After the consortium began producing these books, it moved from a mob-centric plot to an international terrorist plot template. After all, the 1970s were over and the 1980s were beginning. Out with the Dirty Harry, in with the Rambo.
In this book, Mack Bolan is out to protect America from heroin coming from Turkey. The KGB and its mercenaries are using a guerrilla front group to grow and process opium. The KGB also has designs to encourage an Armenian-American to fund and front an Armenian rebel group so it can thwart the Armenian-American and publicly embarrass America and to drive Turkey into the Russian sphere of influence. To save the day, Bolan has to protect the Armenian-American from a mob-like hit in Beverly Hills and then to air drop into Turkey to rescue Americans and an attractive Kurdish woman and to blow up the operation.
As the book turns from the mob focus to the world focus, it does broaden the possibilities. It also leads to more complex plots and lenghtening books. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll be pleased that it’s more modern thrillerish. The end of the book features a number of cables coming in that tip you to the next several books available in the sundry series in the Mack Bolan world. I dunno. I’m probably romanticizing it in thinking there’s as much lost as gained in the transition.
