{"id":6380,"date":"2010-05-15T07:35:08","date_gmt":"2010-05-15T12:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=6380"},"modified":"2010-05-15T07:35:08","modified_gmt":"2010-05-15T12:35:08","slug":"book-report-tennessee-smash-by-don-pendelton-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/15\/book-report-tennessee-smash-by-don-pendelton-1978\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Report: <i>Tennessee Smash<\/i> by Don Pendelton (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This book follows <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/12\/book-report-the-illustrated-man-by-ray-bradbury-1951-1969\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Arizona Ambush<\/em><\/a> in the series, so I get to feel like somewhat of an insider when Bolan refers to the events in Arizona <em>and I know what he&#8217;s talking about<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this book ropes in a large number of other characters from preceding novels, characters who now work with the government in a special group targeting the Mafia.  So the reader who comes to the series late (me) is left outside a little, and the book spends whole chapters filling in expository backstory rather than shooting-em-up.  So the book is not the strongest entry in the series.  I understand from Wikipedia that Bolan eventually works with this group, so the whole &#8220;what is the agenda not only of the Mafia, but also of the bureaucrats and lawmakers on the good guys&#8217; side?&#8221; intrigue will probably grow, too.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the plot of the book gets a little short shrift.  Bolan goes to Memphis and Nashville and works with SOG (the special operations group) to rescue a couple of members in an attempt to infiltrate the drug-running arm of the mob.  In doing so, he meets a country-and-western song maveness married into and under the thumb of the local boss and uncovers a plot to blackmail powerful politicians.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, a weaker entry in the series.  I really ought to try to get some of the earlier work.  Definitely in the middle of the three I&#8217;ve read recently.<\/p>\n<p><center><b>Books mentioned in this review:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm.amazon.com\/e\/cm?lt1=_blank&#038;bc1=FFFFFF&#038;IS2=1&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;fc1=000000&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;t=stlbrianj-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;m=amazon&#038;f=ifr&#038;asins=1558173544\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This book follows Arizona Ambush in the series, so I get to feel like somewhat of an insider when Bolan refers to the events in Arizona and I know what he&#8217;s talking about. Unfortunately, this book ropes in a large number of other characters from preceding novels, characters who now work with the government in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-report","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6382,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380\/revisions\/6382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}