The Executioner #14: San Diego Siege

Howdy, you Triggermen And Shooters! 

So, a while back, I won a couple of auctions on eBay that were small collections of "Men's Adventure" books.  I got some Executioner (Mack Bolan), some Destroyer (Remo Williams), some Matt Helm, some Nick Carter, and the first book of the Specialist.  This time, I decided to read an Executioner book.

I have read one Executioner book before, way back when I was in my mid-teens back in the 90s.  I don't remember the title, all the covers looked alike (a white background with a collage of images and the logo was on an upward slant).  I'm under the impression he was working with the government or at least some sort of organization.  He went undercover as some kind of journalist, and I remember it being stated that articles are regularly published under the pseudonym to support the cover identity.  And I'm pretty sure he blew up a helicopter from his hotel room.  I have NO idea who was fighting, or what the bad guy was trying to achieve.

So, I was going into this with little idea of what to expect, beyond the cliche idea that he was one of those heroes who basically kills everybody and blows everything up.  Because, well, that's basically what all these guys are about, right?

I grabbed the earliest book in my current collection:  The Executioner #14:  San Diego Siege.  Of course, the author's name is Don Pendleton.  It was published by Pinnacle Books, with a copyright of 1972.  I have no clue who made the cover art.

So, Mack Bolan was some kind of special forces super soldier and sniper back in Vietnam.  He came home and found most of his family dead, his father driven to murder/suicide because of dealings with the Mafia.  His younger brother was the sole survivor and told him everything.  So Bolan began a one-man war against the Mafia, which has driven him through thirteen previous adventures.

In this novel, Mack Bolan has been "summoned" to San Diego.  He meets with Bancanales, apparently, they fought together in Vietnam, and in one of the previous books.  Bancanales tell him that their former Colonel reached out for help.  But Bolan is unsure because he found some dirt on this Colonel in a previous novel.  First, he wants to scout things out and try to see how dirty the Colonel is, to determine if he is deserving of Bolan's help.

However, when he goes to spy on the Colonel, he finds that the Colonel is dead, and embroiled in some plot with the local Mafia.  Somehow, this changes things, and Bolan is determined to figure out what happened and clearly establish the Colonel's involvement.

It was a pretty fun story, but a little silly.  See, the Mafia was using the Colonel to steal military radio equipment so they could set up a series of radio relays from Las Vegas to San Diego to Mexico in order to capitalize on horse race gambling.  I can't help but picture these radio relays set up like the fire beacons between Minas Tirith and Rohan in the Lord of the Rings movies.

To tell the truth, this seemed a lot lighter in tone than the Specialist did.  In the Specialist, the villain made people fight to the death with steak knives for his amusement, another mobster had a secret dungeon in his basement where he kept teens that he planned to sell into sex slavery, and the descriptions of inflicted damage seemed more visceral and gritty and generally stomach-churning.  

Now I'll admit that Bolan's family dying by murder/suicide is pretty dark, but you don't see it, you're only told that it happened.  The first guy Bolan kills gets shot in the head and you're told that his head exploded and he fell off the boat into the ocean where you didn't have to see it.  This was probably the most gory thing in the book.  Yes, a bunch of people were killed and others got hurt, but they didn't dwell on it.  Plus, these bad guys were really only after the goriesthorse track gambling market.  Mostly, it felt like an episode of the A-Team or some other 80's action show.  Except people died, and one girl spent two whole chapters wearing nothing but a bikini bottom so you knew this was "more grown-up" or whatever.

Maybe this is because this book came out in '72 while the Specialist came out in '84.  Or maybe it's just my own mindset and sensibilities.  Some things seem more serious depending on your outlook, after all.  But I think I liked this book better than the Specialist and I'm looking forward to reading the other books in my collection.

Of course, you can still get this physical book through Amazon or eBay, and a digital version from various places on the net if you want to check this one out.  Or perhaps you've read it already, if so, leave a comment below and tell us what you thought about it!  Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now, so I'll see you next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell