Long Shot

A Sniper Novel

By: Jack Coughlin, Donald A. Davis

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

A top Russian intelligence agent has defected to the West, and the only man with whom he will speak is Kyle Swanson, who busted him out of the US Marine Corps Scout/Sniper School years ago. The defector proves to be an Edward Snowden-type gold mine of amazing secrets about the when, where, and how of President Vladimir Pushkin's next grab for lost Soviet territory.

But Swanson, now a special contractor with the CIA, soon begins to believe that it is all fool's gold being sprinkled by Moscow to ignite an open military fight with NATO and the United States. Using his own deadly methods, the sniper sets out to find the truth, but to slow him down the Russians kidnap Swanson's beautiful friend, Calico, the CIA station chief in Estonia.

From Italy to the Arctic Circle, Kyle Swanson is on the hunt, convinced that the defector actually is running a complex plot to hand Russia a kingdom in the north. But Swanson seems always to be a step behind, because there is a traitor within his own chain of command. To stop the madness, Swanson must deliver a kill shot 100 miles away from a border bridge in Estonia, where a Russian army waits on the far shore as a government official crosses over with an invitation to invade.

©2016 Jack Coughlin and Donald A. Davis (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Not Kyle Swanson

As many others have said, the narrator is not Kyle Swanson. Storyline was good but narrator missed the mark which detracts from the overall entertainment.

Unbelievably Bad Voice Acting

I never write reviews, but I have to say that the voice acting for this book was absolutely unforgivable. The reader should avoid attempting any kind of accent at all because his comically awful attempts not only ruined the listening experience, buy also robbed the story of any severity or seriousness it might have otherwise had.

Being back the ok’d narrator

I did not enjoy Scott Sowers narration, story was ok. I’m a huge fan of this series and have
Listened to them all but this one was a disappointment primarily due to the poor voices of Scott Sowers (sorry Scott!)

Eh

The original reader of these books was excellent as such, this reader had big shoes to fill. Unfortunately, he did not successfully rival his predecessor.
As far as the story goes, I found myself often questioning Kyle’s actions. Surely this is not the same Kyle we’ve seen before? Perhaps, in older age, he’s giving up on some of his harder lines. None the less, worth the time to listen though certainly will not be be going back for a second dose.

Outstanding

I love the Marine Corps stuff. It is on point fantastic reads I hope more come.

"Sniper" Series Just Keeps Getting Better

I would recommend this entire series to anyone who enjoys military thrillers. Unlike most other thriller-genre series, you can actually get away with listening to the "Sniper" series out of order: Coughlin and Davis do a good job of filling us in on all the characters and back-story that we need to know. In fact, I would recommend starting with "Long Shot", so you will not experience the narrator-change-in-the-middle-of-the-series shock that everyone is complaining about. Fear not: Scott Sowers does a fine job of narrating "Long Shot". I dare say that, had he been narrating this series from the beginning, few of us would have given him a bad rating. Only, we are comparing him with an impossibly high standard. Sowers does not have quite as nice a voice as Luke Daniels, and he uses a different style and timing than Daniels does, but he still has a wide range of voices and accents at his disposal, and does an excellent job distinguishing all the characters. If other reviewers’ bad ratings are giving you pause, I would suggest that you listen to the five-minute sample that Audible provides here, and see if Sowers’ performance really bothers you. I have no hesitation giving him five stars, while still looking forward to getting Luke Daniels back.

By the way: If the Publisher’s Summary above leads you to believe that our Sniper hero makes a 100-mile shot in "Long Shot", and you are going, "Yeah, sure" … Don’t worry — It is even better than that! Check it out.

Another great book about Kyle Swanson

I am one who does not listen to fiction but without question the series is so close to reel in the way they set things up in the way they do their job the way they explain what's going on it could almost resembles real world I hope the gunny keep up the good work and does more. The only thing disappointing about this book was the reader did not get the Boston accent for Kyle everything else is perfect

Scott Sowers (narrator) ruined this book

I want my money back. The narrator is horrible. ruined a perfectly good series. I guess it's good thing, he's saving me credits.

Bring back Luke Daniels

Please re-record this with Luke Daniels the proper voice of Kyle Swansonand this series and don't stray from him again.

Bring Back Luke Daniels!

Where does Long Shot rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very hard to keep up with Scott Sowers narration. His attempt at multiple voices failed miserably. Story was great with the usual twists to keep me guessing.

What didn’t you like about Scott Sowers’s performance?

his voice did not lend well multiple characters