Where Mack Does It Again

San Diego Siege by Don Pendleton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not a lot to say....

This is straightforward 70s pulp fiction, with all that entails. It's the 4th book in the series I've read (I bought 5 old ratty copies all at once a few months ago) and I keep finding them surprisingly entertaining, this one included.

The bad guys are really bad. The good guys are good (Mack has a couple friends in this one), but they have emotions about the war they're taking part in. Innocent people are getting hurt, and it's our protagonist's job to help them out. And from time to time, there's some beautiful woman walking around without a top on. (70s, recall.)

This one, like the ones before, is sufficiently unique that I'm a bit surprised. It has the same main idea, Mack Bolan fighting the mafia in one city or another, but the contours of the story are all pretty different. It's more creative than I expected. And, as I think I noted after the first one I read, the writing is pretty good. It's not crazy this author got his books published; he knows what he's doing. This one has Mack in San Diego, looking into less established mafiosos who are trying to move into a city quieter than LA or Boston. Pretty good story, good pace, lots of action--the way such novels are supposed to go. I swear when you read one of these you can smell the cigarette smoke and beer. (I was a kid. That's what the 70s smelled like to me.)

In sum--it's more fun to read one of these books than I thought, and it's better than many other pulp fiction books I've tried to get into. (More entertaining, for example, than Doc Savage; a little more fun than the Tarzan books I've read; quite a bit better than the Cthulhu stories; and way, way better than the awful Flash Gordon books.)

Well, IMO.

There's one more I haven't read that I own. I'll probably read one, and chances are good I'll buy more, just for grins. We'll see.

View all my reviews