I am great fan of knight-errant type of stories. I like it from the perspective of bad guys (like Parker), men of action that get drawn into the combat against their will (but they excel at it - like Helm, Creasy, Tom Clancy's Clark, PoI John Reese and Equalizer and in SF area Storm from Shadowline and of course Takeshi Kovacs) and true forces of nature, almost mythical warriors roaming the world and fighting injustice (like Reacher).

In this novel I truly enjoyed the very transformation of main protagonist - Creasy. He starts as a man at the end of his road. After years of fighting and seeing the worst and without anything worthwhile and good on the horizon Creasy is at the very bottom. It takes a little girl willing to make him a friend, persistent as children are to pry open the Creasy's outer shell to let some sun and spirit of youth in. This very transformation from a introspective loner to man that gets opened to life again, sees what is possible and again feels like member of the [healthy side] of humanity, is very touching and we see how it slowly progresses - from first Pita's attempts to great camaraderie between child and old "warhorse".

As is usually the case characters like Creasy are destined for the tragedy - and tragedy that hits him is truly terrible. And as they say when silent man gets pushed around ..... well, in short beware of his rage.

What follows are rather realistic chapters where we see Creasy preparing for his vendetta. He takes time, heals and plans. Level of dedication is almost supernatural - he has no other goal but take vengeance on criminals that profited from the Pita's suffering. Level of details given here, actual investigation, working oneself to the top form required for combat ahead, are rather realistic. Nothing happens within hours, it takes days, even months (another parallel with Clancy's John Clarke in "No Remorse"). And when hammer falls - oh it falls with gratifying kablaaam!

Although some people consider this genre as obsolete I disagree. Even today, when one considers what goes around and the way people get forced and even brought to brink of social existence, stories of people doing the right thing, bring rays of hope. And here I do not think only about the Creasy but of others that decide to help him in this way or another - no action of Creasy's would be possible without ordinary people helping him. And this is other thing that this book shows - people are not stupid, they know right from wrong and while they might prop up their public persona to avoid external forces from affecting them, they will help the cause they know is just.

All the criminal enterprises from the novel are unfortunately still alive and kicking, from drugs to juvenile prostitution and ransom/kidnapping. Only thing that has changed is that criminals are more sophisticated in the ways they run their business - government level corruption worldwide remained the same.

At times hard to read book but in the end very satisfying one.

For fans of lone wolves and action adventure highly recommended. ( )

Much better than the movie. ( )

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Col. "Cinco Estrellas" (93)

“A society that cannot provide the basics of life does not get its laws obeyed.” - A. J. Quinnell

This is tough to review for me. I LOVE the movie starring Denzel - love, love, love it! But until very recently, I had no idea it was based on a book! So I rushed to the library and dug in!

It is a good read! Creasy is just as bad ass as he is in the movie. The setting in the book is Italy, not Mexico, and Creasy has more assistance, but the plot is basically the same. My hard on for the movie made the background information about Guido a bit boring, and the story about Creasy's rehab just plodded along. I was not patient in waiting for the action!

The action is good, Creasy is awesome, and I'm glad I read it! I liked getting more information about Creasy, as the movie gave almost none. I also like that there are four more "Creasy Novels" to read, and I already have #2 on order from the library! I think that overall, I liked the movie better, but I am glad to have read where it came from! ( )