Review: War Against the Mafia by Don Pendleton

Executioner 1 War Against the Mafia by Don Pendleton

This is the book that launched the Executioner series. Mack Bolan is a sniper in Vietnam when he learns his father has murdered his family and committed suicide. Only his younger brother has survived. He’s offered compassionate leave to come home where he discovers that his father went crazy because he was in debt to the mob and they had started prostituting Bolan’s sister. Bolan decides to get some straight-forward revenge as only a sniper who cut his teeth in Vietnam can.

 

Frankly, while I enjoyed the story, I was less impressed with the early Bolan than I expected to be. He starts out strong, but he plays a lot of games with the bad guys that I really didn’t think were necessary. Pendleton does a nice job with a homicide detective who figures out what’s going on and tries to steer Bolan out of what he views as a suicidal direction.

 

Overall, I think that anyone who has enjoyed an Executioner novel, or one of the later spinoffs like Stoney Man or the Super Bolans, should read this book. It’s nice to see how things began.