In the late 1960s Don Pendleton wrote an action adventure series featuring Vietnam vet Mack Bolan. Mack Bolan aka the Executioner was an Army Special Forces soldier who came home from a tour in Vietnam when his family was murdered. Bolan's father was involved with the Mafia who was pressuring him to pay off his debts. The pressuring was so intense that he went crazy and killed himself and his family. The only person who survived was Bolan's brother, Johnny Bolan. After burying his family, Mack decided to start his own one man war against organized crime. Each book in the series details Mack's exploits against different Mafia families throughout the United States. He uses the same tactics from Vietnam such as "role camouflage", where he impersonates someone and infiltrates from the inside, to gun blazing action scenes with his 44 auto mag, 9 mm Beretta and M-16 assault rifle. Despite the fact that he is a one man killing machine, Pendleton made Bolan a character that you could sympathise with and relate to. Pendleton wrote the first 37 books before turning the series over to Golden Eagle publishing. From then on Pendleton's name became a house name and different ghostwriters picked up where Pendleton left off.
This particular novel was written in the 1980s by Stephen Mertz. It serves as a prequel when Bolan was still a soldier in Vietnam. The story is about how one of Bolan's fellow soldiers went rogue and started shipping drugs to the U.S. in body bags of dead soldiers. Bolan and his team captured the soldier and put him in the brig. Afterward , the NVA attacked Bolan's base and the soldier escaped with a list of spies working undercover in Northern Vietnam. Bolan and a few of his team members hunt for this solider through the jungles of Vietnam until they meet Bolan's nemesis of the book, Major Linh. This story is filled with tough action sequences, tough dialogue, and narrow escapes.
I had a tough time getting into this book when I first read it. I actually had to put it down for awhile and try again later. I enjoyed it the second time around because it took me awhile to get used to the author's writing style. I felt that the characters weren't quite as developed as Pendleton's Bolan books but it was still good. This book shows how Bolan's character developed in his early years and how he interacts with his fellow soldiers. You also see how he earned his nickname "Sergeant Mercy" when he delivers a baby during a fire fight with the Khmer Rouge.
It is also interesting to note that his moniker "the Executioner" was originally used while a soldier in Vietnam. Just like in the Pendleton books, Bolan's enemies and friends feared and respected him.
All in all this is an enjoyable book in the Mack Bolan saga. You don't have to read it first but it is a good place to start. Especially if you want to see what Mack was like in his early years.
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