Customer Reviews

Vengeance Is Mine

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most true WWJ fans know that Bill Johnstone passed away a couple of years ago, so everything that comes out with his name on it now is ghostwritten. This is still an excellent and timely book that deals with the invasion of illegals from our southern border, and how the government refuses to stop it. Entertaining and informative.

William Johnstone has written as timely a story as one could hope for. VENGEANCE IS MINE is about one man who dares to take on the tidal wave of terror that is the Mexican/US border. Johnstone throws political correctness to the wind and tells it like it is. A must for Johnstone fans--and action fans, too!

John Stark is an aging Texas rancher. He is a veteran of Vietnam and a man who is concerned about the illegal drug trafficking across the US-Mexican border. His concern escalates to outright war against the traffickers when his friend and fellow rancher is brutally tortured and murdered by a Mexican drug cartel. His crusade takes him across the border to a wild strip-club where he finds a few of the men responsible for the murder and then his war quickly finds him. He enlists the help of a his neighbors and hunkers down to face everything the Mexican gang has to throw at him--and it includes hired guns, crooked cops, and a government that is less than pleased with his fight.

VEBGEANCE IS MINE is an enjoyable thriller that is well-paced and interesting--I learned a little about Texas geography and even something about US-Mexico border security. The protagonist is an interesting mix of larger-than-life hero and flawed gentleman. He slips from exuberant competence to self-doubt and blame without seeming weak or contrived. The style is something just a little different from most modern thrillers--it has a certain hardboiled and gritty mentality--

"The air was thick with tobacco and marijuana smoke, along with sharp tangs of whiskey, beer, and cheap perfume."

The plot is interesting and well executed. Its major weakness is the abundance of over-the-top political overtures--the sum of the United States' (and the world's) problems can be blamed on a cabal of liberal Senators. An argument that even in the subtext of the novel felt tired and paranoid, but if you can get past that VENGEANCE IS MINE is really a pretty good novel.

-Gravetapping

i enjoyed this one..it had a good storyline,great personable characters and kept me wanting to read it...

This is a superb genre novel for the first 350 pages. The pace is good. There are no missteps. The tension mounts. And the factual information and policy information that makes this novel important is accurate and well thought-out. (If you want to know all the facts concerned, read the nonfiction book While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within.)

Unfortunately, the author makes one mistake at that point, but it is a big one and renders the rest of the book (where the good guys do win) unsatisfying. I won't reveal the mistake, of course, because this book is worth reading in spite of it. The logistics of the final battle are fairly good, although the number 1 bad guy HAS TO BE killed by Stark, not be an inanimate object. This damps down the ending even more.

The author also allows the number 2 bad guy to escape, obviously setting up for a sequel (which I don't think was ever written anyway). This was a big mistake. Besides, no set-up was needed, as the Invasion USA series demonstrates. This problem is not going away, and as long as it's around, there will be an audience for inspiring stories of this kind.

The only failure of nerve of the author was in making the number 1 bad guy a Colombian rather than a Mexican. No doubt there are Colombian drug lords operating in Mexico, but this choice looked like a copout. And making the number 2 bad guy Irish was too much!

Bottom line: Read it anyway, then read Invasion USA, Invasion USA Border War.

After reading this novel I could not escape the feeling that this was several hours I would never get back. The writing was hokey and formulaic. The plot had potential, but with all of the political prosthelitizing garbage that was thrown in, the total effect was ruined. I suppose this would appeal to the average Texan, as this baloney usually does, but to someone with a little bit of intellectual curiosity, it just seems like so much unnecessary crap. To be fair though, I did read this immediately after finishing The Davinci Code, which is somewhat akin to listening to Roseanne Barr's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner immediately after hearing it performed by the New York Philharmonic.