The Daughters of the Darkness

By: Luke Phillips

Narrated by: Andrew Pond

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

"We often look to escape the everyday by seeking out the dark places where something monstrous waits in the void. Luke Phillips takes you there, where man is still well and truly on the menu." (Shannon Legro, host of Into the Fray radio podcast)

1898, East Africa. The Tsavo man-eaters kill 130 people over the course of nine months. The unusually large, pale-coloured, and maneless male lions mark history in what became known as their reign of terror.

Now, history is repeating itself. A new pride of killers has arrived in Tsavo, staking out their own bloody legacy. One that includes the murdered wife of conservationist and former hunter Thomas Walker.

Torn between the newfound happiness he has discovered in the Highlands of Scotland with his new fiancée and his loyalty to the man whose brother has been taken by the man-eaters, Thomas must face his past and creatures feared as myth by his friend and the people of Kenya.

Arriving in Africa, Thomas finds the situation worsening as a local arms dealer and war lord declares the "critters of the bush" are under his command to drive those not loyal to him from the land. With everything not as it seems, the odds are stacked against Thomas and the small band of friends trying to restore balance to the region and its wildlife.

©2017 Luke Phillips (P)2019 Luke Phillips

sequel 2 sequel

this was a fascinating book, a very exciting storyline narrated in a most perfectly visual graphic narrator. the perfect sequel and I recommended very very highly you won't be sorry

Better than the first book

To be honest, I picked up the first book in this series Shadow Beast, on a lark, to fill in some time between pre-ordered titles I was waiting for. I enjoyed it enough to get this, the second book in the series, and was blown away by it. The story and the writing both seem much more advanced and nuanced. Yes, there are some fairly obvious beats here that you can see coming, but by no means all of them. This book is nonstop action and resists you putting it down.

No single killer beast here, let's up that to a full, and none too small, pride of them instead. If this author has not spent time in Africa, then he has the most vivid imagination I have ever read. I normally don't go for safari style books as the practice doesn't overly interest me. But this book brought the experience to life.

Okay, housekeeping time:
language... generally pretty good. A few curses within realistic boundaries.
violence and gore... yeah, plenty of extreme details on the kills of humans and animals.
commercial product placement... yes. A lot actually, similar to the previous book. You can expect to read about the precise make and model of darn near everything here. Cars, guns, bullets, backpacks, etc. it's almost comical at times.

Overall recommendation: Highly recommended for action fans. But I suggest you read Shadow Beast first to get the many references made in this book.

I am anxiously waiting for book 3.

Excellent stort telling

The characters show believable emotion and reactions that make the reader become invested in them. Great action, very well written!

Fantastic

This was a great follow up to Shadow Beast. Love the characters and really enjoyed the story. Cannot wait for the next one, these should be movies.

great

I really enjoyed this book it just took a long time to get to the good stuff.

Preposterous

This book was okay, but not anywhere near as good as the first book in the series entitled Shadow Beast. I enjoyed that book so purchased this one. Both are stand alone books.

This plot is preposterous, as is the transformation of Thomas, the protagonist. Somehow he has morphed from a naturalist into a commando warrior. His fiancé, Katherine, also has turned into a commando warrior. Preposterous! Thomas and his fiancé have gone to Africa to investigate stories of man eating lions who travel in a pack and are fierce hunters. The plot assumes the same formula as the first book - Thomas faces man eater beasts and a very bad man. In this book the bad man is a gangster who is fostering the man eating lions. Also as in the first book, the beasts have a personality and the listener knows what is going on in their mind. There is a cave involved and an amazing escape, just as in the first book. My favorite character was the Irish hunter, a friend of Thomas's and the Irishman's two wonderful dogs. I was more worried about the dogs than I was about the people.