any of his countrymen who can threaten him. Soon, though, his illness becomes serious enough to require a more dramatic diversion—war with the West.
Upon learning of Krupin’s condition, CIA director Irene Kennedy understands that the US is facing an opponent who has nothing to lose. The only way to avoid a confrontation that could leave millions dead is to send Mitch Rapp to Russia under impossibly dangerous orders. With the Kremlin’s entire security apparatus hunting him, he must find and kill a man many have deemed the most powerful in the world.
Success means averting a war that could consume all of Europe. But if his mission is discovered, Rapp will plunge Russia and America into a conflict that neither will survive.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Jet Series: Jet #1 Author: Russell Blake Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 260 Words: 86K
I gave a LOT of leeway to this book. If I was even a smidge less generous at the moment, I’d knock this down to 2.5stars. But I am feeling generous and have a stomach full of warm, yummy lasagna, so the book gets pass. This time.
The basic story is your typical Special Forces agent tries to get out and then is dragged back into the life, kicking and screaming. I was kind of hoping for a female version of Victor the Assassin. What I got was a very messy amateur rendition of Victor.
Jet is supposed to be the TOP operator that Mossad ever had. We’re talking so good that her instructors even told her to her face just how good she was. But between Blake’s amateur writing (he constantly switches between “clip” and “magazine”, sometimes in the same paragraph for goodness sake) and Jet acting like an idiot (in one instance she shoots someone and assumes they are dead. When she walks up to them, surprise, they aren’t dead and almost kill her) really made me question those qualifications. She was lucky at least 50% of the time. That’s not skill, not even close. Victor would have eaten this supposed agent at snacktime, forget even being a meal. So that aspect was very disappointing.
Now, as a brainless action/adventure book, this did have it. In spades. Jet fights in some sort of Mardi Gras party, She gets ambushed in Israel. And the grand finale is a massive fight on a super luxury cruise yacht of a billionaire Russian. Lots of people die and gun battles galore. It’s what I wanted.
Characterization was pretty nil. The side characters were completely two dimensional and Jet herself wasn’t much more than one of those franchise fiction heroines like Annja from the Rogue Angel series. Speaking of franchise fiction, there are 10 books in this series. I plan on taking these books one at a time though. If the next one doesn’t improve however, that’ll be it.
★★★☆☆
From the Publisher
Summary – Click to Open
She faked her death……to save her life. The plan almost worked. Her code name: Jet. A lethal operative for the Mossad. Many wanted her eliminated. Spoofing her own death was the only way to survive, but it didn’t work out like she planned. The past doesn’t give up its secrets easily. The tranquil island’s beauty was shattered in an instant. The attack forced her hand, and now she must make a decision. Will she stay dead, or return to a world that wants to kill her?
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Blackmail Ring Series: The Shadow #13 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 146 Words: 44K
The Batman vibes were almost overpowering in this story. It’s a decent story about a blackmailer using other blackmailers to do his own dirty work and the Shadow catches wind of it and goes on an international rampage taking out the limbs of the Ring before finally cutting off the head.
He does detecting work.
He is very physically present in this story, with both fists, guns and body checks. He’s not a skinny wimp relying on just scare tactics. The Shadow knows how to fight and he does so.
He drives a souped up super car.
He flies his own little private airplaine.
Batman was most definitely based on the Shadow and the more I read of the Shadow, the more I realize just how much Batman took from him. In many ways, Batman is just an updated version for a new generation and a new medium (comics vs books or radio drama). And yet only 9 years separated the two and they ran concurrently for several decades.
The Shadow gets another recruit and still has to rescue Harry Vincent. I don’t understand Gibson’s continued use of him. He has let other recruits slide into the background and barely mentions them, so why can’t he do that with Harry? Some things just aren’t to be I guess. Kind of like wishing that Coca-Cola would bring back Vanilla-Orange Coke Zero. It ain’t happening. Now I am sad. I’m going over to that corner over there and have a good cry.
And that’s how I’m going to end this review, sitting in a corner crying for something that will never exist again. Ahhh, the pathos is real in this review. Weep, minions, weeeeeeeeep I say.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
The Shadow follows a bloody trail of extortion and murder that leads from the back alleys of Paris to the country homes of New England to confront “The Blackmail Ring”.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Crime Cult Series: The Shadow #12 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 156 Words: 50K
The Shadow goes up against a devotee of the Thuggee sect, which is devoted to the death goddess Kali. If you’ve ever seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, you’ll get a decent picture of the Thuggee cult. But they’re are also practitioners of the art of death by strangulation. So every victim in this story was strangled to death.
I’ve read another short story about Thuggees, either in an Alfred Hitchcock Collection or one of the Roald Dahl adult books, but I can’t be bothered to track down one specific short story. Anyway, that story also dealt with the strangulation side of the Cult, so that wasn’t a revelation here.
The more I read of these Shadow stories, the more I can why everyone says Batman was born of the Shadow. This time I noticed just how afraid the thugs, criminals and gangsters are of the Shadow and how he not only uses that fear, but encourages it. They SHOULD fear him. It reminds me of how Batman started. He wanted something to scare the badguys, to put the fear of God into their hearts and he would out-think them but also out-fight them. The Shadow had his time, and I enjoy reading these novels, but I don’t see him ever making a comeback. I mean, Batman is on the skids after all these years due to really bad story telling and the authors and artists relying on the fans buying crap just because of nostalgia and past associations. The era of Batman is coming to a close too I think.
When I wrote about Foundation and Empire last month, I mentioned how the length of it worked for me. These Shadow novels are built along the same lines and I just love it. It’s enough to entertain me without bogging me down. There are times when I’m reading a book and if I realize it’s over 300 pages I kind of groan to myself because I know the author is going to fill in all the background when I just wanted a two paragraph description of the whole world. Even better, one paragraph would suit me just fine! But instead of whining about that, I realize I have that need for brevity and these Shadow books are filling that need perfectly.
While this is the first book I am reviewing in 2024, it was not the first I read. I read a very mediocre book and just couldn’t face up to writing a review for a completely boring and mediocre book as my first review of the year. So I decided to read a good book and review it first. That’s the beauty of scheduling posts a week or so ahead of schedule, I can do things like that. I am glad to be reviewing a Shadow book first thing. It’s brief, exciting and filled with bad, gun toting thugs, decent upstanding men in the Shadow’s employ and a main character who totes two automatic pistols and isn’t afraid to use them.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Click to Open
The marks of death were upon them. A mysterious round burn no bigger than a dime scarred each forehead; upon each throat was a thin, almost invisible white line. The police were baffled, but each of the victims knew that his time was up and his page in the book of death had come due. It was obviously a case for The Shadow but the most famous crimefighter of all was missing!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Double Z Series: The Shadow #11 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 188 Words: 60K
Good stuff. As I noted at the beginning of the month:
I really liked the cover. We will see what else the month holds, but I suspect this will earn that coveted (oh so coveted!) award of Cover Love of the Month. Doesn’t get much more honorable than that, let me tell you!
The story itself was pretty good too. We get another “Agent” of the Shadow introduced. At this point I’m not even trying to remember who is who, I just read “Character Agent X” and nod my head and continue reading. The Shadow faces off against an old Chinese guy who has a booby trapped house and that was pretty cool. Sadly, Old Chinese Guy isn’t Double Z. He should have been though. He has the booby trapped house. He has poisons. He has a young protege. He has underworld connections. So of course Double Z turns out to be some disgruntled, too rich, businessman. It was kind of anti-climactic to find out it was him. I mentally went “Really, that guy? He’s not even oatmeal, much less Villain of the Month Flavor”. Thankfully, I got all the flavor I needed with Old Chinese Guy. Soy sauce baby!
Another successful entry in the Shadow series. I recommend this series if you like pulp stories.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Double Z, a mysterious underworld figure, has leaked information to the police about people who are going to get killed. Now he has decided to move into the game himself, thus setting himself on a collision course with The Shadow. Utilizing the services of corrupt old chinese triad leader, Double Z intends on being the one to survive that collision.
In the end, Double Z is unmasked as a bored businessman with too much time on his hands and not brains in his skull. The Shadow and his servants prevail and Right is Victorious.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Devil’s Hand Series: Terminal List #4 Author: Jack Carr Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 466 Words: 138K
James Reece takes on embedded terrorists, a manufactured super plague and a senator who wants him dead. He overcomes all and saves the day. What a surprise! I was totally shocked.
While I had nothing in particular against this book, or even this series, I am just not THAT into fiction written by or about special forces. Too detailed and specs out the wazoo that don’t mean a thing to me as a casual reader. I’ve given this series four books and that’s enough of my time.
I didn’t particularly care about the story and nothing about Reece makes me want to stay along for the ride. He’s no longer terminal, he’s past losing his wife and daughter and he’s moved on. Now he’s just a special forces guy. And I like Mitch Rapp better, even the version written by Kyle Mills. So adios Reece, time for the door to hit you where the Good Lord split you.
★★★☆☆
From OfficialJackCarr.com
follows former Navy SEAL James Reece as he is entrusted with a top-secret CIA mission of retribution twenty years in the making.
It’s been twenty years since 9/11. Two decades since the United States was attacked on home soil and embarked on twenty years of war. The enemy has been patient, learning, and adapting. And the enemy is ready to strike again.
A new president offers hope to a country weary of conflict. He’s a young, popular, self-made visionary…but he’s also a man with a secret.
Halfway across the globe a regional superpower struggles with sanctions imposed by the Great Satan and her European allies, a country whose ancient religion spawned a group of ruthless assassins. Faced with internal dissent and extrajudicial targeted killings by the United States and Israel, the Supreme Leader puts a plan in motion to defeat the most powerful nation on earth.
Meanwhile, in a classified facility five stories underground, a young PhD student has gained access to a level of bioweapons known only to a select number of officials. A second-generation agent, he has been assigned a mission that will bring his adopted homeland to its knees.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Savage Son Series: Terminal List #3 Author: Jack Carr Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 464 Words: 134K
This was a love letter to the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”. Carr starts his introduction talking about it in fact. He mentions that the idea came to him first, but he needed Reece to get to that point and so he had to write the first two books. If you liked TMDG, you’ll like this story.
Much like Carr’s previous books though, he takes a while to get to where he’s going. Reece faces down a large group of russian mobsters in some mid-western state out in the middle of no-where and it was awesome. But Carr felt like he had to set things up like a SEAL operative. Too much detail to things that don’t matter in a novel. This would have been a fantastic 350 page novel. I probably would have given it 4 stars. But there was simply too much setup.
I found the fight against the mobsters in the US to be the better fight, as the one in Russia on the deserted ice island where the Crazy Guy was hunting Reece and his buddy Raife turned out to be rather anti-climactic. Carr should have taken a page from TMDG and tried for a three day fight and flight narrative instead of a six hour in and out escape narrative.
Overall, I was pleased with this read and am satisfied with how it turned out. While I still have one more book to read, Jack Carr is doing a much better job with James Reece than “Dalton Fury” did with his Delta Force series. That might sound like faint praise, but praise is praise and Carr should be thankful.
★★★☆☆
From OfficialJackCarr.com
Deep in the wilds of the Russian Far East, a woman is on the run, pursued by a man harboring secrets, a man intent on killing her.
A traitorous CIA officer has found refuge with the Russian Mafia with designs on ensuring a certain former Navy SEAL sniper is put in the ground.
Half a world away, James Reece is recovering from brain surgery in the Montana wilderness of his youth, learning to live again, putting his life back together with the help of investigative journalist Katie Buranek and his longtime friend and SEAL teammate Raife Hastings.
For reasons both personal and professional, the Russian intelligence-mafia consortium has their sights set on removing a player from the board before he can return to the battlefield, targeting Reece on U.S. soil.
With an unknown entity inside the U.S. government compromised by Russian intelligence, Reece is forced to recruit a team of former commandos to bring his unique brand of vengeance to the Russian Mafia on their home turf, turning the hunters into the hunted.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Traitor Series: Victor the Assassin #10 Authors: Tom Wood Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Action/Adventure Pages: 367 Words: 105K
This was a return to form for Victor the Assassin and a very welcome return in my opinion. Instead of Victor killing boatloads of people because they’re trying to kidnap a retarded kid, Victor is killing boatloads of people because someone betrayed him and is sending killteams after him.
This was a multiple layer story about various jobs that ended up all tying together. And of course, the obvious double cross turns out NOT to be a double cross at all but a mere accident. I thought that bit of a lime twist really added flavor to the story. Victor’s reaction to it however was Classic Victor and exactly what I expected from him.
The only downside was that by the time the story ended Victor was once again in hock to yet another powerful individual/corporation/government. That pattern is old by now even while I acknowledge that it works. It certainly works much better than having Victor “keeping a promise to a kid” so maybe I better be careful what I wish for.
This is the latest release, so now I’m going to have to wait for each new release as it comes out.
★★★★☆
From the Publisher
SOMEONE’S SET HIM UP
SOMEONE’S GOING TO DIE
When Victor is arrested for a murder that, for once, he didn’t commit, escape must surely be inevitable for a hitman of his ferocity.
Yet someone wants Victor put away, and he finds himself behind bars, incarcerated by police who have no idea of the monster they are dealing with and have, apparently, tamed.
Quickly, however, his fellow the prisoners realise that he’s not trapped in there with them: they are in a cage, with the most dangerous of enemies. And Victor has a traitor to find.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Hands in the Dark Series: The Shadow #10 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 187 Words: 55K
Ha! Proof positive. The Shadow wears his girasol jewel on his left hand. It was stated explicitly in this book. This matters because Riders and I had a conversation about which hand it was on and neither of us could show a book which proved right or left. So here we go, the question is settled for all ages, or at least until I forget and forget that I answered the question here. So 2-3 months should do it!
Apparently, our conversation centered around which FINGER it was not, not which HAND. Sigh. The Quest for Knowledge must continue then. And back to the unimportant stuff like talking about the book I read. Man, this book reviewing thing isn’t all I was led to believe. However, it has allowed me to read TWO The Shadow books this month, so that’s definitely a check on the positive side of the life column.
This was a pretty gutsy book in that a regular joe schmoe gangster (well, he is pretty smart but still, he’s not super villain league smart) goes up against the Shadow on purpose. And he doesn’t do a bad job of it either. Millions of dollars in loot are at stake and a Great Love between Boyman and Girlwoman is at stake too. And the Shadow cleans house like the vigilante he is. Booyah!
That is why I keep reading these. Bad guys do really bad guy things and the Shadow puts a stop to it and bad guys usually die in droves. If that doesn’t count as a happy ending, I don’t know what does.
I’m just glad there’s no Vicki Vale kind of character. That would have ruined things completely.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher:
WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN?
It was a message from a dead man. A small piece of paper worth a fortune in blood. Eight mysterious symbols that marked the beginning of a chain of violence executed by gangsters willing to kill for a code they did not understand. Only one man called the shots for this riddle: The Chief, whose reputation made any further identification unnecessary–and lethal.
Obviously a case for THE SHADOW–a cryptic message, a series of baffling murders, seemingly unrelated, and an invisible mastermind who choreographed killings for the highest stakes in town. THE SHADOW was on a trail leading straight to a brilliant trap–and a face-to-face encounter with a criminal genius determined to beat him at his own game!
