The Panther

By: Nelson DeMille

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Nelson DeMille returns with another heart-pounding John Corey thriller—this time including Corey’s FBI agent wife Kate Mayfield...and their mission is to catch an elusive terrorist mastermind before he catches them.

Anti-terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted overseas to Sana'a, Yemen—one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. While there, they will be working with a small team to track down one of the masterminds behind the USS Cole bombing: A high-ranking Al Qaeda operative known as The Panther. Ruthless and elusive, he's wanted for multiple terrorist acts and murders—and the US Government is determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. As latecomers to a deadly game, John and Kate don't know the rules, the players, or the score. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment than meets the eye—and that the hunters are about to become the hunted.

Filled with breathtaking plot turns and told in John Corey's inimitable voice, The Panther is a brilliant depiction of one of the most treacherous countries in the world and raises disturbing questions about whether we can ever know who our enemies—or our allies—really are.

©2012 Nelson DeMille (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Felt like I was in Yemen

What made the experience of listening to The Panther the most enjoyable?

The different voices and style of performance was wonderful even with all the Arabic names I could easily follow the plot.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

yes - I loved the comments from the story teller.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

No idea on this one

Any additional comments?

It was a fabulous read.

One Long Bad Joke

If there is such a thing as a Cliche and Bad Joke thesaurus, Nelson DeMille has a first edition copy with well worn pages. I made it to the end but just barely.

Good book

The story was nice and entertaining. It was not amazing but pretty nice and engaging. A nice book to listen to if you are familiar with the series.

Ending

I was disappointed in the ending. I had hope that both of those Scally wag’s could have met their fate, hopefully in the most horrible way. But another great book nonetheless. Thank you, Nelson, keep it up!

Decent story! Nice to have a visit from PB!

Sometimes I wish I knew less about some of the subject matter. It would make suspension of disbelief a little bit easier. But it’s still more believable than the watching a James Bond movie where more and more bad guys come out of nowhere to chase the protagonist.

And as usual, Scott Brick is an excellent reader.

Sleepwalking

I think by now, the author can knock these off in his sleep. This book was about 1/3 filler with unnecessary wisecracks and patriotic bravado. The plot was very predictable. I am a fan of Mr. DeMille, but this is a very below par effort for his talent.

Fabulous Nelson DeMille!

Loved the book, the funny sarcastic undertones of never spoken thoughts of the protagonist. The depiction of the Yemen's landscape is simply fabulous.
Thank you for making my commute to and from work such a fun experience, Mr. DeMille!

Sincerely

Emma Barborka
Lincoln, NE

Who is the Panther?

Would you consider the audio edition of The Panther to be better than the print version?

Scott Brick could read anything to me and he got me through this book. I admit that if I had read this book, it would have been hard to finish.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I enjoyed the reintroduction of Paul Brenner from a previous book, The General's Daughter. I did not enjoy the long descriptions of every place they went or details of of character relationships that held no relavence to the plot. I felt lost in character development. Because I have read all of the John Corey books, I knew John and Kate and their ability to work together and their deep feelings and respect for each other. If this had been my first Corey book, I would not know anything about their relationship or much about Kate. The CIA relationship to the Corey's was explained but without enough detail.Who is the Panther? We knew the Lion intimately. In this book, the Panther was a secondary character. This author is one of my very favorites and each one of his books have kept me on the edge of my seat. I have looked forward to this book all year. As I listened, I kept wondering when the story would start. If this is your first DeMille book, please read others.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

Everything. He is a master story teller.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Catching a Panther for Dummies.

Any additional comments?

The book is much too long to get the plot across. I might enjoy the abridged version better.

Not nearly as good as "The Lion"

I usually love Nelson DeMille Books and I especially like John Corey. This book was not quite up to his best. The Panther was a very weak villain and like James Bond movies, a book is only as good as the villain. The Panther seems to have been left out of the middle half of the book. He opens it up and then disappears until the last few pages. I thought it was a feeble attempt to vilify him by making him a turncoat American. What made the Lion so good was the believable history for his actions and his continual presence and evil behavior during the entire book. In the Panther, Corey was at his quippiest but they seemed a little strained. And where was Kate Mayfield? She's disappeared as an active character. And what was the intimations that Corey was attracted, very attracted, to another sexy military woman about? "Kate Mayfield is the love of my life but boy do I wish i could be in the same vehicle alone with the young lady doctor and who's maybe wearing a wet T-shirt." I don't know, maybe I'm getting a little soft but this attitude seems not very John Coryish. The real enemy seemed to be the CIA and the book seemed to be a set up for a sequel to seek revenge against them. DeMille seemed to be struggling to find one consistent enemy. He waffled between Al-qaida, the Yemeni chieftans, the Yemen secret service and the CIA. I guess this was his attempt to keep us guessing but his effort was too muddled and became boring. Usually, DeMille's books have a good mystery raveled up in the story but in this book there was no mystery. Corey was bait and he had to find the Panther before he found him. Usually, I'm sad when one of his books is over. When I finished this one, I longed for "The General's Daughter".

Another gem by Demille

John Corey returns! Another wise ass tail by Demille that had me glued to the performance of "The Panther". I really want to visit Yemen after reading this, NOT...