Tough Justice

Bolan is in Peru to rescue an american hostage, and while there is not a whole lot more to the plot, I found this to be a decent book. The first half is by far the better half, with fast paced action in the Lima area, and several characters introduced to make the plot a little more interesting. The action then shifts to the jungle, which was still a good part of the story, Bolan against various factions on his own, as well as the perspective told from other main characters in the story. One plus about this book is Newton stays away from most of his usual cookie cutter formula, providing a more welcome and fresh read. However one habit that was not broken here dragged down the second half of this novel. The writing became very wordy, with far too much of the cerebral exposition that sometimes bogs down some of this writers books. The action was interrupted with the "if this", "if that" in every paragraph, bringing the pace of the narrative to a crawl. Otherwise this is one of the better novels in the series from Newton that I have read in a while, and found it to be well worth the read, and the daughter of the hostage was a terrific character, one of the highlights of the book.

Well I have been mildly critical of Mike Newton in previous reviews regarding the obligatory female capture/hostage/rescue scene, the obligatory sniping through the office window scene and the assorted rattling of the cages, get the two sides fighting against each other sides scenes and as 4 of the last 5 titles I have read by him have contained all of these scenes I picked this one up thinking it is NOT POSSIBLE that the publishers would allow him to release yet another rewrite of one of his previous novels which has already been released. So I start to read with an open mind praying for an original plot and an action packed book to keep me turning the pages which I know Mike Newton can deliver in spades if he wishes to. The plot involves an American diplomat being kidnapped and Bolan being sent to rescue him if he is still alive. Okay scratch an original plot. The adversaries this time is the Shining Path. Ho hum but we've been there before as well. The book starts off well and I am starting to get into the story when Mack comes across a female who turns out to be the daughter of the kidnapped diplomat who is in fact AWOL from the army in the states come to Peru to save her father. sigh.... (I wonder where this will lead to? ) But no I am joyous through a contact with a friendly army officer the daughter is picked up and placed into a safe house to be deported on the next plane back to the states. And then more despair as she is being guarded by two incompetent morons who allow her to escape. sigh.... (Surely not again ? ) Anyway the daughter manages to steal a car and obtain some weapons and supplies and off she goes to somewhere near some town where the terrorists are supposed to be hiding out in the mountains. To cut a long load of crap out of this she manages to actually make her way to the Shining Path camp where her father is being held which is a fantastic acheivement as the government forces have been looking for it for years but it only takes her a matter of hours. After infiltrating the terrorist camp she is successfull in freeing her father YAHOO !!!! sigh.... Oh no she is recaptured ????????? I really lost any interest I had in the book from then on and am annoyed that what could have been quite a fair to good book considering the plot and opponent was totally wasted. The only possible reason for the inclusion of the daughter in this title was to allow the scene of her being captured. It would appear to me that Mike Newton as one of the original authors picked by Don himself can write any type of garbage and the publishers fall over themselves to publish it. I honestly feel if not for the fact that Mike Newtons titles can be hidden within other published titles from other authors after Don Pendleton gave it away if you stacked only his books in line for publication except for a couple of the all time classics he has written the series as we know it would have ceased to exist prior to the publication of book #100. I am angry and feel cheated YET AGAIN having to read YET AGAIN what I have already read MANY MANY times from this author. Oh well at least we didn't have the sniper scene in this one maybe his next title will be an original we will see. I find it a little disappointing I cannot vote a zero or even a minus rating for this title.

I really thought this was a better then average novel. The best part about this novel was Padilla. A man with a very similar origina to Bolan in which his family was killed by terrorists like Mack's was killed by Mafia. Padilla though consumned not with a noble war to protect other families but a selfish rather lazy war to kill not just the Shining Path terrorists but also any innocents that get in the way or are conveniant to kill. I wish Mack and he had a showdown. The kidnapping and retrieval story seemed rather standard. I did like the background into the Path/Peru civil war and how desperate both sides were. I did not like two small points to the novel 1) what happened to Miranda and Mecerio - the kidnapper? it seemed like these two characters were just forgotten. I wanted to know why Miranda said it was about time. 2) the point of the kidnapping was what? Interrogate probably but no real discussion by the villians the motive. Part of me felt torn who to root for. It seemed like Newton put the Shining Path in the grey area - were they really freedom fighters or terrorists? They seemed outraged that a village was ransacked and were against the autrocities done by the government. Except for Chavez the government looked totally curropt. Also another part that annoyed me was Bolan's indecision to kill the soldiers who massacred the villagers. His comparing them to gestapo was right on the money couldn't believe it took him so long to figure it out. Yes he made the right decision to follow them but maybe it would have been better to attack them then grab a high ranking official or someone to find out where they were going? Having the soldiers get to the camp could have risked Hastings life. Still because of Padilla and exploring the Peru civil war it gets an 8.

typical mack bolan, fighting terrorists. But a few new things in it also. I liked the action and the detail describing the peruvian police and how the ambassaters daugter got thrown in the mix.

This one was alright. I didn't like the fact that there were moments when they desperately needed action. That just lost steam for the story. It started out great, but couldn't end it wonderfully.

Overall, a pretty good read. Had a lot of different forces at work: Bolan, Mercy Hastings, Alonzo Aguillar (leader of the Shining Path), Padilla (bad cop), Chavez (good cop). It all culminated at the end in a pretty exciting showdown. One of my favorite scenes was on pg 175 with the description of Mercy Hastings wiping her hands clean in front of her father. Great description!