Dark Alliance

Mack Bolan #370, September, 2009, was written by Mike Linaker, a writer who has written 3 dozen or more books for GOLD EAGLE books since 1988. With this book he has given us one of the better recent Mack Bolan/Executioner novels. Initially I did not care for the format of the book, however, after a few chapter's read that offered no problem and I began to adjust, even enjoying the format. For example, the beginning chapters take us through a current, up-to-the moment Bolan, then the chapters begin to offer flash backs, resulting with a current chapter followed by a flash back chapter. A bit disconcerting at first but making sense as the reader moves along. This different approach offers a change of pace in reading. Bolan starts off in Columbia near the Venezuelan border captive as a prisoner, then moves back to Florida as a free man. It takes a few chapters to get into the rhythm to know whether Bolan is operating in the near distant past or the 'now' timeframe. Bolan's mission as agent Matt Cooper is to determine what became of ivestigative reporter Maggie Connor and also just what she discovered in her job involving Santana Incorporated. The chief baddie in this corporation of drugs and crime is its president, Raul Manolo. Almost everyone Bolan will encounter is in the pocket of Manolo, a problem that will take some sorting out. Mack Bolan is just the guy to find out the hired guns, crooked politicians, arms sellers, corrupt ATF and other assorted law officials in both America and Cuba. The action present within the novel swings back and forth from Florida, Columbia to Cuba. A truly engaging novel with all the dash and suspense one finds in only the better GOLD EAGLE novels in the Mack Bolan/Executioner series. I have hundreds on the shelf from 1986 and feel this one to be one of the better ones. Live large. Semper Fi.