The Garonsky Missile

Colonel Tobin’s Private Army #7: “The Garonsky Missile” by Alan Caillou. Colonel Matt Tobin was killed in battle during the last private war, and what’s left of the private army has drifted away. Major Paul Tobin, the colonel’s son, is living in California when an airline stewardess comes to his farm with news that Clara Abbyad, an Israeli female agent he worked with once, is in Cambodia en route to meet up with General Quong Trek, a ruthless military leader that kills and tortures people he doesn’t trust, or who don’t please him. Paul, afraid for her life, calls in Pamela George to find some of his men for a rescue mission. Soon he leads a handful of men, including a couple new soldiers, into Cambodia to find and rescue the girl. The final plot is weak, and though the do rescue the girl and kill the general, there isn’t much else accomplished. Besides Clara and Pamela, Paul Tobin, Rick Meyers and Cass Fragonard are all that’s left of the old crew. Two new men are brought in, Seth Karem and a pilot named Bob Fellowes. It was time the series came to an end.

Assault On Ming

Cabot Cain #2: “Assault On Ming” by Alan Caillou (Alan Samuel Lyle-Smythe). Cain is hired by an ex mobster, now going straight, whose daughter has been addicted to heroin by one of his old partners in the business. Now his daughter is missing, and he wants Cain to find her before Ming kills her. All may not be as it first appears. Ming’s headquarters is in Macao, and he has a large Chinese organization controlling the drug and smuggling in the East. Thinking that the girl is after Ming for what he has done to her, Cain hires an American prostitute in Hong Kong to impersonate her, hoping to draw Ming out of hiding to capture the bait. The prostitute comes with her own bodyguard, a small Chinese martial arts expert named Mai. Things immediately go haywire, and the prostitute is captured before Cain can put his plans in effect, and he and Mai now have to rescue the prostitute, and still find the missing girl.  This was another topnotch story featuring Cabot Cain, a giant of a man in size, strength, and education. Although the author still hasn’t got his size straightened out. In issue #1, he went from 6’9” and 240 pounds one minute, to 6’7” and 210 pounds the next. In this novel, he’s 6’7” and 200 pounds. The actual description of thick legs, arms, chest, and shoulders sound more like the 240 that we first were told. But the stories are fantastic, and I hope we see more of Mai in future stories. She added some nice karate and judo action to this one.

Mindanao Pearl

Mindanao Pearl By Alan Caillou. David Calib’s father sends him after a thief named Smith that stole from his San Francisco company. Reports put Smith somewhere in the Pacific islands around Mindanao. David is to locate Smith and turn him over to the police in Manila; a simple task, though David isn’t used to roughing it. A few years in the Army, but he was more accustomed to the finer things in life. Things are not as easy, as his father let on. Arriving in Mindanao, he’s mistaken for Smith’s cohort, a man after pearls Smith stole from the Ordue brother on a plantation on the island of Pangalau. The brothers capture and torture him, but their sister, Andree, helps him escape. They head for the volcanic island where Smith is thought to be hiding out, with the brothers in hot pursuit. Gaston Ordue is a giant of a man with incredible strength, and has beaten men to death before, and Andree is afraid he will kill David if she doesn’t help him. There was a lot of similarity in this story and stories by Dan Cushman, but where Cushman is strong on dialog, Caillou is strong on description. Regardless, the story is a fun read.