Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: action/adventure

Showing posts with label action/adventure. Show all posts

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Green Eyes (The Shadow #15) 3.5Stars

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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!

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Tuesday, May 07, 2024

Lethal Agent (Mitch Rapp #18) 3Stars

Title: Lethal Agent
Series: Mitch Rapp #18
Author: Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 321
Words: 101K

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.

All My “Mitch Rapp” Reviews

Thursday, April 04, 2024

Hidden Death (The Shadow #14) 3.5Stars

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...

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Red War (Mitch Rapp #17) 3Stars

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

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.

All My “Mitch Rapp” Reviews

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Jet (Jet #1) 3Stars

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
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?

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

The Blackmail Ring (The Shadow #13) 3.5Stars

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".

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Tuesday, January 02, 2024

The Crime Cult (The Shadow #12) 3.5Stars

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

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!

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Friday, November 17, 2023

Double Z (The Shadow #11) 3.5Star

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:

https://bookstooge.blog/2023/11/03/currently-reading-cover-love-double-z/

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.

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Thursday, November 16, 2023

The Devil’s Hand (Terminal List #4) 3Stars

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.

All of My “Terminal List” Reviews

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Savage Son (Terminal List #3) 3Stars

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.

All of My “Terminal List” Reviews

Wednesday, September 06, 2023

Traitor (Victor the Assassin #10) 4Stars

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.

All of My “Victor the Assassin” Reviews

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Hands in the Dark (The Shadow #10) 3.5Stars

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!

And poop.

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!

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Friday, August 25, 2023

True Believer (Terminal List #2) 3Stars

Title: True Believer
Series: Terminal List #2
Author: Jack Carr
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 512
Words: 154K

While the Terminal List was a revenge story about a special forces military man, this was just a military story about a military special forces man. It was also 25% longer. Mainly because we get the extended edition of James Reece sailing the ocean running away from Da Man and then becoming a guide and conservation hunter who traps poachers with his expert military knowledge. While all of that is going on the author weaves all the backstory of the badguys and their dastardly deeds so when Reece gets approached to join the CIA to take down said bad guys, we are fully up to date on just how dastardly and badguy’y they really are. It felt bloated to me. Necessary but bloated.

We get all the “Brand X” name dropping I expect from books written by special forces guys. I know I talk about it, but I simply don’t understand. Does the general populace care? Or are you writing for other special forces guys? Because that seems like a very small market. And my polling shows that 100% of the general reading populace (namely, myself) doesn’t care if you use a spiderco folding knife XT-305 or if you just write that the character used a folding knife. I can kind of understand when it comes to the gun-side of things, but even then, dial the fanboy back a notch, ok? I don’t need to know that your Jannhauser 3000KtY rocket propelled grenade launcher uses the side rail system with the Bugaboo xts targeting system with the modified Cobra trigger upgrade to reduce the pull to two pounds. Just tell me Side Character Y blew up the russian oligarch with the Jannhauser 3000 rpg and we’re all good. Or a rocket launcher, or whatever. Joe Public (the anonymous pseudonym of that great master we all know and adore, ie, me) doesn’t care.

I know I’ve complained a lot. But you can still enjoy a good military book and have complaints like this. The above are the reasons this doesn’t get higher than the 3star rating. It doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story or the action or the pow pow, bam bam, slice slice. It just means I won’t be rating this higher.

I plan to continue this series and I suspect all the above issues will be in the next books as well, so I’m not expecting this series to suddenly “get better”. It is what it is and I’m ok with reading a series that is 3stars for a couple of months. It does make me wonder about going back and trying the tv show again. Just don’t know if I can get past that awful grey tone overlay. It really bugged me.

★★★☆☆

From OfficialJackCarr.com

SOMEWHERE A TRUE BELIEVER IS TRAINING TO KILL YOU.

HE DOESN’T CARE HOW HARD IT IS. HE ONLY KNOWS THAT HE WINS OR HE DIES. HE ONLY KNOWS THE CAUSE.

When a bomb goes off during a holiday fair in London, the body count is horrific and the nation’s market goes into a tailspin. This, it turns out, is just the beginning of a series of coordinated and murderous attacks against the whole of the Western world. As the scope of the mayhem grows ever wider, pulling in country after country, the United States goes on the offensive. Who is pulling the strings? What is their motive? And most important of all, how can the attacks be stopped before bloodshed and economic freefall bring America and her allies to their knees?

There is just one man who stands a chance of answering these questions. Former Navy SEAL James Reece is the only and crucial connection to a shadowy former Iraqi commando who could provide leads the CIA desperately needs. Reece might be America’s last hope. Unfortunately, he is also America’s most-wanted domestic terrorist. To rein him in, a bargain is struck and Reece becomes the reluctant tool of the United States government, traveling the globe to target terrorist lead- ers and unraveling a geopolitical conspiracy involving a traitorous CIA officer and a sinister assassination plot with worldwide repercussions. There is always another true believer out there willing to kill for his cause. James Reece will be there to stop him.

All of My “Terminal List” Reviews

Saturday, August 19, 2023

A Quiet Man (Victor the Assassin #9) 3.5Stars

Title: A Quiet Man
Series: Victor the Assassin #9
Authors: Tom Wood
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 338
Words: 94K

This was a good “killer does his thing” story but it just wasn’t a Victor the Assassin. The premise is based on Victor going against every survival instinct and rule that he’s ever had to help find a special needs boy who he promised to take fishing. This from the man who poisoned the woman he loved because she “might” turn on him at some random time in the distant future? Yeah, I didn’t buy it all, not one tiny bit.

So that is why this got a halfstar knocked off it’s shiny metal aff. Other than that, this was great! Meth cooker gets burned by gangsters. Victor dukes it out with some lowlife thugs, cuts off all their fingers and delivers said fingers to the man who hired them. Victor takes on a whole team of special forces guys and kills them all. Oh yeah, that was pure awesome. It was stupid, because he was supposedly dying from a bullet wound to his thigh that nicked an artery or something, but hey, whatever. I’m also supposed to believe that Canadians are just so oh so polite and are the best people in the world? How that trucker convoy got handled shows the truth of that. But like I said, you don’t read these books for the realism.

Plus, the cover gives it all away. In case you don’t know, the maple leaf is actually a cabalistic symbol about ritualized secrets too horrible to divulge here in public. If I told you, your life wouldn’t be worth a plug nickel, heck it probably wouldn’t even be worth a penny, nay, not even a widow’s mite! And that’s taking the current inflation into account too. Since you won’t read any more reviews by me if you’re dead, I’m choosing to do the right thing (for myself) and not telling you the secrets. Feel free to thank me in the comments for sparing your miserable, misbegotten life.
/s

Thus, this was another fantastic entry about a lethal killer lethally killing other lethal killers. Doesn’t get much more lethal than that. If it did, I’d have to kill you. Again.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

One day a man arrives in town. Unassuming. Quiet.

The assassin known as Victor is hiding out in a small motel in Canada after a job across the border. A few days laying low and he'll be gone and leave no trace behind.

He doesn't count on getting to know a mother and her boy who reminds him of his own troubled childhood. When both vanish, only Victor seems to notice.

Once he starts looking for them, he finds himself at odds with the criminals who own the town. They want him gone. Only Victor's going nowhere until he discovers the truth and to them he's just a quiet man asking the wrong questions.

But that quiet man is a dangerous man.

All of My “Victor the Assassin” Reviews

Wednesday, August 02, 2023

Mobsmen on the Spot (The Shadow #9) 3.5Stars

Title: Mobsmen on the Spot
Series: The Shadow #9
Author: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 190
Words: 60K

We are introduced to yet another new agent for the Shadow. A former mob member who has spent time in jail for robbing a bank and killing a cop. Only the Shadow knows the truth about it all and uses the man to bring down a mastermind behind a bunch of protection rackets.

I thought this was really good. The Shadow maneuvers various levels of mobsters against each other and lets them spill their own blood. Things don’t go all his way though, as one good business man is murdered and the daughter of another is kidnapped.

The mastermind once again is pretty obvious once it becomes apparent that there IS a mastermind. That type of thing used to bother me, and under the right circumstances still might, but overall, I like a nice simple story where I don’t have to use my brain much. Working 9hrs in the heat and humidity really fries my mental capacity and I can appreciate a well told story that entertains me yet doesn’t expect me to turn into Sherlock Holmes to figure out what is going on.

If this was a Sandwich Rating, I would have probably given it the Toasted Tomato Sandwich rating. But it was missing the 1/2lb of black pepper that I usually dump on mine, hence the half star downgrade. Black Pepper makes a toasted tomato sandwich really pop and gives it that extra zing that makes me go “Yuuuuuuuum!”.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

Who KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN?

Who calls the shots for the country's toughest gangsters? Who makes them dance to an offer they can't refuse? Who is the invisible power behind the scenes of Manhattan's billion-dollar protection rackets?

THE SHADOW KNOWS only that the criminal mastermind who controls the waterfront, the warehouses and the garages, is about to invade the theaters of the world's most volatile city, where the root of crime flourishes, gangland-style.

THE SHADOW stalks his man with cunning, stealth and brilliance, and the eerie laugh that is his hallmark. The laugh that aims to chill all who have ever tasted the bitter fruit of the weed of crime: The Underworld, whose secrets belong to this Master of Darkness!

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Sunday, July 30, 2023

The Terminal List (Terminal List #1) 3Stars

Title: The Terminal List
Series: Terminal List #1
Author: Jack Carr
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 406
Words: 123K

This reminded me a LOT of Dalton Fury’s Delta Team series, in that it was very military detail oriented. It was also like a huge product placement ad. Any specific gear that Reece used, we knew the exact blabbbity blab detail and the brand. He didn’t just drink from a camelback, he drank from the XJ-33R-V2 Camelback. When Reece wore sunglasses, he wore the Bookstooge 3000 Avionic sunglasses. I know it wasn’t product placement, it was a mark of authenticity from one professional to another, as Carr is a former SEAL. But it felt like product placement.

I actually started to watch the tv show first, as it was a Prime Original and so Amazon was shoving down everyone’s throat. I think I made it through 2-3 episodes before I gave up because of the grey color overlay they used. One scene was in the middle of the day in California (when it should be bright and colors popping out like anything) and I felt like I was watching something from Twilight just before it was going to rain. There was no need for that directorial choice so I quit the show. In the show you don’t know if there is a conspiracy against Reece if he’s genuinely cracked up. There is no such issue in the book. The prologue shows Reece taking out one of the guys who gave him a brain tumor, killed his team mates and had his family killed. I was glad that tension wasn’t there like it was in the tv show.

Like I said at the beginning, this reminded me of Delta Team. And that’s why this only got 3 stars. Reece’s family dies horribly and the author brings in a potential love interest plus several other hot chicks. Now while I’ve never been a SEAL, nor has Mrs B ever been mowed down in a blaze of machine gun fire, I have to admit that I don’t think I’d be thinking about hot chicks just weeks after it happened. But that’s just me. Thankfully, it’s all just potential. Because I suspect it would be handled like Dalton Fury handled romance, which is to say badly.

Overall, I enjoyed this but it was a book written by a military man who hadn’t quite mastered the literary side of things yet. A very good debut effort. Reece survives the tumor so there is another book. I’ll read it and see what I think.

★★☆☆☆

From OfficialJackCarr.com

THIS IS A STORY OF REVENGE

A Navy SEAL has nothing left to live for and everything to kill for after he discovers that the American government is behind the deaths of his team in this ripped-from-the-headlines political thriller.

On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government.

Now, with no family and free from the military’s command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he’s learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates. With breathless pacing and relentless suspense, Reece ruthlessly targets his enemies in the upper echelons of power without regard for the laws of combat or the rule of law.

Friday, July 14, 2023

Kill for Me (Victor the Assassin #8) 4Stars

Title: Kill for Me
Series: Victor the Assassin #8
Authors: Tom Wood
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 364
Words: 114K

Victor gets involved in a Guatemalan drug cartel war between two sisters. And dates a DEA (drug enforcement agency) agent. I was sure she was going to die, but color me surprised, she not only survives but gets a big score, thanks (all unknowingly of course) to Victor.

This felt like a very different Victor book. Thinking about it though, each book has never been a clone of the previous ones. Here, Victor has shed his chains to both the US and the UK intelligence agencies and is trying to live his life anonymously again. I’m not sure that’s possible, but the very fact that the token romance girl actually survived this time throws my every calculation off now. And that’s a good thing. Being a predictable author is as bad as being a predictable assassin.

I saw the one double cross, mainly because it was so obvious that even I couldn’t miss it. The other two, I kind of suspected but wasn’t sure so it was a nice little surprise to see how they all worked out.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I am not sure why I enjoyed it as much as I did, but I think the lack of world politics and intelligence agencies played a big part. Give me the Pure Assassin of Death, not some chained lackey of da’ Man….

★★★★☆

From the Publisher

Lethal assassin Victor lands in the middle of a Guatemalan cartel war in the latest nonstop thriller from the international bestselling author of The Final Hour.

Victor is the killer who always delivers...for the right price. And Heloise Espinosa, patron of Guatemala's largest cartel, is ready and willing to pay him just that to eliminate the competition--her sister. Heloise has been battling Maria for control of the cartel in an endless and bloody war. Now Victor decides who survives. An easy job if it weren't for the sudden target on his back.

Victor's not the only one on the hunt. Someone else has Maria in their crosshairs and will do anything to get the kill. In the middle of cartel territory with enemies closing in from all sides, Victor must decide where to put the bullet before one is placed in his head. His only chance at survival is to team up with the one person who may be as deadly as he is...

All of My “Victor the Assassin” Reviews