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The Executioner #14
San Diego Siege
Lorsque la Mafia avait provoqué la mort de la mère, du père et de la Sœur de Mack Bolan, elle ignorait une chose : au Vietnam, ses copains avaient surnommé Mack Bolan, le tireur d'élite, l'exécuteur. La vengeance de Mack Bolan était simple et féroce : tuer, tuer, tuer. Il dévalisa une armurerie, déroba une carabine Marlin 444. Et, seulement habité de sa haine, il commença sa croisade meurtrière. Alors, les portes de l'enfer s'ouvrirent... A bord du Danger's Folly, Bolan regardait défiler la surface de l'Océan. Il n'avait pas la moindre idée de l'endroit où ils se rendaient, ni de ce qu'il ferait arrivé à destination. Danger's Folly. Je t'en foutrai ! C'était plutôt la folie de Bolan.
185 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
63 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Don Pendleton
1,520 books190 followersDon Pendleton was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, December 12, 1927 and died October 23, 1995 in Arizona.
He wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, suspense, short stories, nonfiction, and was a comic scriptwriter, poet, screenwriter, essayist, and metaphysical scholar. He published more than 125 books in his long career, and his books have been published in more than 25 foreign languages with close to two hundred million copies in print throughout the world.
After producing a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, Don launched in 1969 the phenomenal Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which quickly emerged as the original, definitive Action/Adventure series. His successful paperback books inspired a new particularly American literary genre during the early 1970's, and Don became known as "the father of action/adventure."
"Although The Executioner Series is far and away my most significant contribution to world literature, I still do not perceive myself as 'belonging' to any particular literary niche. I am simply a storyteller, an entertainer who hopes to enthrall with visions of the reader's own incipient greatness."
Don Pendleton's original Executioner Series are now in ebooks, published by Open Road Media. 37 of the original novels.
Wikipedia: Don Pendleton
He wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, suspense, short stories, nonfiction, and was a comic scriptwriter, poet, screenwriter, essayist, and metaphysical scholar. He published more than 125 books in his long career, and his books have been published in more than 25 foreign languages with close to two hundred million copies in print throughout the world.
After producing a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, Don launched in 1969 the phenomenal Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which quickly emerged as the original, definitive Action/Adventure series. His successful paperback books inspired a new particularly American literary genre during the early 1970's, and Don became known as "the father of action/adventure."
"Although The Executioner Series is far and away my most significant contribution to world literature, I still do not perceive myself as 'belonging' to any particular literary niche. I am simply a storyteller, an entertainer who hopes to enthrall with visions of the reader's own incipient greatness."
Don Pendleton's original Executioner Series are now in ebooks, published by Open Road Media. 37 of the original novels.
Wikipedia: Don Pendleton
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 12, 2025
Sarge is called out to the West coast by old pals Gadgets and Pol. An old army buddy has become snared in the Mafia's web. Another good early 70s men's action series entry.
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February 1, 2020Our favorite Mafia fighter is back, called into action by a couple of his former friends, Gadgets and Pol.
Cue the fireworks and gunfights against the baddies.
Cue the fireworks and gunfights against the baddies.
January 29, 2018
I tend to read a couple of these in a row
December 8, 2020
The previous book, Washington I.O.U. left the series in a place that I believe Pendleton could have ended the series. Once you go to Washington and take out some crooked politician and the “power behind the throne” type underworld figure, the stakes do not quite feel as high. However, in this book, Pendleton finds a way to make things a little more personal. One of Mack Bolan’s old commanding officer in the military, “Howlin’” Harlin Winters is in trouble with the mafia. At first, Bolan is unsure just how deep Winters is connected with the mafia. When Bolan finds Winters dead from an apparent suicide, Bolan begins an investigation into the cause. This leads him to a lower level mafia leader that is trying to make a name for himself in the California mafia, which was pretty much destroyed in Battle Mask.
Along for the ride are the two surviving members of the Death Squad, and the future Able Team series, Rosario Blancanales and Hermann Schwarz. Carl Lyons (also a part of Able Team) also shows up as a consultant to the San Diego Homicide Chief, John Tatum, although he doesn’t interact with Blancanales or Schwarz.
This book feels less action packed than other ones. The book begins without an action scene and there are only two in the book – a battle outside the mafia leader’s mansion and an attack against a convey at the very end. This gives the book a slower burn than previous ones as Bolan doesn’t feel quite in such a hurry to get things done.
It was good to see Bolan act as part of a team of trained soldiers and seeing their interactions, which tend to be all business. The subplot with Lyons and Tatum is also well done as Lyons gives an uninformed police officer the full scoop on the type of person Bolan is. You really see the admiration that Lyons has for Bolan.
There is nothing unique about this book, but I still enjoyed it as Pendleton has mastered the “Executioner” formula and changes it up enough to keep things interesting.
Along for the ride are the two surviving members of the Death Squad, and the future Able Team series, Rosario Blancanales and Hermann Schwarz. Carl Lyons (also a part of Able Team) also shows up as a consultant to the San Diego Homicide Chief, John Tatum, although he doesn’t interact with Blancanales or Schwarz.
This book feels less action packed than other ones. The book begins without an action scene and there are only two in the book – a battle outside the mafia leader’s mansion and an attack against a convey at the very end. This gives the book a slower burn than previous ones as Bolan doesn’t feel quite in such a hurry to get things done.
It was good to see Bolan act as part of a team of trained soldiers and seeing their interactions, which tend to be all business. The subplot with Lyons and Tatum is also well done as Lyons gives an uninformed police officer the full scoop on the type of person Bolan is. You really see the admiration that Lyons has for Bolan.
There is nothing unique about this book, but I still enjoyed it as Pendleton has mastered the “Executioner” formula and changes it up enough to keep things interesting.
October 4, 2019
An excellent men's adventure series from the 60s, 70's and 80's. The first 38 books are outstanding but then the series is taken over by a bunch of new writers writing under the name of the original creator and they take the series into a new direction I did not care for. The first 38 books are very recommended
March 27, 2025
Excellent read. I love Don Pendleton's writing style.
October 4, 2023
Not a lot to say....
This is straightforward 70s pulp fiction, with all that entails. It's the 4th book in the series I've read (I bought 5 old ratty copies all at once a few months ago) and I keep finding them surprisingly entertaining, this one included.
The bad guys are really bad. The good guys are good (Mack has a couple friends in this one), but they have emotions about the war they're taking part in. Innocent people are getting hurt, and it's our protagonist's job to help them out. And from time to time, there's some beautiful woman walking around without a top on. (70s, recall.)
This one, like the ones before, is sufficiently unique that I'm a bit surprised. It has the same main idea, Mack Bolan fighting the mafia in one city or another, but the contours of the story are all pretty different. It's more creative than I expected. And, as I think I noted after the first one I read, the writing is pretty good. It's not crazy this author got his books published; he knows what he's doing. This one has Mack in San Diego, looking into less established mafiosos who are trying to move into a city quieter than LA or Boston. Pretty good story, good pace, lots of action--the way such novels are supposed to go. I swear when you read one of these you can smell the cigarette smoke and beer. (I was a kid. That's what the 70s smelled like to me.)
In sum--it's more fun to read one of these books than I thought, and it's better than many other pulp fiction books I've tried to get into. (More entertaining, for example, than Doc Savage; a little more fun than the Tarzan books I've read; quite a bit better than the Cthulhu stories; and way, way better than the awful Flash Gordon books.)
Well, IMO.
There's one more I haven't read that I own. I'll probably read one, and chances are good I'll buy more, just for grins. We'll see.
This is straightforward 70s pulp fiction, with all that entails. It's the 4th book in the series I've read (I bought 5 old ratty copies all at once a few months ago) and I keep finding them surprisingly entertaining, this one included.
The bad guys are really bad. The good guys are good (Mack has a couple friends in this one), but they have emotions about the war they're taking part in. Innocent people are getting hurt, and it's our protagonist's job to help them out. And from time to time, there's some beautiful woman walking around without a top on. (70s, recall.)
This one, like the ones before, is sufficiently unique that I'm a bit surprised. It has the same main idea, Mack Bolan fighting the mafia in one city or another, but the contours of the story are all pretty different. It's more creative than I expected. And, as I think I noted after the first one I read, the writing is pretty good. It's not crazy this author got his books published; he knows what he's doing. This one has Mack in San Diego, looking into less established mafiosos who are trying to move into a city quieter than LA or Boston. Pretty good story, good pace, lots of action--the way such novels are supposed to go. I swear when you read one of these you can smell the cigarette smoke and beer. (I was a kid. That's what the 70s smelled like to me.)
In sum--it's more fun to read one of these books than I thought, and it's better than many other pulp fiction books I've tried to get into. (More entertaining, for example, than Doc Savage; a little more fun than the Tarzan books I've read; quite a bit better than the Cthulhu stories; and way, way better than the awful Flash Gordon books.)
Well, IMO.
There's one more I haven't read that I own. I'll probably read one, and chances are good I'll buy more, just for grins. We'll see.
January 17, 2021
It had begun as a simple quest for personal justice. Howlin’ Harlan presented a personal involvement. A totally unknown quality in this new war. Friend or enemy? Bolan could not say. The shadows he’d dredged up in Washington were sending up faint little cries from the depths of his mind … careful, careful. But … the Colonel had pinned a couple of decorations on Mack Bolan’s chest during that other war … and they had faced death together on more than one occasion. What would they be facing in San Diego? Dishonor?
Mack Bolan’s mission was to identify the gangsters, to isolate them and to eliminate them. He was not hampered by intellectual moralizing or agonizing over the questions of force and violence, right and wrong, the constitutional rights of wrongdoers or the legal trickery of the American justice system.
Bolan had heard the stories concerning their high moral values...Bolan knew them for what they were. They were rapists, thieves, sadists, terrorists, murderers. The American mobster was a bloated and self-seeking cannibal who answered to no morality which did not serve to feed his savage lusts and voracious appetites. None of this had anything to do with being Italian. Often it was their Italian relatives and neighbors who suffered the most at the hands of these unconscionable despots.
Mack Bolan’s mission was to identify the gangsters, to isolate them and to eliminate them. He was not hampered by intellectual moralizing or agonizing over the questions of force and violence, right and wrong, the constitutional rights of wrongdoers or the legal trickery of the American justice system.
Bolan had heard the stories concerning their high moral values...Bolan knew them for what they were. They were rapists, thieves, sadists, terrorists, murderers. The American mobster was a bloated and self-seeking cannibal who answered to no morality which did not serve to feed his savage lusts and voracious appetites. None of this had anything to do with being Italian. Often it was their Italian relatives and neighbors who suffered the most at the hands of these unconscionable despots.
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September 15, 2020I think this chapter was more my speed than some of the more ambitious storylines. Kind of Executioner-lite, if there is such a thing. Pendleton brings back some favorite characters: Gadgets Schwarz, Politician Blancanales, and Carl Lyons (who eventually become Able Team in the Gold Eagle book series). There's something comforting about spending time with characters I already know instead of being introduced to new characters who will either die or never show up again.
In fact, I think that's what I want most out of reading these books -- a sense of comfort. I don't want to think too hard, I don't even necessarily want to be entertained. I especially don't want to be frustrated. And while the ending is once again far too abrupt (a major antagonist gets killed in a shootout that happens entirely "off screen"), Pendleton seemed to avoid the worst of his storytelling sins. His "Bolan propaganda" is confined to about 4.5 pages (which I mostly skipped over). I'd happily take more Bolan trifles like this one.
I'm feeling a significant amount of anticipointment about the next chapter. Bolan heads to Philly, which is the closest city to where I live now. Fingers crossed he makes it out to the burbs and hits some landmarks I'm familiar with.
In fact, I think that's what I want most out of reading these books -- a sense of comfort. I don't want to think too hard, I don't even necessarily want to be entertained. I especially don't want to be frustrated. And while the ending is once again far too abrupt (a major antagonist gets killed in a shootout that happens entirely "off screen"), Pendleton seemed to avoid the worst of his storytelling sins. His "Bolan propaganda" is confined to about 4.5 pages (which I mostly skipped over). I'd happily take more Bolan trifles like this one.
I'm feeling a significant amount of anticipointment about the next chapter. Bolan heads to Philly, which is the closest city to where I live now. Fingers crossed he makes it out to the burbs and hits some landmarks I'm familiar with.
June 20, 2025
This is probably my least favorite Executioner novel out of the first fourteen. Mack Bolan is encouraged by surviving members of the Death Squad he put together in book 2 to check on a colonel they knew in Vietnam who has either gone corrupt in San Diego or is in over his head. It starts well, but many opportunities are lost when Bolan finds the colonel having just supposedly committed suicide. He then decides to clear his name--but, the San Diego mob and the civic authorities plus the police are apparently so corrupt and in bed together that he can't just go in and shoot things up as he usually does. (And this right after the mob almost had control of the president in the last book.)
So, this book features Mack Bolan soft-toeing around San Diego trying not to make too big of a splash as he cleans the city up. He is successful, of course, but the basic problem never made a lot of sense to me and I don't feel that he really completed the original mission surrounding the colonel.
So, this book features Mack Bolan soft-toeing around San Diego trying not to make too big of a splash as he cleans the city up. He is successful, of course, but the basic problem never made a lot of sense to me and I don't feel that he really completed the original mission surrounding the colonel.
November 20, 2020
Another solid men's adventure novel from the master Don Pendleton. This one he has help from 2 of the 3 future Able Team members, the 3rd also makes an apperance, which was nice. Bolan is called in to help the guy who basically created him in Vietnam, his former CO got caught up by the mob. Though it was too late to help, it wasnt to late to take out the mob in the city.
Highly recommended, a very solid installment with an easy plot to follow and plenty of action.
Highly recommended, a very solid installment with an easy plot to follow and plenty of action.
June 21, 2022
Bolan is back on the West Coast and storming through one of the best cities in America. There's no excessive details or a convoluted plot. Just The Executioner taking out bad guys and saving the innocents in the process. There's some cool set peices and the finale is one of the better ones in this series so far.
When the Bolan storylines are simple and to the point, it makes for a much more enjoyable reading experience.
When the Bolan storylines are simple and to the point, it makes for a much more enjoyable reading experience.
August 8, 2019
It's a good book for precursor to the punisher or, life imitating art.
element of James Bond bullshit.
element of James Bond bullshit.
December 6, 2023
Rating 3.5
A quick read in this 1970’s mens adventure series.
Entertaining book that does exactly what you expect it to do.
The character of Bolan isn’t as one dimensional as readers might expect I think - especially when you have read several of the titles in the series.
A quick read in this 1970’s mens adventure series.
Entertaining book that does exactly what you expect it to do.
The character of Bolan isn’t as one dimensional as readers might expect I think - especially when you have read several of the titles in the series.
March 16, 2024
Great Read
Have loved Mack Bolan for over 50 years. Have not read one in a long time. Picked this one up and it took me back in time to when I was a lot younger. I recommend the Executioner series to anyone that wants a good, quick and action packed read.
Have loved Mack Bolan for over 50 years. Have not read one in a long time. Picked this one up and it took me back in time to when I was a lot younger. I recommend the Executioner series to anyone that wants a good, quick and action packed read.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
November 16, 2021
Fantastic
Loved every nook and cranny the plots and storylines came thick and fast look forward to the next story with gusto x
Loved every nook and cranny the plots and storylines came thick and fast look forward to the next story with gusto x
May 1, 2023
3 3/4 stars. Not as much shooting as previous ones, but still plenty of action and a solid read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2023
Great Story and nothing better then some Mack Bolan Action
February 17, 2024
San Diego Siege had considerably less action than the previous 13 books and by doing so strayed from some of the allure of the series. 2 stars.
April 21, 2024
Pendleton Ink #14
The Executioner #14
More action than you can poke a stick at as Mack Bolan continues his violent tour around Yankee land.
The Executioner #14
More action than you can poke a stick at as Mack Bolan continues his violent tour around Yankee land.
March 12, 2017
Mac gets some help from some old military friends from the war in Vietnam in this adventure. His friend and mentor is insnared by the mafia in San Diego, and he's in over his head. He reaches out to Mac for help, but Mac isn't able to make it in time. The members of his former military squad unite to investigate his death and get to the bottom of the corruption in San Diego. We also meet some new friends here, some really cool people.
February 22, 2016
I was introduced to the Mack Bolan books by my mother 30 some years ago and we read all the translated books. Last year I bought 30 of the original English ones and are ticking them off one by one. The translated books seemed less gory than what I have read in English so far. However, this one was not so gory as the other books. And I liked the introduction of Pol Blancanales and Gadgets Schwartz again.
Carl Lyons answer to the chief of the Homicide Division when he was asked if it was a “Bolan hit”, with 6 dead and 7 wounded. “This was just a Bolan soft probe.”
Carl Lyons answer to the chief of the Homicide Division when he was asked if it was a “Bolan hit”, with 6 dead and 7 wounded. “This was just a Bolan soft probe.”
October 25, 2015
Not enough shoot 'em up
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews