Salvador Strike

A disappointing release here from this author which is just a by the numbers title which has been done so many times I had to check a few times to see who actually wrote this one. I liked the idea of a super assassin on the Big Guy's trail but the sub plot fizzled out to a very disappointing conclusion which could also be stated regarding the entire title. This author has produced better stuff than this one maybe one to give a miss here unless you are reading the series in order.

Mack Bolan takes on a topical enemy in MS-13, the multinational criminal organization that got its start in the Salvadoran community of Los Angeles. The stage is set for something quite interesting, as MS-13 is a vast, decentralized enterprise with operations in nearly every state. Unfortunately the book chooses to treat MS-13 like a factory-standard street gang with echoes of the Italian Mafia. There's a main baddie calling the shots in El Salvador and a bunch of flunkies out running the streets. It almost seems like too small of a task for the Executioner, who's more used to taking on world-spanning bad guys with global reach. There's plenty of action to be had, but Bolan never seems to be in any real danger. Fans of Stony Man will also be glad to see cameos by characters attached to that organization, as Bolan works more closely here with Stony Man than he usually does. A pair of subplots never really pan out, including one about a highly trained mercenary set on Bolan's trail. This is pretty much typical of the entire book, which gets the job done, but in a decidedly unspectacular fashion.

When an informant and a federal prosecutor (and his wife) are murdered by the infamous criminal gang MS-13 before they can bring their case to court the POTUS wants steps taken so he turns to Hal Brognola and Stony Man. Naturally Hal turns to the Executioner to ramp up the game and take extreme action. If there was ever an organization deserving of being on the receiving end of the Bolan Effect it is definitely the infamous MS-13. Having just seen a documentary on the History Channel before starting this book I was familiar with how dangerous the Salvadoran based gang really is. Author Jon Guenther has been with Bolan for a while and it shows in how well he writes the character. The story is fast moving and Bolan follows a logical course of action in his strikes against the gang which start small and build in intensity. Guenther adds an undercover agent agent deep in enemy terriority, a highly trained and intriguing assassin, and a young woman and her sister who are caught up with the gang into the mix, all of whom are intriguing and add to the story. Old reliable Jack Grimaldi makes an appearance as well. Guenther gets what Mack is all about and this is very well written and exciting book. The major problem is it just too damn short, but I'm starting to think this is going to be a common issue in regards to the new diminutive format. A couple of nitpicks are the only things that detracted from the story for me which I have to knock a couple of points off for. (Possible spoilers to follow...) The first is how the assassin, the aptly named Andries Blood, was built up and made for exciting possibilities but was actually dismissed quite quickly and ultimately unsatisfactorily. The second is the utterly overused, cliched, and totally predictable final fate of Ignacio Paz during the final assualt. C'mon, this is Mack F'n' Bolan were are talking about couldn't he...shouldn't he...have actually prevented what finally transpired in the closing paragraphs. Also MS-13 didn't really come off as all that formidable. While this is no trained army to be sure, what they lack in paramilitary background is made up by pure viciousness and cruelty and I don't think this was played up enough. Another aspect of Guenther's storytelling a like is how he presents Bolan as taking the fight to his enemy. Not as law enforcement officer or a federal agent would, but as a soldier like the Executioner surely should. With superior firepower all the way...up to and including a helicopter gunship over the streets of LA! The final thing that bothered me was how this mission had to be performed after a request from "The Man". Sorry, but I just can't see that happening under the current administration no matter what they may know about the past and mission statement of Stony Man. Totally illogical and disconnecting from the story. Acting on his own initiative shouldn't be an obstacle for the Sarge. Overall a fine entry minus the few issues I had but recommended especially for the topical adversary. I just wish we got a little more of it!

While not one of the best from this writer, it was still a pretty solid effort. The MS-13 bad guys get real nasty when they try to crash a funeral for a lawyer who was trying to prosecute local leaders. Mack comes in and starts hitting back hard. Even though the title has "Salvador" in it, Bolan hits that country only in the last 20 pages or so. When he goes to L.A., he meets up with a prostitute with a heart of gold and caring for her little sister. She helps Bolan infiltrate the group, then culminates in a wild chopper chase. A secondary character is introduced who's infiltrated the group down in El Salvador, but now has been targeted for death. All in all, a "decent" strike.

It feels strange to say this but some of the action was a bit too over-blown. Since when did Mack give up precision for the gratuitous use of explosives? I can understand him using them as a "force multiplier" in the final blitz but throughout the book he seemed to be lobbing grenades with reckless abandon. Then there was the whole super-hit-man subplot. That felt a bit out of place and there was never any real confrontation between Blood and Mack. They finally face each other when the hired gun is well on his way to being stone cold dead. I like the general themes at play, but in the end it just did not come together for me.

I give the book 6 stars as opposed to 5 because I like the subject matter. As a kid, I lived in Southern California and always wished Mack Bolan would go after street gangs ... so this book was the first I've seen of its kind. And the subplot involving a character named Missy was well-written, giving us some humanity along with the carnage. That being said, I felt pretty numb after reading this entry. Through the entire book, I never got the sense that Bolan was really in any danger. I'm not talking about literal circumstances--sure, he was constantly being shot at and such, but for Bolan, this is par for the course. No, when I say I never felt like he was in any real danger, I mean that there's no sense that he was challenged. Everything he set out to do went pretty much as planned, and there were two fights I can think of which, to me, were set up by the narrative to be pretty pivotal to the story and were chucked aside. Admittedly, the first of these made for an interesting plot twist, but the second ... it should've been there, in my opinion. Maybe deadlines were encroaching, maybe John Guenther couldn't think of a way of making it interesting ... only he knows the reason behind handling that encounter the way he did ... but from this reader's perspective, it came off as quite a letdown. But then, I go for more of the "Die Hard" style of action movie, as opposed to Rambo.