The Bank of Fear

By: David Ignatius

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Suspenseful, compelling, and utterly believable, The Bank of Fear is unparalleled spy fiction in the best tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré—a twisting tale of the ruthless greed and money laundering behind today’s headlines. Behind the doors of a London investment firm lies a grisly five billion dollar secret that directly involves the Ruler of Iraq. When British financial investigator Sam Hoffman and Iraqi computer analyst Lina Alway decide to expose the secret, they are quickly caught in a deadly maze of deception and terror. Their only hope for survival is hiding in a global computer network of the Internet—but only if they’re smart enough to find it.

©1995 David Ignatius (P)1995 Recorded Books, LLC; 1994 David Ignatius

Great story line sorry detail

Guidal can rescue any book from any fault. Many times this book gets wordy, verbose and hard to get they but it's a great story of realty Iraq people live thru

The Best

David Ignatius writes the best spy thrillers of all! No kidding! All informed by his stunning career as a journalist at the Washington Post, for which he deserves a Pulitzer, which he weirdly has not received.

A never ending great - saga

I really enjoyed this book. It was dynamic and interesting. Not all David's books have had the same tone and vitality. A great plot is interwoven with strong fictional characters that Guidall brought so well, to life. I am a total fan of Guidall. All or most of my library is read by him.
I loved the storyline, even though it did meander in an exciting breath of drama, it rang full of energy and adventure. A wonderful listen. Thank you

Good book, but the storyline is dated

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The premise of this book predates the 2nd Iraq war, and as such requires you to envision a very different outcome than actual historical events.

Complex, intriguing, and entertaining

Guidall gives an entertaining narration of a complex, intriguing, and compelling thriller, capturing a varied cast of characters.

Too many hard to believe moments

I liked the beginning and was into the story until the tape was stolen. Then there seemed to be too many situations that made no sense. One or two in a story is OK because we all have experienced moments and later thought about them. They made no sense but they had happened. But two became four and four becamse eight.

I was hoping the bad guy would end up as shark food or part of a highway. That's what bothers me the most. The bad guys were not hurt.

Made no sense.

Overlong but good suspense

This one is way outdated. History has moved on since the book was written. Wonderful performance. Too violent!

Suspense, intrigue, great narration

DIgnatious is a great author with Guidall as narrator. The story kept me on the edge of my seat. Story covered maybe true things in Baghdad (?) prison but getting past that the story continues to be suspenseful throughout. One of those stories you don’t want to end.

Not believable

David Ignatius has written some good nooks; this is not one of them. The characters and situations are contrived; the bad guys are silly bad and the good guys are just silly.

Outdated

Set in the early 90's, this isn't old enough to be historical, but old enough to make me impatient. ("...he was even known to take a cellular phone with him to the movies..."). Also, 95% of the books I've listened to that were narrated by George Guidall have been great, but once in a blue moon he reads in a sort of slower, prissy style, and this is one of those. Maybe I've been spoiled by more modern spy thrillers (such as the unsurpassable Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series). I might have loved it if I'd listened to it when it was new.