Dead Man's Tale

Wow how many hundreds of these titles have I read and I never knew that the Big Guy had a false tooth in which he keeps some sleeping tablets to use in case of an emergency. Excuse me that is just the first of many shortcomings in this title. Not sure who was starring in this title it certainly wasn't the Big Guy that we have all come to know and love maybe a cross between James Bond and you name the other super spy type character. Not sure who the Bad Guys were here certainly not the Mafia maybe Keystone Cops would be a better name. On and on the title goes where the Big Guy is captured by the Bad guys and yet again escapes their clutches only to be captured again only to escape again only to (well you get the idea). Lots of "action scenes" included where the Big Guy is some sort of a stuntman who can perform death defying routines one after the other. His crack shot abilities are also lost in this title where he struggles to hit the side of a barn when shooting at something. This is one gigantic yawn and couldn't be recommended in any way. For those who are reading the series in order like me....... suck it up and get into it turn the pages and I assure you it does have an ending which when you get to it you will be in a lot better happier mood. See something to look forward to :-)

Concept: interesting Execution: rubbish I have finally worked out why I have never liked Peter Leslie's novels. I have been avoiding this novel for quite some time - the last Leslie that I read was Blowout about four years ago - but seeing as this book was published exactly 20 years ago I thought that I would give it a go. This isn't really a Mack Bolan novel, an imposter has taken his place. Peter Leslie didn't write Bolan novels, he wrote stories more appropriate for 'Boys Own Adventure Annual'. The development of the characters, or lack there of, the dialogue, the construction of the story was really better suited for 12 year olds, this is how they think the spy world works. Bolan the imposter does many silly things like swinging around in a concrete bucket attachted to a construction crane, shimming down a metal hawser in the rain, and the one that made me laugh was the false tooth! Yes, folks, Bolan apparantly has a false tooth that he can unscrew and extract two sleeping pills that he keeps there! An unscrewable tooth! What brilliant rubbish! So Bolan the imposter gets captured by the mafia in the first chapter of the book, because they think that Bolan knows all about some agent that has just been killed in Europe. Why they think that is never explained, along with the fabulous mafia plot to take over Europe? I seriously doubt that the bunch of morons that The Imposter went up against in this novel were capable of taking over their local shoe shop. So, anyway, Bolan is captured and the mafia want a friendly chat with him, and I do mean a friendly chat, to see what he knows. The mafia sitting around the table with The Executioner? Yeah, right. Like that would ever happen! The Imposter fumbles and bumbles around Europe, the mafia fumble and bumble after him. After a long drawn out chase where The Imposter escapes from the mafia for the zillionth time, we are left with the sentence "...Hal, this operation has only just started." as if too imply that there would be a sequal. Thank heavens there wasn't. And I forgot to mention, everybody and his dog knew Bolan by name, the local DC police knew Bolan 'works' for/with Brognola, and nobody batted an eyelid. Gads! On the plus side, Peter Leslie was always good at his locations, there was a real sense of being in Europe in 1989. And the title was good as well. The rest was a waste of time.

This book has all kinds of stuff going on. Bolan is runnin, swimmin, hanglidin, car stealin, escaping, castle stormin, gunblastin, chandelier swingin, rope swingin, crane climbin, window bustin, more swimmin, more car stealin, bomb difusin, car wreckin, mystrey solvin, gets captured a few times , gets doublecrossed, goes through a mirror house, a hedgemaze, castle cellars and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, and still finds time to get laid. Lots of adventure from Leslie, as he kicks his storytelling into overdrive, but sometimes the book seems like a train wreck between a James Bond movie and a Hardy Boys book, and Bolan doesn't kill some of the top bad guys along the way, leaving the end of the book sorta incomplete, so I give this book 8 stars.

Leslie left that semi-cliffhanger in his first version of this novel -- the Man from UNCLE in The Splintered Sunglasses Affair in the 1960s.

Good book with a surprise close to the end. There should have been a follow up with this book though.

A REALLY GOOD AND WELL WRITTEN ENTRY IN THE BOLAN SERIES. I ONLY WISH THEY HAD FOLLOWED UP WITH THE TO-BE-CONTINUED LIKE ENDING.

Another great book from Peter Leslie. But, I was put off by the unfinished ending.