THE EXECUTIONER #5 CONTINENTAL CONTRACT BY DON PENDLETON

Copyright 1971.

Mack Bolan is at Dulles International Airport to take out a mob operation. Only this is a trap set by the mob. To escape he has to jump on a flight to Paris. Luckily Brognola gave him a phony passport. The local capo finds out one of the men working for him used to serve with Bolan in Vietnam. They deduce he jumped on the flight to Paris and send this hit squad with the war veteran to entrap Bolan. Meanwhile when Bolan arrives a movie star gets kidnapped because the mob thinks that he is Bolan. Bolan manages to rescue him and kill a whole bunch of the local mafia. He gets involved with a French actress that helps him go to southern France. There he continues his war to save some prostitutes that ran afoul of the local boss. A big showdown ends with him successfully escaping the hit squad thanks to his old war buddy switching sides.

The first thing about this book is how easy it is to board a flight. Bolan pays in cash at the last minute, and they hold the plane before it takes off. There are no metal detectors or long lines with the TSA. No taking off your belt and shoes. The guy even just carries his pistol on the plane. He passes through customs with this pistol. There is just no way you could write this story nowadays. It was definitely a much more innocent time back in 1971.

Anyway, the story is another fun romp for Bolan. Thanks to his benefactor in the Justice Department, he manages to escape to France. While there he decides to kill a whole bunch of mobsters. Gets involved with a brothel and has to save the girls from being sold into slavery in Africa. Gets involved with a beautiful French actress. The black guy who he served with in Vietnam decides he would rather help his friend than the racist mob. Pendleton wrote a really fun series that so far, I never been disappointed.

THE EXECUTIONER #4 MIAMI MASSACRE BY DON PENDLETON

Copyright 1970.

Mack Bolan has destroyed the southern California mob. Now he has the mob from Arizona after him. Fortunately, they are as good as the mob in California, and he wipes out the group in Phoenix. While doing this he hears that the capos are gathering in Miami for their yearly meeting. So, he hops a plane and heads to Florida. Once there he continues his one-man war and starts killing the mobsters. He gets some help from a local anti-Castro resistance group. He also gets some help from Brognola the Justice Department guy who wants to use Bolan against the mob. Ends up while not wiping them out completely kills a whole bunch of the mob.

The fourth book in the series is the best so far. This series just keeps getting better and better. Bolan uses some genius methods to elude the mob enforcers while taunting them. He continues to show a ruthlessness in going after these guys. Also starts his relationship unofficially with the Feds. He gets a passport and intelligence on European operations of the mob. Something that will play a prominent part in the next book.

THE EXECUTIONER BATTLE MASK BY DON PENDLETON

Copyright 1970.

Mack Bolan continues his war against the Mafia in southern California. After eluding both the mob and police he decides to visit a war buddy that became a plastic surgeon. In the small town of Palm Village, he gets a new face. With the new identity he once again infiltrates the mob. He manages to hook up with the capo’s daughter and infiltrate the mob in Palm Springs. From here he feeds information to the police to weaken the drug trade. An enforcer finds out his secret and he ruthlessly kill him and his entourage. Then he manages to sow discontent among the mob, and they destroy themselves.

This was an excellent book. Bolan gets a new face and infiltrates the mob. It shows how ruthless he can be. His friend doctor is tortured and killed along with the friendly police chief and his wife. Bolan rams a car into the escaping mobster and casually shoots all the survivors in the head. This also is the start of his unofficial relationship with the Feds. Brognola from the Justice Department offers to give Bolan a portfolio for his crusade against the mob. For now, Bolan decides to continue on his own but it will start to play a more prominent role in later books. I can see why this series became so popular.

THE EXECUTIONER #2 DEATH SQUAD BY DON PENDLETON

Copyright 1969.

Mack Bolan is on the run from the Mafia. He comes into L.A. and stops by an old war buddy. The Mafia had staked out guys to watch his buddy and a big fight ends up with some Mafia enforcers dead. The war buddy decides he wants to join Bolan’s war. He also suggests they get some other veterans who would love to get into the fight. Bolan recruits nine more old Vietnam veterans that are disillusioned with their peacetime lives. This Death Squad then proceeds to wage war against the DeGeorge family. The police form a squad codenamed Hardcase to stop Bolan and his Death Squad. Eventually it ends with seven of the squad dead, two captured by the police and Bolan once again alone in his war against the Mafia.

For the second book, Pendleton decided to give Bolan a group of men to help him. Seven disillusioned vets that represent all the major ethnic and racial types. He does a good job of giving all these characters their own personality and backstory. I can see that such a large cast of characters is hard to develop some character development. It makes sense he decided to whittle them down and make Bolan the lone wolf type. Two of the survivors would eventually go on to be part of Able Team along with the sergeant of Hardcase. A fun and fast paced action story that continues this awesome adventure of the most famous men’s adventure hero of all time.

THE EXECUTIONER WAR AGAINST THE MAFIA BY DON PENDLETON

Copyright 1969.

Mack Bolan is a sergeant in Vietnam. He is a deadly sniper known as the Executioner. One day he received news that his father, mother and sister are dead with his younger brother in the hospital. Getting emergency leave he heads home to Pittsfield. He finds out his father killed his mother and sister then shot himself. The police close the case as a murder/suicide. Bolan finds out his father had taken out a loan from the mob. His sister became a prostitute to pay off the debt. This news is what drove the father to kill himself and his family. He finds out he has been waging war against the wrong enemy. Bolan gets a sniper rifle and takes out the thugs at the local collection agency. Then Bolan infiltrates the mob and wages a one-man war. Hunted by the mob and the police he starts to destroy the local organization while becoming a folk hero to the public. An explosive conclusion ends in the destruction of the local mob as Bolan gets ready to take his crusade nationwide.

I AM NOT THEIR JUDGE. I AM THEIR JUDGEMENT. I AM THEIR EXECUTIONER.

So begins a quote at the beginning of the book by Mack Bolan. Don Pendleton is considered the father of the modern men’s adventure. His groundbreaking series featuring the vigilante Mack Bolan became a phenomenon that still sees books coming out now. You couldn’t visit the local book spinner or rack at the local grocery store in the eighties and not see all sorts of Mack Bolan paperbacks. You could say he came up with the whole vigilante genre. That lone individual who suffered a tragedy that the law was incapable of bringing to justice. So, he takes the law into his own hands. There was a flood of imitators since, but they never could match his creation. I always wanted to read this series and found the first book at the local Half Price very cheap.

So how was it? I loved it. The story holds you from beginning to end. Bolan is this man who has a personality that won’t let him not do something when he sees injustice. He takes a very impersonal view to it and considers his war as a crusade against evil. He knows that it is an impossible task that will end in his death. Yet he still does it anyway. The Mafia or “The Organization” as they like to call themselves is portrayed as a well-oiled machine. They even use computers which in 1969 was way ahead of the times. I loved this book and will have to check out further ones in the series to see this continuation of war on crime.