Even Scott Brick couldn't save this one.Not the best work of Nelson DeMille. Use your money or credit on something else.

Thoroughly researched, abounds with cultural and local details about Yemen and Arabia. Interesting plot, yet slightly below fully developed and intricately weaved plots of "the lion's game" or "night fall".
The internal dialog going on in John Cory's head with his conversationalists is funny, witty and the fact that we are sometimes unsure if he actually uttered this or that line or just thought it makes it all the more charming.

John Cory! If you read any of his stories you need not ask why.

dynamism that matches the author's tempo, great rendition of voices - one never has to wonder who said what as the dialog of multiple characters takes place. Mr. Brick IS John Cory - it is that believable.

Real man (and John Cory) don't cry!

It pains me to say that - and I only do it because of this author's mastery of language nuances, wit and an amazing sense of humor - some of the jokes and phrases seem repetitive, especially after reading all of John Cory books. For example, how many times one can read "everybody is a comedian" before one stops smiling?
Overall this a a great book, that substantially improves on "the lion". Highly recommended!

This is a very one dimensional story Mr. Corey.
Riiiight.
I learned about Yemen sure, but everything was so predictible
Riiiight.
I think you could have made more jokes yourself personally.
Riiiight.

I loved all of Nelson DeMille's books up until this point. I'm about three hours into this one right now and just ready to turn it off. In a nutshell...give the witty dialog a break. We get it. You're clever. I can't look beyond this over indulgence and get into the story.

Anything David Baldacci writes. The "Racketeer" was by far one of his best.

It's not 20 shades of grey. Stop with the breathy words.

Most of it.

I don't write these reviews often. Only when I feel like someone stole my lunch money.

First off, the book's length is ok, it's just that nothing happens! and there isn't enough suspense to carry you through the long plodding plot. I have read all of the Correy books, and they have been great. The Lion had me on the edge of my "seat" due to it's great action and suspense. But this one is a real dud.

Trust me, you could listen to the first hour or 2, as the plot develops, catch a about 1 hour of action in the middle, and then skip to the last couple hours and not miss a thing. Well, as some others have said, you would miss about 5000 wise cracks. That's about 1000 for each of the characters. Does everyone have to be a wise a$$? Ridiculous! Even Kate gets in on the games. I'm no writer, but if I wanted my main character to stand out, I wouldn't surround him with 4 more copies of himself.

So what is the other 16 hours about? You too can become a Yemen expert. Well, I suspect not in the true sense, but in the "Yemen is just a breading ground for corruption and deceit."

I did give it 1 more star than I normally would because John is still John, and he's a fun character to read. A a thumb's up for Scott Brink, he was great as usual!

Let me begin by saying that I like Nelson DeMille. If you've read the Lion books, where Corey's sense of humor was rather amusing, you will soon find him entirely annoying, predictable and (by the end of the book) absolutely intolerable. I kept hoping his "straight man" wife would just shoot him. What ever you do, don't buy the unabridged version! The abridged version is much shorter. As usual, Scott Brick was great. In fact, I bought the book thinking: "Its Scott Brick, what could be the problem?" Now I know.

Top 10%

Learning about Yemen.

Mr. Brick is outstanding and is always at the top of his profession.

Not really, it's just a darn good and exciting story.

The bringing in of Paul Brenner to work with John Corey was a great idea by Mr. DeMille, but the wife character still comes out, to me at least, as a twit.

A different book. There is no way to save this turkey.

Absolutely, he is one of my favorite authors. I am hoping this book was just a fluke.

Serious disappointment. I have read all of his other books and loved them. It is hard to believe that DeMille actually wrote this.

If you fall asleep at night listening to this book and miss 8 hours of it, don't worry. You probably didn't miss anything. Seriously, nothing happens for hours at a time. This could have been a 30 minute book.

John Corey! I love anything that Scott Brick does.

I was just glad to see one more of the John Corey series. I hope there will be more.

I hope Nelson comes out with more books, soon.

The Panther was a good second to DeMille's The Lion's Game. The most enjoyable aspect was the character of John Cory who never disappoints. I just love this guy when he's sarcastic. He had a lot more humor going for him in this novel. It took the edge off the suspense, but then I welcomed the change of mood. I've read about twelve of DeMille's novels and would rank them all pretty high on the list; so I'm a big fan.

Moreover, if Scott Brick is narrating, you can bet every minute of listen will be worthwhile.