The Killer Genesis (They Call Me the Mercenary #1) (1980)

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by Axel Kilgore AKA Jerry Ahern



One-eyed mercenary Hank Frost is the last man standing when his comrades are betrayed by their employer, gunned down in a helicopter raid to avoid paying them off. Frost’s quest for revenge takes him to a war-torn African nation, where he finds allies in a CIA operative and a beautiful female journalist, Bess. Prolific military adventure novelist Jerry Ahern, writing under a pseudonym here, is not a very good writer but he sure can tell an exciting story.

 


Those who moan about political correctness won’t find much to moan about here. After rescuing Bess from torture, where she witnessed the mutilation and murder of her friends, it doesn’t take Hank long to inquire whether she’s too liberated to cook for him. To be fair, though, the far-right politics aren’t laid on as thick as they could have been and it all ends up being part of the charm. Bess turns out to be pretty badass once she gets her hands on some firearms. Hank smokes like a chimney; I’m pretty sure there were times when he lit up four or five cigarettes on a single page.

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