Shadows of Africa

By: Wayne McCain

Narrated by: Dave Cruse

Length: 5 hrs

Publisher's Summary

When a small team of former special operators land in Tanzania to grab a local warlord, it's business as usual. But the situation quickly changes when they learn that a pride of lions has been feeding on the local populace. Unable to walk away leaving the locals to fend for themselves, the seasoned warriors are drawn into a conflict unlike anything they've ever taken part in. As they struggle to understand their new enemy, they're led deeper and deeper into the unforgiving Tanzanian wilderness. Accompanied by a local game ranger, the team risks everything for the same reason they always have: their fellow man.

Stay out of the long grass....

©2017 Patrick Wayne McCain (P)2018 Wayne McCain

Beware the Long Grass

Wow was this an action packed story. I was quite hesitant to pick up this book because I am mainly a horror guy but boy am I glad I did. Typically I don't like the man vs animal stories because they are often either boring or so fantastical that it just doesn't seem real. This seemed very real and was more intense than some of the horror stories I listen to. The action is nonstop and definitely a different ride when dealing with lions as the predator, while I know this telling of the story is a work of fiction, I completely would believe that the author was actually there and was just retelling his account.

The story itself was great but the characters really made it what it was. I assume there was some personal experience that allowed the author to capture the camaraderie between a small group of operators. I feel like this was the best portrayal of the kinship these men would have for each other that I've heard in a while. You really get attached to them and feel everything they go through. There were times were I got a little choked up listening to this story. Not something I would have expected from the book's description.

I don't think there could have been a better narrator for this story. His character voices were spot on and really added to the character development and attachment I felt to each of them. He had so many different voices that I didn’t have to hear the names of the individuals talking, I was able to tell by the voice being used.

As a side note it was nice to hear a book from someone who actually knows about guns. I listen to books all the time where the author tries to describe guns or their respective parts and it is clear they know nothing about what they are talking about and their research consisted of just watching bad action movies.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Man eating lions.

This isn't a book I'd usually pick up but recently I watched a documentary about man eating lions and thoroughly enjoyed it. So on seeing this, I had to give it a try and in all honesty, I'm so glad I did!

Plot wise, it isn't the most action packed read, but it makes up for it in the tenseness and thrilling aspect it has. A team of special ops are sent to Tanzania to grab a local warlord. This guy is the worst of the worst. While there they learn that some man eating lions have been terrorising the local people. Man, women and children alike are being taken, and the team know they can't turn their back on their plight. So they agree to stay and try to put a stop to the lions. But what becomes clear rather quickly is that the team aren't the top predators in the wild and the lions won't go down without a fight.

I loved the team! Their comradeship and loyalty to each other was awesome, but what I really loved about each of them is the fact that they wouldn't let another human suffer and were willing to do whatever was needed to help someone else. They didn't hesitate to go help with the lions, even though they didn't know anything about hunting animals. I admired them!!

Another thing I loved was the way the author kept the feeling of tenseness throughout the story. My heart was in my mouth when the team were working in the long grass, or when they went anywhere!! I kept saying to myself...get out of the long grass!! Some of the scenes with the lions were incredibly visceral and they gave me chills. Lions are predators, so seeing that this was based on true events (the man eating lions of Njombe), it made it all the more terrifying.

In all, this was a quick and thrilling read. Africa is an amazing place, but this book makes me think twice before going on a safari ;) Well written and developed, it's a great read and I recommend it to everyone.

Dave Cruse read this well. He was clear and easy to listen to, had plenty of voices for the different characters and gave a good performance. My only complaint is that I wanted him to portray the atmosphere a little better. His cadences and inflections needed a little more work to truly bring the tense and scary feelings to life.

I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

HELL YES

This book had literally everything I enjoy: a tight, well written cast of characters, completely action packed, real danger, surprise twists, guns handled in the way they really would be handled, and, of course, Jurassic Park references! I believe it's really easy to screw up an animal v. man story by making it totally fantastical and unrealistic. However, Wayne McCain expertly constructs this story that unfolds at a fast pace, keeping the reader enthralled throughout. I really look forward to seeking out more content written by McCain! Dave Cruse was an excellent choice for narrator of this story - he brought the characters to life and catered to the action brilliantly. I would recommend 'Shadows of Africa' to absolutely any readers who enjoy the mystery/thriller/horror/action genres!

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Story, very well written

This story was a huge surprise. Very well written with lots of excitement and heart. It was a unique story about a tier one team hunting down a pride of lions in Africa. It was a nice change from the usual warfare setting that tier one stories usually occupy. It was funny and made you actually care about the characters. You get the sense of the fear they feel not just during the hunt but about their personal life as well. It has some gore detailing the victims of the lions but it was not too bad. I highly recommend this book to anyone who just wants a great story to enjoy.

The Narration was superb. The beginning was a little dry but he was relating the facts of the true story that inspired the books. This section is only about 15-20 minutes. He is relating the facts, so it is presented as such. Once the fictional story narrative begins, he does an excellent job. His voices are distinctive and he brings the characters alive.

I requested a free preview copy of this audiobook and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great hook, simple plot, 1-dimensional characters

Years ago, I read the book The Lions of Tsavo about man-eating lions and found it riveting. I went into this book with high hopes. The set up was pretty good with these well-meaning mercs planning to take out a war lord. There’s also an embassy and all their employees being evacuated or put under guarded lock down. Then the lions enter the story. All that was a great hook that pulled me into the tale.

Then things go into a bit of a slump. All of the mercs are nice guys which just made them come off as fake and one dimensional. After the first staging of the scene, there’s very little details about the location. Basically, this story could take place any place with a large predator. I would have liked more details about Africa in general and the country in specific to keep me in the story.

A few of the mercs die in their quest to rid the area of this pride of man-eating lions. Since I hadn’t gotten attached to them, I wasn’t sad when they had to exit the story. In fact, I had trouble keeping them all straight because they were nearly copies of one another in all their goodness.

The other big issue for me was that all the ladies are attached to the mercs (wives, girlfriends) and when they get together, all they do is cry in their wine as they miss their men. They have no lives of their own. These female characters were there to hold up the male characters and none of them stood on their own. Since this is fiction, we could have had at least one female character, perhaps as a merc or native Tanzanian wildlife guide. Alas, the ladies were even less memorable than the men.

Despite the flaws, the story has several good action scenes and some intense moments between hunter and hunted. 3/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Dave Cruse was a good fit for this book. He had distinct voices for all the characters and a variety of accents. He also had decent female voices for the ladies. I’m not familiar with the Tanzanian accent, but the accent Cruse used for the Tanzanian characters was consistent throughout the story. There were no recording issues. 5/5 stars.

Shadows of Africa Review

I received this book free for an honest review and honestly I enjoyed it. I loved the way the men in this special task force bonded and depended on one another, while getting the work they loved done. I did chuckle to myself when the narrator read conversations between the men and their wives. I will definitely look for some other works by this author.

Excellent!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story was engaging and it kept me interested to the end. The performance was interpreted well, and easy to listen to. This book was provided by the Author in exchange for a review! Thank You!

Bad production really held this back forMe

The story was pretty interesting, though most of the action only takes place near the end of the book. The editing/production was a real distraction for me though. It seemed like they recorded each sentence separately and pieced it together so it didn’t have a good flow the whole time. The story itself was good, but nothing mind blowing. I may revisit and if I do will update this.

It sounds promising but falls flat on its face

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author free of charge via Audiobook Boom.

I wanted to like this book. However it was a severe disappointment. The narrator is problematic from the start as you cannot distinguish between the characters speaking at all. Add to that a lack of clarity in speaking and the lacking performance quality of female characters makes for a performance that grated my nerves from the start.

The story's problems didn't help either. The main characters are all Mary Sues to a man. Every one of the five mercs is absolutely perfect at their profession and deadly; except when one is killed almost right off the bat by a water buffalo for no reason. They are also utterly unrelateable. The story also likes to jump back to the domestic life of the mercs. The scenes with their wives and families does NOTHING to advance the story, raise the stakes, or develop the characters. Actually there are no stakes in this book when you look at it. There's just 5 guys who stay in Tanzania a little long because their original mission ended early. They also seem to want to hunt this pride of murdering lions without any advanced technology like night goggles, thermal or motion sensors, and no use of drones whatsoever. Pretty sure using just a drone bought or built on the quick and they could find and kill the lions pretty quick.

The author would have done better to do a straight history of the actual events that occurred and were mentioned in the prologue.

A short, but very entertaining Thriller

Shadows of Africa is the first book in the Shadows Trilogy by new thriller author Wayne McCain. The main plot is inspired by a terrifying true story of a pride of lions that claimed the lives of more than 1,500 men, women, and children in the late ’40s and that tale is nicely told in the opening minutes of the audiobook.

The action takes place in current days as a team of special operators are sent to Africa in order to hunt down a terrorist, but when the job is done, the local guide and a friend of theirs asks for help. It seems that a pride of lions is on a rampage, killing, hurting and mutilating anyone and everyone that gets in their way. But, as good as these special trained operators are at hunting terrorist and the mankind variety of enemies, they will find themselves facing a ruthless enemy, that calls Africa its own hunting ground!


Filled with tense action, interesting characters and many savage lion attacks, Shadows of Africa is a very well written, thrilling and entertaining book, although a little short. Wayne McCain captures extremely well all the tension present into such a hostile environment and manages to deliver a very accurate account for this fight between man and nature that takes place since times immemorial.


The audiobook is narrated by Dave Cruse and although this is the first performance of his that I’ve listened to, I found it to be enjoyable and entertaining. The narrator uses his tallent and gives life to all the characters with different voices and local, African, accents. He speaks everything clearly, the recording quality is good and his pacing and overall delivery is spot-on.


Shadows of Africa reminded me at times of some Agent Pendergast books, by bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child with all the gore, lion attacks, savage fights and the tense stalking…. I am looking forward to the next book in this series and I recommend this thrilling adventure to everyone in want of a short trip to this awesome and exotic location.

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Thank you,
Victor