Tarantula

A John Milton Short Story

By: Mark Dawson

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list.

In this second dip into his case files (see 1000 Yards for a further novella), Milton is sent to Italy to investigate the death of a colleague from Group 15, the secret assassination squad that liquidates those considered to be impediments to the furtherance of British interests. Milton discovers that the agent was involved with the Camorra, the powerful Mafia clan that controls the territory from Naples to the tip of the Italian boot. He identifies the assassin as a man nicknamed Tarantula. Now Tarantula, and his boss, are entries in Milton's ledger. And all debts need to be paid.

©2014 Mark Dawson (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

John Milton tries to exit British intelligence

John Milton is an assassin with British intelligence Group 15. He has worked there for 10 years and wants to leave. He is not allowed to leave. In this novella Milton is forced to go to Italy to investigate the death of another agent. This is an excellent espionage story. I highly recommend this novella and the 8 novels that follow it.

Attentive

Not bad. Not memorable. Kept reader engaged. Formulaic. Speaker was entertaining. Story was less so. All in all, average story. Worth the free read.

Great short story

I highly recommend this book, all meat and potatoes it was a great story. David Thorpe does a nice job narrating. Can’t wait for the next book.

too easy?

The British secret special operations office decides that the killer of one of their agents must be eliminated. So John Milton is sent to find out who the killer is and dispose of him. He does so brilliantly, while actually accomplishing far more than that one simple operation. That part is interesting. I liked the setup even though I had no idea why he was doing what he was doing until it was done.

It all seemed too easy. I guess when you are him, you know how things work and where to go and whom to speak with. But it's like he was looking for a specific movie, so he read the paper, located the theater, and bought a ticket. I guess when you are an expert killer sent to kill an expert killer, you either do it or you don't, and your story is over. Well he prevailed this time, and went home. A bit pat.

I really enjoyed The Cleaner, and its other prequel, 1000 yards. This is a short story, so it has to wrap up quickly, just not my favorite.

Enjoyed but not so great

Love Dawson however this story just had absolutely no plot ! I loved the pads and the characterization. But it unraveled very fast . A little abrupt in its ending !

Another bad guy bites the dust!

Don't mess with John Milton. Can't wait for the next book. Awesome narration and great storyline.

Tarantula

I finished this book at 4:30a.m. I really want to start another in this series, but I better get to sleep! the story was good and the acting was awesome.

Good novella

I like listening to shorter books as a change from 12+ hour novels and this author fits the bill. The story is straight forward without a lot of self analysis or long romantic scenes that add little to the plot. It takes a fast pace to keep my interest. If you like stories where the good guy takes out the bad guy, you will lie these.

A perfect way to unwind

These Novellas are exactly the right size… just about 2 1/2 hours…

The stories introduces the characters, develops the story… and brings it to a solid conclusion 👍👍👍

Very well read, and very entertaining.

I enjoyed this enough to overlook the author having the protagonist driving north on a coastal road to Naples…and putting the ocean on the RIGHT of the hero.

John Milton is a lot like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, a honed weapon. Flat. Ruthless. Perfect. Fearless. Milton is more plausible, and Dawson writes a more convincing and more entertaining narrative.

But he needs to look at a map now and then.

Too expensive !!

The story was fine and the performance was great but just cost too much for a couple of hour listening....

OK but

The short story was fine but I would have been disappointed had I paid full price for it. It was only worth the discounted price.

More like a story for a magazine

The book was too short with very little plot.
Not up to the usual standard of this writer.

Good but Short

Mark Dawson is really a master of this area of covert operations. I enjoyed the story but it was rather short and rather expensive for what it was.

Enjoyable enough for a short story

Characters are fairly superficial and fairly basic plot but it was ok. Would have preferred more depth to the story.

riveting! couldn't put this one down

loved this book, I am a mark dawson fan and have read the entire milton collection in print, this is the first of his audiobooks I have listened to and it absolutely does not disappoint

Bit short and generic, good for a flight or drive

I'm not exactly sure of the purpose of the 0.5 and 0.6 novels in the series? They are more novela length really.

If you're looking for depth, characterisation, etc. look elsewhere (The Slough House series is good). But if you like a spy/action thriller then these are well put together. and well narrated.

Good work

Another great story from Mark Dawson ,and great narration from David Thorpre , the perfect partnership , can't wait to listen to the next .

Decent short story

It was a copy of Ian Fleming without the depth, range, style or panache

A few mispronunciations of shooting terms eg, wynd

A few mispronunciations of shooting terms eg, "wyndage" for windage with respect to siting a rifle.