Splinter Cell

Most of these stars come from what I thought was a good story and some suspense thrown in for good measure. Van Cook has had a few titles like this. Not a whole lot of action overall. Started off with Bolan and his Ranger partner, Paxton stopping a plane hijacking...which had absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Then things settled in with our two soldiers meeting up with a smarmy CIA station chief, and an Arab mole who may or may not be on their side. A lot of cloak-and-dagger stuff in and around Amsterdam. Towards the end, there was a decent shootout in the country, and the final assault to rescue Paxton's brother and stop the Splinter Cell was good.

The book starts out as an interesting one though the airplane planned hijack didn´t do anything for the story except to show the army ranger how good Bolan was but it didn´t have anything to with the storyline and plot. The book flowed well but with a very slow plot and the action scenes were not overdone as so often before but still I felt is was strange to have Bolan stumble around clueless without any leads. It would have been a much more interesting thing to have Bolan and the hightly trained army ranger kick some serious butt finally when Bolan has a real partner who is not in his way in every way. He was the perfect partner for Bolan, fast thinking and quick reflexes and not the usual partner burden these books usually have. The terrorist “mastermind” is a merciless stupid who kidnaps a nuclear expert with particular plan in mind yet he doesn´t know how the expert looks like. Strange or stupid, this terrorist goes down the hall of fame as the lamest one ever. Check out the most stupid villain in these books and you will laugh a lot (Iceland – 2008)

The three previous reviews say it all here folks especially the one from Carboni (which saves me the time to list them as I would have) this title just doesn't make sense. I too remember the Lone Wolf concept and tend to cringe a little when the said partner for the title is introduced. Perhaps a message to the authors is due Hey guys the big fella has been doing this for a while now and he doesn't need someone to hold his hand during the mission (as interesting as some of these characters have proven to be). Extra stars here from me as I too enjoyed the flow of the book and actions scenes, the finish was also quite well done BUT fair dinkum if you didn't figure out who the CIA mole was a hundred pages before it was revealed maybe you were asleep while reading this. So hmm it's a fair read in the series, certainly there a lot worse than this one, give it a try if you are so inclined.

His name is Dawud. And he has to be the most stupidest terrorist mastermind I’ve ever read in an Executioner-verse novel. Hands down. At times, I thought I was reading a parody or a satire. He kidnaps a nuclear expert and a few other decoys, but forgets which one is the expert? And he can’t tell a bunch of white guys apart? Bolan believes that you need a nuclear expert to make a dirty bomb. That’s all you need. One expert. No ink is wasted here explaining that a dirty bomb is simply radioactive material surrounding a bomb. A nuclear expert is kidnapped in Amsterdam by terrorists and its up to Bolan, and the expert’s brother, to find him. The twist? The terrorist’s don’t know who he is yet. Jerry VanCook’s previous entry, “Tropic Heat” had Bolan teamed with a Texas Ranger. This time his partner is an Army Ranger. I remember a time where Bolan didn’t have a partner-of-the-week. Anyone remember the term lone wolf? The same complaints I had in “Tropic Heat” resurface here. Bolan acts too much like a rookie. His highly-trained partners appear to be green recruits tainted with cockiness. Here Bolan’s own investigation style involves no heavy-mental lifting. He uses the President in such a way to blow his cover. He thwarts a random hijacking attempt that has nothing to do with the rest of the mission. Bolan also overlooks the mysterious murder of one of his informants, after being clubbed unconscious, being shot in the head outside a room with a firefight. A supposed stray round killed him, but Bolan and his buddy did all the firing. Who killed their unconscious ally? “Splinter Cell” has some attempts of comic relief, but the plot is very slow and bloated. I offer into evidence the thirty-page chapters and three small-scale firefights. The entire novel is small scale. So is the grade.

I agree with the prior reviewer, although I would rate the book a little higher. I did like the flow of the book and the action always kept me interested. My main problem with the book is how completely unreasonable it is that the terrorists kept the hostages alive long enough to be rescued. (They can't identify which of the hostages is the one they really want because they all "look alike". Very implausible.)

Some good action, some interesting characters, a couple of enjoyable moments. But Bolan kinda stumbles his way blindly through the dark in this one, theres a random terrorist attack at the beginning, that has Nothing to do with the rest of the book, and they just follow around some Muslim CIA informant who really has no leads in the case of the missing scientist either. But somehow they manage to accidentaly stumble across the bad guys eventually. Just an OK entry.... Peace ...