Murder Island

Two stories in one here. The first sees Mack trying to arrest Byron Cloud, a cocky arms dealer and wannabe mobster. The second half takes place on the titular island after their planes are shot down by the bad guy's turret when they soar over his island. What I don't get is how Joshua Reynolds could take a cool and simple premise and execute it in such an unremarkable way. It wouldn't call this a by-the-numbers Executioner, since there's no backpack nukes, mafiosi, or terrorists blowing shit up because no reason. Bolan is thrown into a situation he has no control over, pitted against cruel and psychopathic forces, and is forced to do it unarmed, no less! And somehow it just falls flat. The first half has some exciting stuff, and starts with Bolan wrestling a tiger in Cloud's apartment. The villain for this part of the story is a mercenary named Meltzer, who later appears on the island in cahoots with the main villain, Rainsford. Random trivia time: Rainsford was the name of the hero of The Most Dangerous Game, which this novel rips off. Anyway, the first half of the novel moves along at a breathless pace and segues beautifully into the second part. Despite Bolan's life being at stake and being forced to fight against nature and Rainsford - who's more like Zarloff, the bad guy of TMDG - it's nowhere near as interesting as it should be. His only ally is Cloud, who does fuck-all until he whacks Meltzer. It doesn't help that the hunt only lasts five chapters and doesn't have any room to develop. Was this supposed to be a SuperBolan? It sure seems like it. In spite of this, the bad guys' deaths are satisfying enough and everything somehow manages to be wrapped up neatly. In my unwanted opinion, Murder Island probably should've been a "Mack goes on vacation but everything goes to shit" kind of adventure. The way he winds up on the island wouldn't need to be changed, and it would've been a good excuse to throw in Grimaldi. It makes for an OK read as is, but could've been a hell of a lot better. You could always just read The Most Dangerous Game but substitute Rainsford for Mack instead.

Entries like this not only make me miss the skilled writing of series creator Don Pendleton, but are the reason I stopped reading The Executioner 20 years ago. While Pendleton created a fascinating character in Mack Bolan, far too many recent authors have settled for churning out generic action-adventure novels under The Executioner banner. "Murder Island" feels like just another soulless, assembly-line entry in the series. No disrespect to author Joshua Reynolds, but it just felt like his heart wasn't in it this time around. The plot is yet another homage/variation/ripoff of "A Most Dangerous Game," with humans being hunted for sport. Normally I enjoy these kind of stories, but it all just seemed so perfunctory and lacking any semblance of tension, suspense, or even style. Even the action came across as woefully lackluster...despite Bolan wrestling with saltwater crocodiles in a scene that was eyerollingly ludicrous. Bottom line, this one isn't worth hunting down unless you absolutely have to read every Executioner novel ever written.