The Snowman of Zanzibar

By: Gordon Wallis

Narrated by: Michael Sharp

Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Ex-Rhodesian soldier Jason Green was frustrated and mildly depressed. The winter in London had been long and bitterly cold. The steady work as a freelance insurance fraud investigator was mundane and repetitive. This tedious monotony suddenly changes early on a frigid February morning when he is summoned to the offices of a wealthy investment banker in the City. The brief: to ascertain the source of the unanticipated wealth of the man's high-flying young son. The time frame, urgent. The payout, enormous.

Inspired and rejuvenated, Green takes the job immediately. The roller-coaster ride that follows takes Jason Green from the grimy streets of London to the beaches of Cape Town and ultimately to the dark tropical jungles of the spice island of Zanzibar. Intrigue, chaos, murder, betrayal, and revenge follow swiftly as a series of unfortunate events unfold. Events far beyond Green's control. Events that result in unspeakable violence and horror.

The action comes hard and fast in this addictive audiobook and culminates in an ending that will leave the listener breathless.

©2018 Gordon Wallis (P)2018 Gordon Wallis

Slow

OK but starts very slow. Predictable ending, but left me hanging. I wanted to know what happened to Richard.

Odd

This is my second book by this author. This is the first I have heard in the Jason Greene series. I read them in reverse order. Like the second one in the series, this one has a number of oddities both in the language and the story. The entire story is told in the first-person which can become tiresome. "I" this and I that over and over again for hours. Also oddly, there are a number of grammatical errors and repeated phrases and details that seemed redundant. The narration is very flat. For a story about a young virile strong former Selous Scout the narration sounds like one of a very elderly man. The inconsistency is clashing. Although the narrator was changed in the subsequent book, that too came with problems. A kind of overcompensation.

As for the story, it is a good one. It sometimes runs very slowly, belaboring details that seem completely irrelevant and in the end turn out to have been pretty irrelevant. Were the book to have been shortened it might have been better. Were some of these itrelevant details omitted, it would have been more captivating. Were the gory details of the final episode shortened, it too would have been more impactful.

I don't regret reading it, but will be hesitant to get another by the same author.

disaster

Most monotone narrator ever, and hoping in vain that the story would lift up. - didn't.