Zeke Mitchell is part of the new wave of indie authors keeping the action-adventure genre alive, paying homage to the past while injecting it with fresh blood … and in Zeke’s books, there is a lot of blood. God bless him and pass the hollow-points.
Mitchell follows up his top notch debut novel (Kill Zone) with Lethal Strike, a hard-hitting sequel that once again features blistering autofire action reminiscent of those pulpy action paperbacks from the '80s and one-man-army movies like Rambo, Cobra, or Commando. In other words, you’re not going to find the answers to life’s deepest questions in this book … unless the answer is “kill ‘em all and let the bodies hit the floor.”
With its stripped-down, barebones plot and minimal dialogue, this sucker moves with the speed of a sniper's bullet and hits just as hard. Every ounce of flat and fluff has been carved away, leaving behind nothing but a rapid-fire guns ‘n’ guts bonanza. Matt Thorn, The Specialist, sets his crosshairs on an ISIS scumbag and blasts his way through a shooting gallery of villains (plus scorpions and cobras) on his way to execute the Big Bad Guy. Because in books like this, there’s always a Big Bad Guy and he must always reap his just desserts at the end of the hero’s gun … or blade … or rocket launcher … you get the idea.
Let's face it, the story is nothing more than a line on which to hang a series of mega-violent action sequences and that is exactly why you pick up a book like this. Those seeking anything other than gunfights, explosions, and dozens of dirtbags getting their guts redistributed should probably look elsewhere. In other words, plot takes second place to gunpowder here. Mitchell clearly demonstrated with Kill Zone that he was catering to action fans who like their fiction served high velocity and maximum carnage and that formula has not been mucked with in Lethal Strike. Mitchell knows what his target audience wants—namely, a triple digit body count—and he gives it to them in spades. Or rather, corpses.
Needless to say, this sort of stuff ain't for everybody. And that’s okay; if we all liked the same thing, we’d all be married to the same woman, and that would just get awkward. But for those who like their novels "all action, all the time," Lethal Strike delivers the bloody goods.
They say to never judge a book by its cover, but many readers still do and sometimes—just sometimes—it pays off. For example, when I saw the cover of Zeke Mitchell’s Kill Zone, with its assault rifle and flame-kissed fonts, I judged that it would be a hard-hitting action novel with a serious ‘80s vibe and that’s exactly what I got.
You remember back in the '80s when noble one-man-armies like The Executioner rampaged against the evildoers, killing them mercilessly? When Chuck Norris and others of that Uzi-toting ilk stormed across the silver screen putting buckets of bullets into scumbags? Yeah, so does Zeke Mitchell and he expertly captures the vintage spirit of those old action-adventure series, writing in the same "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" zone that made those books such (not) guilty pleasures. Seriously, if this novel had been written back in the glory days of the genre and then turned into a movie, the producers would have immediately called Schwarzenegger and offered him the starring role. (Well, unless it was being produced by Cannon, who probably would have settled for Michael Dudikoff.)
The plot is minimal, just enough to hang a series of ceaseless action sequences on, and our stone-cold yet honorable protagonist (Matt Thorn) wastes more villains in this book than all the Rambo movies combined (OK, maybe a slight exaggeration ... but just a slight one). The carnage count is wildly absurd in all the right ways. Everywhere Thorn turns, there are bad guys popping out of the woodwork to waste him ... only to get wasted themselves instead. Sure, the thugs are piss poor shots while the hero rarely misses, but that's all part of the genre. You want realism, stick to Schlindler’s List or something. Me, I just kept on grinning as I watched (read) one enemy gunman after another get chopped to bits by auto-fire.
The level of graphic violence merits mention. This ain’t no PG-13, watered down, sissified action. This is hard-R stuff, with exploding heads, ripped flesh, splattered brains, popped-out eyes, gushing blood, and enough body parts to fill a butcher shop. None of that “the enemy target clutched his chest and fell to the ground” bloodless bullcrap here.
Bottom line, Kill Zone is a great kickoff to what should be a killer action series. If you enjoy nonstop shoot-‘em-up action, then prepare to be impressed. This one is all guns 'n' guts and loaded with so much auto-fire action, I could practically smell the cordite seeping out of my Kindle.
Guns, Guts, & God is now just Guns ‘n’ Guts (www.gunsnguts.blogspot.com). Please update your bookmarks accordingly.
Now, you may be thinking, Hey, man, why’d you drop God?
Trust me, it was nothing personal. Evolution is natural and blogs are no exception. Intents, goals, focuses … all are malleable and subject to change. When I first kick-started this blog, back when I was a newbie indie author, I thought all my focus would be on the action-adventure genre, which I affectionately refer to as “guns ‘n’ guts” because, well … there are lots of guns and guts. But I also dabble in spiritual essays and had a notion to occasionally throw one up on this blog, so when I was selecting a name for the blog, I added “God” at the end to kinda-sorta cover those intermittent faith-based writings.
Now, while I still primarily write action-thrillers, I have expanded into the horror genre, but that still makes sense under the “guts” section of the blog’s name. But the reality is, randomly posting an entry about God, faith, etc. just doesn’t make sense. Different demographic, different audience. If I decide to pursue writing spiritual essays, I will create a new blog for that, not try to force them to awkwardly coexist.
So the blog has a new name—Guns ‘n’ Guts—and a revamped focus. My hope/goal is to get back to posting entries on a more regular basis, so hopefully those of you who still check in for new content will find your patience rewarded. If I could buy everyone a new SIG-Sauer for their loyalty, I would. But these days, I can barely afford a Kel-Tec.
Next up, if all goes according to plan, is a review of Zeke Mitchell’s Kill Zone, which has been scorching up the Amazon charts for months now with no sign of slowing down and heralding the arrival of a new action author to be reckoned with. So bookmark the new link (www.gunsnguts.blogspot.com) and get ready to lock ‘n’ load, because we’ll be chatting about autofire carnage again real soon.
