Where Bolan Takes on Washington

Washington I.O.U. by Don Pendleton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you like a John Wick kind of story, or maybe Taken, where there's a ton of violence but it feels pretty focused on people who deserve it, you might find these books are close in style and entertaining in a similar way.

This is the third book of the series I've read, and yeah, it's pulp, and occasionally problematic in an early 70s way. And maybe in the real world the extreme violence and vigilante behavior would be indefensible, but in the world of novels, where morality is judged by the rules of the fictional world it's in, I think it works. The protagonist eliminates the bad guys and saves some good guys. Hard to argue with that.

The author shows a lot of creativity here and in the other stories I've read, more by far than I expected, and I think it's past time I stopped being surprised. This series, and the very premise it's founded on, won't be acceptable to many readers, but there's no question the author is a genuinely skilled writer. These are brisk reads, full of quick action, snappy dialogue, and almost no fat.

I liked it.

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