Companion to Ghosts

The Phoenix Initiative, Book 13

De: Kacey Ezell, David Shadoin

Narrado por: James Coman

Haunted by the ghosts of the past…

Operator Devlin Morrison retired from mercenary work a decade ago. Too many failed missions, too many lost comrades.

Five years ago, he thought he had found his way back to hope and purpose when a mysterious Hunter offered him a glimpse of redemption. But once again, it all went wrong.

Once again, others paid the price for Devlin's failure. Now he's content to spend his days driving wealthy clients around Houston, and his nights drinking away the ghosts of his checkered past. Until a mysterious fare unlocks the vault of his memories, and he finds himself drawn into the dark underbelly of the city once more. Now he's working for a shadowy organization, driving one of the galaxy's deadliest assassins around as the Hunter works to find and rescue the victims of a Human trafficking ring that goes deeper and wider than any of them imagined. Can Devlin and the Hunter Skakun learn to coexist long enough to accomplish the contract they've been given?

Or will the ghosts of their past failures haunt them to the point of history repeating?

©2026 Kacey Ezell and David Shadoin (P)2026 Kacey Ezell and David Shadoin

the oddity of monotone narration and lacking standards of hunter prowess.

narration was curious at first but as the many missed carrying tone of moment of excitement and the flow of the reading not highlighting points that should create pause and separation felt run over and ignored.

the story itself was interesting in a closed environment but with the history of the series in mind and the power, cunning and ability of hunters. This is quite possibly the weakest depik depextion yet. As an example during a chase the depic allows his notable out of shape human partner to continue a chase due to his lacking ability to catch up? these beings dodgr bullets and make mission impossible level fears daily. Do we see tom Cruise running out of steam mid chase? I'm stuck at 4hrs left to finish the story and haven't had the desire to after weeks of pausing said story. 190 books on audible. I haven't listen to 7 and this is the only one I've been unable to finish so far.

Bad narration

Hard to to listen to. The narrator was VERY monotone but then they tried to make it less bad by adding some weird noises into it as well?

Story wasn't horrible but it was hard to get into

good book, terrible narration

almost quit reading twice, but was engaged with the story after a slow start. Finally gave up halfway through. May buy book to find out the rest of the story. Cheesy sound effects coupled with narrator that sounds like AI on speed was too much. Narrator was speed reading the book, not telling a story. he was OK with voice sections, but terrible work narrative portions. Don't know if the producer or narrator are too blame, but will make sure I don't buy a book with this narrator again.

I hope CKD and Seventh Seal Publishing reads this

I've been a fan of the 4 HU series since the first book. I originally purchased their titles on Kindle - both text and audio versions. When it moved to Audible, I bought a membership and the entire series again. It pains me to write this.

The audio production is such a departure from the previous titles. Throughout my entire listen, I kept asking myself, "Who listened to this in pre-production and thought this was a good idea!?"

The narration is not up to par with the previous titles, and the continuity is completely broken. It's a hard listen to begin with. The voice is dull, lacking both depth and nuance - reminiscent of a student reciting a textbook in front of their middle school class.

Next, the cheap sound effects and poor audio quality further remove you from the story. This is unfortunate because the story is what you'd expect from a 4HU Series - exceptional. So good, in fact, that despite all my complaints, I force myself through and even begin to immerse myself in the story. Only to be pulled from the universe and harshly thrown back into reality with that horrid "end of chapter" sound effect. Finally coming back to my senses, I ask, this time angrily, "Really! Who thought this was a good idea!?"

I wish I could see this title as something I purchased on a whim via an Audible suggestion with a .99 sale price, or as something given free to members. Forgettable, a time suck. A placeholder until the next release of your favorite series. Tragically, that's not the case. This is the thirteenth installment of a sixteen-book series I've already invested in. The same narrator has already done book fourteen, and I'm immediately loath to continue.

I suspect CKD Publishing will use them to finish off the series. I can only speak for myself. If that happens, the series ends with Book Twelve. I don't have it in my soul to endure another book with that shoddy narration. Doing so would only further ruin my fond memories and enjoyment of the 4HU offerings thus far.

I really wish CKD Publishing had at least finished the series with Daniel Wisniewski.