Dragonfire

An Alex Hawke Novel, Book 11

By: Ted Bell

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Alex Hawke, British lord and gentleman spy, is looking for the queen's missing grandson, whose disappearance may be the culmination of a plot almost a century old in this breathtaking new adventure from New York Times best-selling novelist Ted Bell.

December 8, 1941, Washington, DC

The new Chinese ambassador to the United States, Tiger Tang, meets with President Roosevelt one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next four years, China and the US will be wartime allies, but the charming, sophisticated ambassador may be playing his own treacherous game.

Today, The Bahamas

Alex Hawke is recovering from serious injuries incurred during a battle with a malevolent enemy. His recuperation is interrupted by a desperate call from the queen. Her favorite grandson has disappeared in the Bahamas. Lord Hawke is the only man she trusts with a mission this sensitive. All she knows is that the young prince was last seen at the exclusive Dragonfire nightclub owned by the nefarious Tang brothers, grandsons of Ambassador Tiger Tang.

©2020 Ted Bell (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Disappointed

Why on earth does a successful writer change the narrator. John Shea brought the characters to life.
Don't get me wrong I have listened to a whole series narrated by Simon Vance and he was right for that series.
But not for Alex Hawke.

Why change the voice to a wimp

After listening to every book and enjoying John Shea renditions of every single character we get stuck with this garbage I guess we’re on the down slide. The character voices spoken by this narrator are horrible. He makes Alex sound like a sniveling whiner, Ambrose sounds like a stuffy old fart instead of the crisp and witty Sherlockian he has always been, and Stokely??? My god he made Stokely sound half British and fat not the powerful, happy, human armoire with a flavorful and rich sounding ethnicity that just always makes me smile. Please bring back John Shea...please, please. This was sheer torture to listen to. A continuous blend of the same voice at different tones. Absolutely no distinctiveness in the voices. Snore.

Worst Hawke book ever

So very disappointed, I am a super Hawke fan. This book when no where. The new narrator was awful. Hope this a one book error.

Where was John Shea??

The performance was horrible! You can’t change narrators in the middle of a series! Stokely Jones wasn’t anything like he is supposed to be! It would be well work it to re-narrate this book with John Shea!

Can’t possibly be written by the same author...

Forget the atrocious performance the story was just as bad. Incredibly disappointing. I hate myself for finishing it

Bad and Boring

I was underwhelmed with Ted Bell's last book, Overkill, and was hoping for a rebound here to reinvigorate the Alex Hawke series. Sadly, I have to conclude that that was not to be after finishing Dragonfire. This book is terribly boring and I literally have no idea what the connection was between the two stories. I used to love Hawke for the witty dialogue and sense of adventure that was as if Tom Clancy met James Bond, but this is not the same Alex Hawke that I enjoyed so much years ago. Time to move on from Ted Bell.

A rarely terminated Audible title

This was only the the 3rd occasion to terminate before finishing an audible selection after hundreds of enjoyable/exciting tiles. I find myself disappointed in the author's effort to continue the saga in somewhat of an accurate manner and even more so in the narration chosen. Mr. Shea's reading allowed for the visualization of the characters and their interactions portrayed by Mr. Bell in the previous Hawke Novels which is certainly not the case in Dragonfire.
I will certainly not repeat this mistake.

Ted Bell? Where is John Shae?

Who wrote this book? Doesn't sound like Ted. Don't bother reading this one. Need to get John Shae back!

Worst book yet!

Seriously, did the previous narrator pass away? I loved the old narrator and can’t believe you stopped using him! Why did you not have Alex get revenge on shit Smith in this book?So how long do we have to wait for that to happen? I also did not enjoy switching back-and-forth from 1941 to the present. I wonder if anyone else feels the same way I do? The only reason I’m tempted to read another book is to see what happens to shit Smith.

Did Ted Bell Write This?

This is only the second Audible book out of hundreds listened to over the years that I had to stop listening to. The new narrator is horrible, and the story...
Please tell me how an operator of Hawke's caliber, first crashes through the door, then allows himself to be attacked from behind while knowing that Smith is in the house before even trying to find the threat? I know he was concerned for his friend, but to stand there with his back turned just waiting to be killed... just not plausible.
The first 10 books kept my attention and I enjoyed them all, but this is definitely a zero. And I can't comment on Stokely because I couldn't take it long enough to get to that part.
Maybe this was done by a ghostwriter