The Barrabas Heist

My least favorite Executioner writer gets an additional award as my least favorite SOBs writer. There were some decent sections of this book, particularly in the middle where there was a mountain battle, but overall I just didn't enjoy reading this story. The plot, such as it is, involves retrieving some very valuable rubies hidden in a mountain somewhere in Tibet. Barrabas and his crew are tasked with this in league with a Chinese man connected with the Triads. This unlikely alliance was part of an attempt to make things more interesting, but to me came across as nonsensical. The Dr Gonpo character was another example of this writers tendency to add more characters than necessary in his muddled plots. As was the captain Thapa guy, and a few others. Too much of this book centered around various characters interacting with one another in mundane ways that while sometimes amusing, did little or nothing to advance the story. The final battle scenes were not bad, but kind of anti-climactic considering the long-winded journey to get there. Far too often I would have to reread a paragraph to figure out what the author was trying to depict, as has been the case with many of his other novels I have read. Not the worst reading experience I have had but in general I just didn't care much for this volume of the series, which I consider to be the worst in the SOBs line. At least for the time being... this writer wrote one other title, a 350 page monster that I look at with some dread.

First and only release in this series from this author with another release in the Super section to follow. Hong Kong Triads deliver information to the Fixer on the location of 4 million in rubies located in the High mountains of Tibet and require him to recover same and deliver the stones to them for past favours given. When Barrabas and his SOB's accept the mission further information reveals a Chinese platoon led by a previous enemy of Barrabas are already in Tibet and on their way to the cave to locate the gems for the Chinese government. So starts the title where it is a race to see who can arrive first at the location of the gems and recover them. Unfortunately the title just waffles on and on with long extended periods where nothing at all happens. The characters introduced on the Chinese side are ok as are the characters introduced on Barrabas's side who are assisting the SOB's and the author has a good knowledge of who he is writing about from the Team but unfortunately nothing seems to stand out and grab you when reading the title. I took me ages to finish this one as any excuse to put it down and do something else was hard to pass up. Better titles in the series have been released than this one not one to recommend here.