Silent Predator

By: Tony Park

Narrated by: Mark Davis

Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Here's the first of best-selling author Tony Park's gripping thrillers to be published in audio by Bolinda.

In a luxury private safari lodge in Kruger National Park, Detective Sergeant Tom Furey has just woken to a protection officer's worst nightmare. The VIP in his charge, British government minister, Robert Greeves, has been abducted.

Knowing his career is on the line, Furey vows not to stop searching until Greeves is found - dead or alive. He and his South African counterpart, Inspector Sannie van Rensburg, go against official orders and start the hunt for the kidnappers through the outer limits of the national park, to the coastal waters of Mozambique. Increasingly drawn to Tom, Sannie can't resist involving herself in his dangerous mission, even risking her job to help him.

©2009 Tony Park (P)2009 Bolinda Publishing

Good book, terrible narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, it was an interesting story

What was one of the most memorable moments of Silent Predator?

sadly a negative one, the narration is terrible, in particular in the grasp of the South African accent and place names. Rather stick to an english accent, than try a South African accent that is so false.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Absolutely no grasp of a typical South African accent. I cringe every time i hear the narrator attempt it.

Did Silent Predator inspire you to do anything?

no

Any additional comments?

If a book is written in a specific country, and includes characters from that country, get an english speaking narrator from that country to present the book.

Lots of twists and a realistic African setting

This was my first Tony Park book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The narration was lively. The storyline held my attention and took a number of unanticipated twins. A bit predictable as each new twist on folded but overall good characterization, interesting plot, and good narrator.

Enjoyable once you can get past the performance

Good story line and I did listen to the end but if one lives in South Africa the mispronunciations of places and some of the accents are extremely Grating. The Afrikaans accent is real with some Afrikaner’s but when it was also used for a black officer, I couldn’t believe it. And the speech for the main female role sounded like a man with a truly rough accent which simply didn’t lend itself to a female. My suggestion would be to rather read this one!

Great book, enjoyable, despite the poor reading

I really enjoyed the book... but the reading unfortunately was not good. The accents were a disaster! The "afrikaner" accent was not convincing (to an ex-South African)and many afrikaans words, place names, etc. were not correctly pronounced. Also the fact that black africans had the same accent as afrikaners shows a completely lack of understanding...
Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the book and would have probably given it a rare 5 if the reader had not detracted and distracted. Pity they could not have found a reader familiar with the various South African accents.

(By the way his Scottish accent was not convincing either...and he mispronounced certain regular english words too..)
Tony Park if you want me to listen to another of your books please change readers, though I am not sorry I listed to this one.

Performance

Being a South African I found the pronunciation of the Afrikaans words cringe worthy. It grated every nerve.

An outstanding listen.

This was an outstanding book. The story is captivating and never boring. Tony Park needs to write more.

Brilliant

I really enjoyed the book, as positive criticism please find a Afrikaans and Xhosa speaking person to help the narrator with pronunciations of the ingenious languages, overall the narrator was very good

Another thrilling read

I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book, as with all the others. I loved all the Kruger scenes the how he brought these beautiful true life locations to life in Silent predator.
Mark Davis has a great voice and is an excellent narrator, but I do wish that he could have been trained a bit in afrikaans prononciation of the names and phrases used. Still, I was spellbound.

Outstanding

Tony Park was recommened to me by a friend and I am so glad she did. I loved this book from begining to end. The charaters and the plot were excellent. I though the narrator did a really good job. This book is highly recommened.

Excellent

This contribution by Tony Parks is an outstanding listen. The plot is intriguing, the characters human and engaging, and the descriptions of Africa are spell binding. I enjoyed this book from first to last and recommend it to other listeners who are looking for a good thriller. It was hard to put my iPod down.