Patricia Rozell

Okay. I read thrillers to be thrilled. The books don't have to be literature, they have to be entertaining!

Vince Flynn seldom disappoints at all and I have never been disappointed by a Rapp novel. The Audible versions also have voice appropriate readers that seem to have a good time reading the book.

If you like old fashioned action, where the main character still loves his country and is willing to die to defend it or his women, read these books.

If you want a book where the main character spends more time crying than solving the problems before him, you need to move along because this is not that type of book.

It was over the top at times, but it was a typical Dale Brown thriller. Maybe the actions and responses to China were off kilter a little bit, but who knows what politicians will do when we have people like the current administration in power.

I wouldn't say at the edge of my seat, but it did keep my interest.

The performance was decent, but the narrator was not at his best when he was doing multiple voices in a scene.

The Devil in the Deep South China Sea

Don't expect more than it is and you will be fine. Dale Brown writes military books designed to be mainly enjoyment for men. The Americans may lose a few battles, but come out ahead in the final analysis because of maverick characters willing to do what it takes. It is not Chaucer.

Not buying it would have come closer. Patterson outsourced the writing of "his" books long ago and I pretty much quit buying after the disaster of the mutant children books. However, I had an extra credit and literally wasted it on this book.

I have enjoyed books with somewhat similar story lines from other authors. The whole animals united against us has been done many times, but it at least had some sense to it and usually just stuck with one species. This was just moronic. We are to believe that because we drive cars and talk on cellphones that all animals will be somehow mutated to such an extent (basically over the course of a long weekend) that they will band together and start hunting humans down in the cities. It would seem pretty unlikely to me that monkeys, lions, dogs, cats, birds, bears (brown and polar), and bats would all be affected the same way at the same time. It would also be difficult to believe that the effects occurred in lightly developed Africa and New York City at the same time. Many parts of Africa do not even have cell service. We also have to believe that only a few humans are going to have the means to fight back and will not generally use mass extermination methods in doing so. We also have to believe that we can turn off the cellphones (but not necessarily the cell towers) and quit driving and the animals will go home over the weekend basically. Then, when that happens, we will then turn everything back on so that the animals will return to their man eating state without being prepared for them to do so. I'm sorry if that is a spoiler, but it actually makes it sound more intelligent than the book manages to do

Does it have a genre other than that of one of the worst written, least logical, novels of all time? It has consigned the cowritten books of JP to the fiery depths of reader hell for me.

The narrator's only major mistake was agreeing to read this book. I didn't have any problem with the performance.

All of them? The monkey had the right idea when he started eliminating anyone that was introduced.

I think I have said enough. If this is ever read, please understand that you should not buy this book. It only encourages the author and his publisher to do more injustice to the reading community.

This book was executed well, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if some grammatical forensic scientist comes out and says that this book really wasn't written by the man himself. I was suspicious before I bought it, but I didn't see anything else that really grabbed me, so I used a credit.

I'm not saying it was a bad book, whoever wrote it had some talent. However, it did not resemble anything else that Crichton had ever done in either style or content.

Maybe he was mulling over doing one of those ghost writing deals that are the only action you see out of Patterson. Most of those are simplistic and cookie cutter and I have decided to adopt the Nancy Reagan, "Just Say No!" slogan.

This book has good narration and pace and it is decently written from a plot perspective. If it does turn out to be ghosted, at least he was going to be choosing a talented one. Who knows, next they will probably find another book in a forgotten computer at a secret apartment he kept in Dallas.

This book was okay, but not really my cup of tea. I knew that going in as I tend to go for police procedurals, military special ops stuff, and the type of sci-fi Crichton would write (cutting edge real life stuff taken to the next step and warped).

This book mixed in a tiny bit of detective novel with a healthy mix of mystical and did it just well enough that I didn't feel insulted by buying the book. As far as I'm concerned, that is a compliment and it is worth purchasing if you are either into this stuff or have a credit that is ready to expire.

I'll admit up front that I'm not a fan of the short story genre. I'm especially not a fan of long format writers trying to dip their toe into the short story genre. Most can't build suspense and bring it to a conclusion in 15 minutes or less. The whole concept was bad, although the execution was as good as you could hope for. It was boring enough that I had to quit listening on a long drive because none of the stories could generate my interest enough to keep me awake. Avoid it if you can.

Kind of disjointed, predictable, and lazy writing. It will fill up some time and that is about it.

Dale Brown has the McClanahan series that seems to be designed along the lines of the Clancy Ops series. Generally meant for paperback sales at airports, they have tried to upgrade them to hardback status at times. As far as short form, fictional military books they work fine.

I like them since I can generally get them finished in book form on one roundtrip flight of six to eight hours with very little time reading while there.

They follow a formula with only a little deviation from that factor. McClanahan starts off the book still in trouble from the command structure from the last book. Manages to find a way to get into deeper trouble. Finds a way to save the day and stay out of jail and the book is over. Lots of battle and small intrigue in the middle. It really doesn't matter if McClanahan is a Colonel or General in the Air Force or an outside defense contractor, the story is basically the same with the same type of protagonists from without and within battling with him.

The Davenport character has lost the zip it once had. It is time to find something new or write an adventure around this guy. The last couple of hardbacks and audible books have been almost last resort purchases for me because the author is so bored with the character.

Buy it if you have an extra credit and can't find anything else to buy.

This is an okay book, but it gets lost in the side plots a couple of times and even decides to introduce a new set of characters and locations more than halfway through the book, which I seldom find to be a good sign. You can find prime examples of at least six of the seven deadly sins here, missing only gluttony. We have people committing murder, kidnapping, rape, adultery in several forms including with their "minister", their stepdaughter, and their coworkers. There is a woman that pulls the getting pregnant trick twice to force men to marry and take care of her. Lust, envy, wrath, and pride run rampant. Lots of misdirection and lapses in logic to annoy those that like their books to make some sort of imperical sense mean slight deductions to the overall score.

This is an okay story and the good reader make this worth purchasing. Do NOT listen to it on the car radio with young listeners or unrelated members of the opposite sex in the car. There are some rather graphic scenes of a sexual nature that would embarrass those with a semi developed sense of morality.

I purchased this book before any reviews were posted and just now got around to posting my own review. I will just have to echo other reviewers that put this book a couple of steps below a normal Deaver. I have enjoyed his various books including the Rhyme series, both in Audible and hardback book forms. The Dance series has proven to be less exciting for me than some, but like others the narrator here is enough to stop buying the series altogether if she continues. She has to be a second grade teacher in her other life.

The surprise extra book was okay. But, since I generally buy long format books for long trips, I wasn't too pleased to find that I had bought a medium length and a short book instead of one long. Others won't have that issue I'm sure.

Hardcore Deaver fans won't be able to resist no matter what the reviews say, but don't be surprised when you aren't that happy with this purchase.