Lethal Payload

This title seemed to offer so much at the start it really got me in straight away. I liked the French Foreign Legion sections and inclusions and the references to the characters introduced from there were great. Action scenes as usual with this author were excellent probably the standout for me was the ones featuring the motor bike. Some excellent characters introduced especially like the two French Intelligence agents and the highly original story/plot line. BUT only a six rating ? Yep again the author forgets who he writing about the character he is writing is a human being. Sure highly trained superbly fit a model of male perfection maybe. NOT A BLOODY INVUNERABLE SUPERMAN.

Bolan is bruised, beaten, shot and put through the ringer again...but it was a very entertaining effort from Rogers. Bolan is engaging rogue elements of the Foreign Legion in French Guiana, who have conspired with some Muslim terrorists for a premier terrorist hit on the U.S. The pace was swift, but one thing I didn't like (no fault of the author) was pretty much giving away a major surprise on the front cover of the book (A beautiful double agent draws Bolan into a trap). But, the highlights were a jungle cat-and-mouse game with Bolan run to ground and his slam-bang assault on the French space center on a motorcycle.

“Lethal Payload” is a rather imaginative entry in the Executioner series. Very different type of storyline, with a nice mystery at its core. I had two major problems with the book. Like all the reviewers before me, they mention the massive amount of punishment that Bolan takes at the end. What is puzzling, is that the wounds and injuries seem to be forgotten through the last two or three chapters. With an occasional reference here and there, the injuries no longer have any presence. The injuries he took were not stitched together or bandaged for several hours, it seems he made a partial recovery. He did not have anything personal at stake to write it off as a personal mission. Nothing about this mission demonstrated that he took any of it personally. The other problem I have is that this Bolan is different. He is not a “calculated risk-taker” like in his predecessor novels. He is a bold, all out, risk taker with methods I find strange, even for him. You would not mistake this Bolan with, picking a random example, Mike Newton’s Bolan. He also smiles a lot... actually, the word is “grins.” But the story was imaginative, creative and flowed really well. The action scenes, even knowing that he really gets screwed up, made for some tense reading. If it weren’t for my two problems, this novel would have scored very highly. The story’s twists, turns and revelations created enough goodwill to fully recommend it.

Instant entertainment from start to finish!!!!!!Why.......? Well, this mission was a major puzzle and brain teaser for Bolan and actually for the reader also with enemies on every corner and in every bed and not being able to trust anyone. Trust is here a major luxury Bolan which he can´t allow himself to have and the list of friends is very short and constantly changing to the end. The book was well written with several interesting characters that were written well and made interesting and memorable ones. One thing did have a bit of a negative feeling to the book and that was it didn´t seems to be a issue how much injuries Bolan sustained during the final stages of the book since he kept on going no matter what. I kind of feel that any ordinary man would have been out of it having just had part of those injuries but then again Bolan is no ordinary man. Short and sweet………….read this book and you will have a blast from the first page (Iceland – 2006)

This Bolan adventure is a winner from start to finish. The story concept is excellent: A network of traitors and an elite group of rogue French Legionnaires have gained control of a missile launch at a remote facility in French Guiana. There are several aspects that make this one a real page-turner. First, author Charles Rogers has an excellent hand with realistic dialogue and intimate scenes. Mack has never seemed more suave than in the chapters with french agent, Jolie Erulin. Rogers certainly doesn’t skimp in the action scenes, either. In the chapters that have make fighting for is life in the Rain Forest, the pages raced by; and rarely has Mack Bolan been so severely tested physically. Lastly, the novel had fantastic characters and villians. The two brick-hard French Intelligence agents, Roland Aretos and Alan Reno, were especially well drawn and a lot of fun. Just a great adventure for the Soldier.

I loved this book for the first 150 plus pages. The supporting characters where very interesting. I really liked the two Direct Action agents, and the fact that Mack had to work along side of people who would just as soon kill him as the enemy. The addition of a French Foriegn Legion platoon was also well done. However towards the end the book started to lose me, as Michael Misner wrote in his review, the injuries Mack receives makes the climax a bit hard to swallow. I still recomend this book however, due to inspired use of the French Foriegn Legion, the well written action sequences, and the one or two well timed plot twists.

This was a great book, very good plot. The only thing that kept it from receiving a "10" was that Bolan got shot, stabbed, hit, cut too much to conceivably accomplish what he ended up....but then, he is Mack Bolan.