Enemy Within

Jerry Van Cook does it again! I've read so many in the Mack Bolan universe and JVC is by far my favorite author. He brings his knowledge of weaponry, tactics and a flair for entertaining writing and in Enemy Within he definitely hits the mark! The action scenes are really well done here and what really impressed me was the author not portraying all "survivalist" groups as racist nut jobs (unlike some other authors). It's refreshing to see Big Mack actually receiving some help from one. Mack, PF and AT all get equal page space which is nice too, so many Stony Man books don't even have Mack Bolan in the story! All in all this is by far one of my favorite Stony Man stories, do yourself a favor and read this one on a special occasion...It's worth it! (One disclaimer: you may not like the book if you're a big Clinton fan haha!)

Just a fair read again here I reckon from this author. The main villain is a wheelchair bound arsonist/bomb maker yet you will read nothing of where he actually constructs any of these devices and in fact hasn't left his room for months so I was wondering how the devices he magically constructed were in fact delivered to the terrorists using them. Phoenix Force's part of the title is a yawn where they are ordered to protect the President and his family as the secret service possibly has a traitor within it's ranks. Able Team is trying to infiltrate themselves with a suspected member of the group involved in the bombings and go through two huge con tricks with the assistance of the farm and some blacksuits which was pretty good reading but I couldn't understand why they even bothered when the information they wanted to obtain could easily have been extracted from the badguy by just leaning on him. Mack's part in the title is probably the best reading where he takes on a few militia groups especially one of them set in the woods. The finish is fair and everything is wrapped up nicely at the end but nothing that will grab you. Better in the series than this effort.

I am going to go against the grain here and say that this book was a poor entry in the series. To start with it is almost a non mission. Phoenix Force are assigned to replace the Secret Service in protecting the President because the Secret Service are a bunch a layabout buffons incapable of tying their own shoelaces let alone protect POTUS. They lounge around reading books and making dispairing comments about Phoenix Force but when the push comes to the shove PF have to save the president whilst the Secret Service nap (and Calvin does this by running out of the back door of the White House, running around half the streets of DC and eventually sneeking up on the lone gunman. The Secret Service snipers on the roof of the White House and all the surrounding buildings obviously had a day off). Although this story was written before The West Wing became popular I still find vanCook's lack of knowledge and researh of Pennsylvania Avenue suprising. The only good point is that PF once again are operating inside the USA. Able Team are given a boring assignment of looking for a Thermal Detonator hiding in a bar in Texas. AT spend half the novel trying to get into the good books of a local sleezebag instead of interrogating the guy straight away. Lots of padding takes place including the dull rescue of a group of blacksuits sealed in oil barrels at the bottom of a lake. Bolan has the more interesting mission as he takes down a militia and later negotiates with the leader of another militia. This for me was the highlight of the novel. The authors fears and fetishes are rampant. The fear of computers is obvious: "Take a look at that demon machine....I'm still not convinced that computers aren't the anti-christ." page 258 and "my cyberteam....run periodic spot checks of the internet." page 17. The author's knife obsession is to be found regularly. All knives are lovingly described and I was waiting for the characters to start stroking and talking to these weapons. And then there was the politics. I can hazard a guess and say that the author is a die hard Republican. All of the characters that had a political opinion had a Republican opinion. Written at a time when Clinton was in the White House, the author not only goes out of his way to ridicule the then current administration, but has several characters - Including McCarter - voice thoughts that the president was rubbish and should be replaced. Lyons I can accept but after the fifth character expressed their feelings I had had enough. To end it all I would say that the characters and their motivations were paper thin, especially Desmond Click. Very poor make it up as you go along plotting. And to end the disappointment the author has the villains either murder each other or commit suicide. Very dull stuff. Only 4 stars for this novel.

Pure page turning excitement. From the opening sequence this one jumps in to high gear and never lets up. All of the players are involved, Leo Turrin, Charlie Mott, Katz, and a whole team of blacksuits play a very intregal part of this VanCook-Creation. Bolan has some great inerrogation scenes, Able Team almost sacrafices a few black suits to get the job done, and Phoenix Force clash with the secret service, after pulling a Presidental Security detail. The entire Stony Man crew stay in the continental US of A for onece, a nice change of pace. Everything comes to a head in Washington, DC when a Presidental hit is narrowly foliled by the Stony Man team. The villians for the most part seem very realistic, none of them are too extreme, and most of them come from circumstance, rather than insanity. The writing was spot on and VanCook paints a wonderful story with a perfect flow. The last half of the book seemed to only take me about 10 minutes, but that was only due to the fact that I lost all track of time wiht this one. One of the BEST.

Nicely done job here, with far better conceived characters and subplots than in most entries in this series. With everything that was going on this book could have easily turned into a muddled mess, but the author clearly worked hard at crafting the story so all the pieces fit together well. I particularly like Mack's interaction with the militia element and whole intrigue involving the First Family. This one's definately worth tracking down if you're a Stony Man fan like I am and want a good read.

Wow! Everybody's in on this one, and everyone gets a piece of the action...this is definitely a keeper. If you've been despairing of a good Stony Man, pick this one up. Nice balance between the action and the characterization...

Wow! Very cool. I really like Bolan's roughin-em-up scene at the beginning where he's extracting information from the Neo-Nazis (I believe). Its got some great action all around in this one - most notably Able Team. I like the pond scene with the barrels. I liked how Phoenix Force convinced the first lady that their preparations were necessary, although we never saw the President thank PF for saving his butt! But why does everybody (including Stony Man Farm!!!) use America Online for their 'net access!!!! ;) Imagine being on a mission-critical mission at the Farm and not being able to access AOL. THAT would suck! ;)

Jerry van Cook knows how to write, he just keeps writting great storys! What makes this book better then most others is that the "enemy withen" has very complex mental problems (as well as physical problems)but this was gone into in the story and improved it over most other Mack Bolan books. As usual all the other characters were written very well. I hope breach of trust is going to be as good as this one was.

I found this book entirely enjoyable. Unlike some of the other books of late, the story maintained a steady head of steam. Personal favorites: Calvin James vs. the First Lady. Yo' Cal my homey out of Chi. Bolan vs. the Neo-Nazis. If I knew any better, I'd have said Bolan's actions against this racist militia was to make up for that Death Merchant book with its callousness. The discussion between Bolan and the head of the Indianna Militia. It also raises one possible Bolan plotline. An American city falls under mayhem that it's placed under martial law. But the commander of the martial forces, and the commander's almost hand-picked army, is cut from the same cloth as Somali warlords and such evil. Legally, they are the law, and "soldiers on the same side." But man... we needed to see Hawkins pawed over more by the President's daughter.

best stony man book ive read yet