Customer Reviews

Assassin's Shadow

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In the hazy land between John MacDonald's Travis Mc Gee and McGee's literary successor, Doc Ford, there is Dusky MacMorgan, Randy Wayne White's prototype for Ford. In a series of seven novels published in the early `80s, White (writing under the pseudonym Randy Striker) told the tales of MacMorgan, and now they are being republished. Assassin's Shadow is the fifth of these seven books.

As Assassin's Shadow, MacMorgan is starting to get himself back into shape after a period of idleness. Part of his exercises involve swimming, and during one ocean swim, he comes across a boat in distress. This allows him to rescue the beautiful Marina Cole, but their meeting is brief: she is on her way to Cabbage Key and the wedding ring she sports makes MacMorgan keep a respectful distance.

Soon enough, however, MacMorgan will have his own reason to go to Cabbage Key. He is recruited by the secret government agency he works for to seek out an assassin. This unknown killer works for an international terrorist organization known as FEAT (not unlike SPECTRE in the James Bond novels), and his (or her) target is one of two men: an Israeli and a Russian, both important behind-the-scenes political figures. MacMorgan's job is to kill the killer and send a message to FEAT.

Beyond patriotism, MacMorgan has another motive to stop this assassin; FEAT has apparently killed MacMorgan's friend and supervisor, Norman Fizer; at the very least, Fizer has disappeared, and that doesn't bode well. First, though, the killer must be identified: could it be Marina, or her maybe her estranged husband, or even the exotic actress visiting for a spa treatment?

MacMorgan bears some similarities to Doc Ford, but he is not a very deep character, and these are not very deep books. But as White admits in an introduction, these were designed to be quick-to-write and quick-to-read adventure novels. Assassin's Shadow (as well as the other MacMorgan books) may be potboilers, but they are fun to read. Although they will probably interest Doc Ford fans the most, these books can be good light entertainment for anyone.

This was my first intro to a Randy Striker novel, which I bought thinking it would be Doc Ford. It was not that difficult to learn a new character and step into his life. I loved the book! I now read all Randy's books, whether Doc Ford or Dusty MacMorgan. His books are all exciting, as he puts it "duck and f**k" books. There's never a dull moment. Always good fun and I've learned a lot from Randy in the way of philosophy and geography! Bonuses hidden in paperback!

Another good book from this author.Starts out at a good pace and only goes up from there. Geogrophy was a little hazy, but could get the general drift.

Simple language to read, not to many real big words to wonder about. Lots of action, with a real hero that does get hur once in a while.

Some twists in the plot, just enough to keep you guessing who done it.

Another in the very exciting series from RWS.. Good story in another tropical paradise..These rather short novels are great for a quick read and are easy to follow