Mack Bolan

Mack Bolan, alias The Executioner, is a fictional character who has been serialized in over six hundred novels. When asked his name and rank in "Colorado Kill Zone", he replied, "Bolan, Mack Samuel, Master Sergeant." He made his first appearance on the printed page in 1969's "War Against the Mafia". The novel was written by author Don Pendleton, who would go on to write 36 more Bolan novels before he sold the rights of Mack Bolan to Gold Eagle. These novels are often referred to as the "Mafia Wars" novels as opposed to the Stony Man and the War Everlasting, which were to follow. At the present time Mack Bolan books are published by Gold Eagle Books, a division of Harlequin Books.

Fictional character biography

Mack met many of the other characters in the Executioner novels in a variety of different circumstances. His friend, Hal Brognola, was assigned by the President of the United States to hunt down and kill Mack, which he tried to do. Leo Turrin was a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, mafia underboss and federal undercover informant, and Bolan's best friend. Jack Grimaldi was a pilot for the Mafia when he was befriended by Mack and persuaded to join the fight against the Mafia. Carl Lyons was a young policeman working for the Los Angeles police when he was assigned to Project Hardcase, which had as its goal the hunting down of Mack.

Mack was put on trial for his extra-judicial activities in book # 91, "The Trial." As well as being in two nuclear explosions, Mack has been knifed numerous times and shot several times in various parts of his body, most recently in his left shoulder. He has been in numerous grenade explosions and several warehouse roofs have come down on his head. He speaks English, Spanish, Russian, and passable German, and can understand many others. He is of Welsh-Polish heritage. Mack has been in love only once, with April Rose. He holds current lover, Barbara Price, at an arm's length out of fear that she will be killed. No one has ever claimed that Mack does not like women. He prefers the gutsy type who are not apt to run for cover when shot at. In one novel, a woman with whom he was working claimed that he liked his women "barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen." Mack replied "No, I like them alive." In his spare time he likes extreme sports such as canoeing several rivers in flood stage. He typically likes to spend his spare time either with Barbara Price or pursuing an extreme sport. His weapons of choice are the Beretta 93R which he traditionally carries in a vertical shoulder rig, and "Big Thunder", a stainless steel .44 AutoMag he usually wears on his hip. Though in the later books he adopts a Desert Eagle in the .44 Magnum and in the early books he wielded "Belle", a usually silenced Beretta Brigadier, and a Weatherby Mark V in the .460 Weatherby Magnum.

Bolan currently works on his own at arm's length distance from the US Federal Government agency Stony Man. He occasionally takes missions from Stony Man's director and personal friend, Hal Brognola, and the President of the United States. Frequently he returns to Stony Man to lead the agency on missions.

Barbara's former husband was an unfaithful man. Only three of the current Stony Man staff have children or have ever been married: Carl Lyons, Gary Manning and Hal Brognola. Yakov Katzenelenbogen was predeceased by both his son and wife.

pin-Offs

In addition to the main "Executioner" series, several spin-off book series have been published expanding Pendleton's universe, including Mack Bolan, Able Team, Phoenix Force, Super Bolan and Stony Man. More than 670 Mack Bolan/Executioner/Super Bolan/Stony Man/Phoenix Force/Able Team novels have been published over the last 38 years, making it one of the most prolific series of original novels centered around one character published in the English language.

Authors

Here is a comprehensive list of authors who have at one point in time written a Mack Bolan/Executioner novel, or a spin-off novel for the series (i.e. Able Team, Phoenix Force, or Stony Man).

External links

* [http://www.mackbolan.com/ MackBolan.com]
* [http://www.donpendleton.com Official Don Pendleton Website]