The Hunters

A Presidential Agent Novel (Presidential Agent, Book 3)

By: W. E. B. Griffin

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 19 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The Hunters picks up right where The Hostage left off.

Two brutal murders and millions of missing dollars in the growing UN/Iraq oil-for-food scandal have led Castillo and his team to an estancia in Uruguay, where the man they seek is murdered right before their eyes. Who is responsible?

Most likely, the people higher up in the dirty-money chain - those willing to risk anything to keep their secrets from being revealed. They've left just enough of a trail, though, for Castillo to pick up the scent. And with carte blanche from the President of the United States to follow it wherever it takes him, he ends up...well, not exactly where he expected.

©2006 W. E. B. Griffin (P)2007 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"The Castillo novels offer timely plots and enough firepower to keep the action-adventure crowd happy." (Booklist)

"You must admire Dick Hill's smooth, exciting performance as Castillo flits from country to country on his quest. Hill gracefully transitions from character to character, whether German, French, Russian, Spanish, or Hungarian." (AudioFile)

Enjoyed it

This series about LtCol North, er, I mean Castillo is fun to listen to. Military fun I mean. If you aren’t into GIs being GIs or spooks being spooks, you might want to pass.

Another great edition, WEB produces another gem.

The Hunters does not disappoint! Another great book in a series of great books! I think the narration is superbly done too.

First half good

The last couple of chapters sounded like it was a different book entirely. Went from suspense to comedy. End note explained why but it kind of ruined the book for me. But on the other hand, Mr Griffin said he did that to relieve the stress of what was happening “right now”. Little did he know things in Washington soon would get almost as laughable as the last few chapters.

This Review Needs a Title...

Another great book in the Presidential Agent series. I enjoyed the interaction of the many US agencies and wondered in amazement how all of these things might come to pass in the real world. Nevertheless...on to book #4.

Over-long and repetitive

Certainly not the best book Griffin has written - long-ish, more bureaucratic tussles than I cared to read about and somewhat repetitive. You might (or might not) learn a little about the oil-for-food program. The narrator was excellent, but couldn't save this book from an "it was just OK" review.

not my style

i know people that love his work, i just have not found the right book to jump into his stuff.

I Just Kept Waiting for the Story to Get Going

There is a very simple story line here that never delivers any bang for the buck.

Most of the book is spent away from the main story line to develop the characters, which the author does fairly well.

Likewise, the characters itertwining with the politics of operating as a spy network is also fairly interesting, but mostly unexciting.

I teetered between a 2 and a 3 and went ahead with a 3 as the story was narrated well. Dick Hill, the narrator, is good - as usual.

I will probably try another Griffin book as my father is a fan and recommends him. He did tell me that this one was not as good as his others.

Otherwise, I would probably not choose another Griffin book.

Too much Recap

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The first two book were great and if I had not read the first two then this one probably would have seemed better but there is very little action and a LOT of re-telling the same stories. The book is filled with lots of dialogue between characters and most of that is re-telling the same stories. There is no reason this book needs to be 19 hours long when a good editor could have the same quality book in 14 hours.

If you’ve listened to books by W. E. B. Griffin before, how does this one compare?

The first two are better book but this one does help close some loose ends. Needs to be edited!

Did The Hunters inspire you to do anything?

Think twice about getting more W.E.B. books.

Not the usual standard

The story just didn't ever seem to get going. Lots of pompousness in rank and who has what authority but little in the way of plot. The book must mention "presidential finding" a thousand times!

The biggest issue for me is the sound engineering, Dick is a great narrator but he goes from a whisper to a shout often and listening in the car I can't hear the whisper without turning up the volume only to be blasted. The engineer should have compressed the audio levels. I've listened to a lot of books narrated by Dick Hill and this is the worst for the levels.

Dear Mr Griffin, please find a decent editor

I really enjoyed the first two books of this series. They are long, but you really get to know the characters and I enjoy the detailed accounts of how the politics and operations work. But this third book will probably be my last in this series. At least 1/2 the book is spent bringing in new characters and then having the protagonist explain what's happened in the previous stories....over and over and over. There isn't much here, maybe a 1/3 of the book is "new" stuff. With decent editing the The Hostage and this book could have easily been combined into one good story.

The only bright spot was Dick Hill's narration. I noticed a few comments that they didn't care for him. I thought he was brilliant... really brings the story (what story there is) to life and helps to keep the cast of characters understandable through different accents and voices.