Review of Mercy Row Retribution by Harry Hall man

Book Name         - Mercy Row Retribution

Author                  - Harry Hallman

Publisher              - Octane Interactive

Number of Pages - 276

Publishing Year   - 2015

Edition                  - Kindle


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Rating : 3.0

Blurb

While serving as a pilot during the Vietnam War, Gerry Amato—the grandson of Jacob Byrne, the head of a powerful North Philadelphia Irish crime family—seizes the opportunity to create a lucrative marijuana smuggling operation. It’s 1967, and under the secrecy of a classified military operation, and with the assistance of a Marseille mob that owns plantations in Cambodia, he is able to send tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana to Philadelphia every month. His grandfather’s criminal enterprise distributes the drug to a population that has developed an insatiable appetite for the marijuana.

A rival Paris gang tries to force Amato to buy their product, which triggers war between the Byrne family and the Paris mob. From the steamy jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia to the streets of Saigon, Paris and Philadelphia, the ruthless actions of the Paris mob threaten to destroy the Byrne family. Gerry Amato orchestrates a merciless campaign of retribution against his foes in order to save himself and his family.

In part two of Mercy Row Retribution—the third book in the Byrne family saga—it is April 1975 and South Vietnam is about to fall to the North Vietnamese communists. Gerry Amato fears that the communists will take revenge on the population, especially the children—many of whom are Amerasian—at an orphanage he supported and volunteered at during his time as a pilot. He orchestrates a rescue mission to retrieve the children and bring them to the United States. This takes him and his team into harm’s way in Thailand, across Cambodia and into war-torn Vietnam and back. The fates of 75 children and 30 adults rest squarely on Gerry’s shoulders.

Bonus Section

Mercy Row Retribution includes a bonus section of short, true stories of the author and his friends’ experiences growing up in North Philly in the 1940s and 50s. This is a true reflection of what life was like for working-class kids growing up on the streets of Philadelphia. 

My Review


Action, reactions, fights, gun shots, killing, attacking, kidnapping- The book has all the spices for an action thriller. Story begins with a military operation giving an impression that readers are going to get an account of geopolitical strategies and war. Later it takes us to a family get together giving an impression that readers are going to see a family saga. Afterwards what we see is a gang rivalry.

A family that smuggles marijuana acts as benefactors for another mass of people. This sounds like a contradiction. While we proceed further, the story is into a hard core revenge game between two mafia groups. That's how I would like to put it forward.

Personally I am not much of a violence lover. Hence I was forced to skip a few pages of hardcore violence and actions, due to which I might have missed some part of the story. I found the bonus section more interesting than the story itself

The target audience of the book is Action lovers. This is a full fledged feast for them. So buckle for some raw action and start reading

Reviewed for the sage's blog tour

  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book as a complimentary copy in exchange for a honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.


About the author

Hallman was born in 1944 and raised in the Kensington section of North Philadelphia. That was a year before World War II ended. He was influenced by the stories told by returning servicemen and the proliferation of war movies that were shown on the then new invention of the television. With the influence of movie heroes such as John Wayne, and real heroes like Audie Murphy, he gained a healthy respect for his mother and father's generation and their sacrifices. His uncles on his mother's side both served in WWII, one in the Army and one in the Navy.

Hallman's father was Harry Hallman, Sr., a champion billiards player who also owned a poolroom called Circle Billiards, located at Allegany Avenue and Lee Street. The younger Hallman spent many hours after school at his father's poolroom and watching his father play in other poolrooms in Philadelphia and New Jersey. The people he met, some belonging to the real K&A Gang, influenced his writing of the Mercy Row series.

He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, including two tours in South Vietnam, as a photographer. He is married to Duoc Hallman, whom he met in Vietnam, and has two children, Bill and Nancy, and one grandchild, Ava.
Hallman is a serial entrepreneur who has created several marketing services and digital media companies and continues to work as a marketing consultant.