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Mack Bolan the Executioner #68
Prairie Fire
Mack Bolan, wounded and run to earth, is trapped in an isolated Kansas farmhouse. Outside, the dogs of death are waiting for nightfall before they rip him apart.
As a hired killer, "The Cowboy" sells his service only to the highest bidder. Although he has his mark cornered, he knows this hit is the toughest yet. By morning hell deliver the targets head to his demonic employer.
The Executioner rediscovers, in the indomitable spirit of a struggling farm family, the eternal dream of the American heartland - his land, his dream. These are the people he always fought to protect - the good and the innocent.
But his very presence makes them certain victims - unless he destroys the slavering menace.
As a hired killer, "The Cowboy" sells his service only to the highest bidder. Although he has his mark cornered, he knows this hit is the toughest yet. By morning hell deliver the targets head to his demonic employer.
The Executioner rediscovers, in the indomitable spirit of a struggling farm family, the eternal dream of the American heartland - his land, his dream. These are the people he always fought to protect - the good and the innocent.
But his very presence makes them certain victims - unless he destroys the slavering menace.
185 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1984
52 people want to read
About the author
Don Pendleton
1,517 books188 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 17, 2023
Back again with another Executioner novel and returning to this series reminds me why I enjoy them so much.
They’re short, simple, and fast paced. Sure there’s always a bit of macho-man silliness (this was written for the male audience afterall), but that’s what makes these fun.
“Prairie Fire” doesn’t deviate from that pre-established formula and actually even strips it down more to a single plot with a single setting and very small cast of characters. And honestly, it’s all the better for it. In this 68th volume, instead of a complicated plot against the Russians or the mob, it’s just Bolan versus a hit man and his team.
That’s it. 189 pages of simple set up and an explosive finale. I feel like Newton’s take on Bolan, while not always the most extreme or complicated, is probably the most consistently to the point and focuses on what makes this character so much fun.
They’re short, simple, and fast paced. Sure there’s always a bit of macho-man silliness (this was written for the male audience afterall), but that’s what makes these fun.
“Prairie Fire” doesn’t deviate from that pre-established formula and actually even strips it down more to a single plot with a single setting and very small cast of characters. And honestly, it’s all the better for it. In this 68th volume, instead of a complicated plot against the Russians or the mob, it’s just Bolan versus a hit man and his team.
That’s it. 189 pages of simple set up and an explosive finale. I feel like Newton’s take on Bolan, while not always the most extreme or complicated, is probably the most consistently to the point and focuses on what makes this character so much fun.
April 11, 2022
Good Mack Bolan story. It breaks from the usual formula of terrorist does bad, Mack hunts them down, takes down entire enemy compound by himself. This one he’s wounded and he’s the one being hunted. Pretty fun!
June 11, 2020
Arguably the best Bolan yet. This one is a lot different than past volumes. Instead of The Executioner seeking out the vile threats to our existence, he is the hunted this time out. This starts out with Mack broken and bruised after a failed mission that he barley escapes with his life. He winds up with a family on a farm in Kansas. They think he's a fugitive until The Cowboy, a hired killer that has come to mop up his prey, The Executioner.
Like I said before, this one plays more for suspense than the usual shoot 'em up. It's more of a chess match between Bolan and The Cowboy, with an old couple and their daughter in law that is having feelings for our hero caught in the middle. For 3/4th of this, it is give and take. Then the action ramps up. Mike Newton wrote a great book.
Like I said before, this one plays more for suspense than the usual shoot 'em up. It's more of a chess match between Bolan and The Cowboy, with an old couple and their daughter in law that is having feelings for our hero caught in the middle. For 3/4th of this, it is give and take. Then the action ramps up. Mike Newton wrote a great book.
September 27, 2024
I'm rating this one on Mack Bolan standards, just to get that settled. I'll still pick a Mack Bolan novel up as a palate cleanser between longer books. The action in this one picks up immediately as Mack Bolan escapes from a couple of hardasses who've got him handcuffed in their car as they roll through the prairies in some midwestern state. He manages to kill his kidnappers, crash their car and get away, still handcuffed, and hides out in a nearby barn to lick his wounds. Unfortunately, a team of killers is still after him. The plot is like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD or ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, in that you have a handful of people, not all of them innocent, outnumbered and outgunned, fending off an onslaught of killers. Their enemies could be zombies, they could be gangsters, they could be wild animals. What matters is who's left counting the bodies in the end.
October 5, 2021
Bolan, wounded and on the run, seeks shelter at a remote farm to evade his pursuers. Of course, they track him down and lay siege, threatening the farmer and his family. The Cowboy (such a stupid name!) is the assassin hired to kill Bolan. We all know the outcome...
March 25, 2020
Bolan is wounded and under siege, protecting a family and their farm from hired guns after Bolan. A nice change of pace for a Bolan outing, I sped through this one and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews