Julie's Review: Rasner's Revenge: Rasner Effect III

Summary: Mercenary Rick Rasner is a survivor. His current mission-revenge. Rick is trapped in an asylum with a delusional roommate and guards who want to kill him. His one goal: escape and inflict vengeance on the man who put him there, presidential hopeful, General William P. Straker. Unfortunately, no one knows Rick is alive, except for one fifteen-year-old old girl. Clara Blue is a recent escapee from the Brookhill Children's Psychiatric residence. She is also now the reluctant leader of an aspiring mercenary group made up of fellow escapees. Clara's only interest is in freeing her anointed dad from that asylum, if only she had the know-how, or her new allies were willing to help in this task. Clara's plan: hire the only other mercenary she knows, Jake Scarberry, the man who spent years as Rick's mortal enemy. Even if Clara can convince Jake to help, and they succeed, will Rick prove to be the parental figure she envisions? And what happens should he find out the ultimate betrayal Clara committed when she escaped Brookhill? ~amazon.com

Review: I will say this, Mark Rosendorf definitely knows how to write sociopaths! I just hope he hasn't written these characters from experience and more from his imagination! Rasner's Revenge begins from where Without Hesitation left off. Clara and her band of rag-tag Duke Organization attempt to pull off their first job. So, what can go wrong, does go wrong. Clara is the sanest of these girls and she's a little off.

In the past couple books, I've felt for Clara by the middle of this book, I wanted to slap her. It's not that I didn't feel sorry for her, it's that I wanted her to take control of her life and step up to the plate. Sure she's only 15 but she's also been through a lot and to root for her, you want her to be in charge of her life. Maybe she just doesn't know how or have the skills to do this at this point in her life.

Rick Rasner is as delusional and angry as ever, just the way we like our psychos. Rick is always trying to break out of somewhere and this time it's an asylum. He's got a crazy bunk mate and General Straker is still keeping tabs on him.

We also have mercenary Jake Scarberry back in the mix. This time though he's on Rick's side. You see he was hired by Clara to help break Rick out of the asylum. Funny how your past always comes back to haunt you. Or in Jake's case, how your career comes back to haunt you. Is Jake really on the up and up with Clara and Rick or does he have something up his sleeve.

There's also the venerable General Straker. Now, this guy is supposed to be a hero but he's more psychotic that Rick Rasner and that's saying something. Will General Straker and Rick Rasner finally come to blow? Will they both live? Die?

What I love about these Rasner adventures is that there is no clear cut bad guy/good guy. I found myself vacilating between rooting for Rasner/Clara, Jake and even General Straker. In a novel where the heroine doesn't believe in herself, it's hard to believe in her. In the end you want her to be ok but in the process you want to shake her and say "Get a hold of yourself."

What I would love to see is a novel or novels on Jake Scarberry. I think know so little about him and I would like to know more.

If you are looking for an action/adventure/thriller series, then definitely go for Mark Rosendorf's Rick Rasner novels.

Final Take: 4.5/5