I couldn't help liking this book. It's fast-paced, with wildly implausible action scenes and tongue-in-cheek humor. (I particularly liked the part where one of the commandos would tape a knife to his leg and then sneak up behind someone, remove the knife quiety, and kill him. Really? How does the intended victim not hear you ripping duct tape off your leg?)I realize this book is deeply silly on many levels. But it's like watching a James Bond movie from the 70's: Yes, the plot barely makes sense. And yes, the characters are little more than cardboard cutouts. But you still can't turn away because it's so much fun seeing what comes next. One interesting twist in this story was that the "good guys" were arguably morally worse than the bad guys. In fact, throughout the book, the menacing gangsters never actually killed anyone. Oh, they threatened and they beat a few people up, but nothing like the "good guy" commandos who basically ran around killing gangsters, gangster wives, and hapless security guards almost at random. But hey, who doesn't like a good shoot-em-up every once in a while?
I always enjoy the writing of Lawrence Block, and this was no exception.Originally written in 1969 and now available as an ebook, this delightful book was a fun read and a good story.Set in the late 60's it has the feel of an older story....no internet (go to the library for resources) no cell phones, etc....fun. Veterans trying to to make things right when bad guys make things go wrong....interesting characters, with a good back story, some fun, some great story points (the pretend tree surgeons, setting up a reference in a cute way with a sweet woman)..This is lite reading,easy going and uncomplicated. Enjoy.At the end is an afterwards about the story and how this as going to be a series and then became a series of one book. Too bad, would have enjoyed more.Bonus feature - photos of L Block at the end....nice touch
What do You think about Specialists (1996)?
As others have noted, there are serious shades of "The A Team" here. A team of crack soldiers out to right wrongs and help the innocent, etc. There are also shades of Richard Stark/Donald Westlake here--the planning and execution phase of The Specialists reminded me of some of the Parker books a little. Overall, this wasn't a bad read, but nothing particularly special, either. I think that one reason the book falls a little flat is that half of the "good guys" are pretty repugnant. For guys who are supposed to be all about punishing the wicked, they seem to have pretty dirty pasts. I don't regret that couple of bucks I dropped on this, but this is definitely nowhere near as good as the Scudder books.
—Roybot
