The Killer, Book 1

The Beginning (Start of Action)

De: Jack Elgos

Narrado por: Nigel Peever

An action & adventure mystery thriller

The Killer is the first in a series of three fast-paced fiction thrillers.

A story of espionage, suspense, and terrorism, following Darren/Butch McCann, whose adventures begin amid the bombings and violence on the war-torn streets of 1970s Belfast.

His survival depends on his ability to fight, he learns quickly and fights well. The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempt to recruit him, but he refuses to take sides - until a family tragedy draw him into the ranks of IRA and their cause.

Military training follows and he's found to be an excellent sniper and freedom fighter, but it is one night, and one brutal interrogation, which earn him a reputation as "The Butcher of Belfast", pairing him with his infamous knife, The Killer.

Following a high-profile kill he's forced to flee Ireland and take refuge in Spain, where he becomes involved with an ETA paramilitary unit at their training camp deep in the Basque country. There, a thrilling and daring raid ensues, and strong alliances are formed with his new brethren.

The Provos, and an old friend, call him back to service. He performs his duty but, a moment of doubt convinces him that his home is now in the hills of Spain.

McCann knows he will always fight against the establishment. But, one British military intelligence agent has other ideas.

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Not my cup of tea

I wish I could have given a better review but since I didn’t enjoy the story. Maybe this is how it was in the “70” in Belgium and makes me glad that grew up in the USA and not in a foreign country.
I received this free for an honest review from the author or narrator.

good start to a series

The narrator is good. The story is the start to what should be a nice series. I will continue to read the next few to see where it goes.

The Butcher of Belfast

Really liked this story. Always been fascinated about the IRA and enjoyed hearing a small piece of their world. The story focuses on The Butcher of Belfast as he quickly becomes a proven killer. The story starts out fast and quickly builds up his character to the point you are rooting for him even though he isn’t a good guy. He clearly has some morals even if they are slight. This book really develops The Butcher and sets everything up for the next two books.
The plot follows The Butcher as he moves around and a large part of the story takes place in Spain. That part of the story line was actually my favorite even though I was initially hoping for more story around his Belfast time. Everything in Spain is building up to an ending you won’t see coming. I have great expectations for the next two books.
Nigel did a great job with the narration. His character voices were outstanding and I really enjoyed his voice for McQuillan. The energy and emotion he put into that character coupled with the giggling really creeped me out. The tension in that cell room with Darren and McQuillan was palpable and I was on the edge of my seat. Hope he continues with the next ones.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

A very solid thriller

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a great listen. The story was thrilling and engaging. The narration was also well done. The characters in the book were well developed and interesting. All in all, this was a great book and I will definitely look for more in the series.

4 ⭐️

Good story...great narration as usual from Nigel. Not to long worth the listen. Check it out.

Intriguing

This looks like it will probably read like a JackRyan/Jason Bourne type of series. The story line is really good and I look forward to listening to future books in the series.
Now, I’m certainly not from Ireland, but to be honest, to me, the Irish accented characters seemed a little over exaggerated almost to the point of sounding cartoonish. I was able to get over that & focus on the plot, though, and I did like the vocals for the other characters.

What a difference a narrator makes

The narrator makes this book so awesome. Not much loving the story. But worth a read.

The Killer

Easy reading if a little predictable, but good fun for all that; ideal for a short time to enjoy listening to an audio book

Lots of action, narrator is great!

First of all, let me disclose: "This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

Now that I've got that out of the way, let's talk about this book!

Having just re-read Patriot Games by Tom Clancy, I really enjoyed reading another book about the various terrorist/military factions at play in the United Kingdom in the late 70s/early 80s. It is so fascinating to me to see how people can believe in a cause so completely as to do things that are completely depraved and feel good about it. And of course, I'm talking about both sides here!

The language in the book is very harsh, and may be offensive to some readers, but it definitely is authentic. It's not overdone for shock value, it's not inaccurate for the time period and place, it seems to be very characteristic of the people and events of the novel.

The narrator of the audiobook version that I am evaluating kept the book interesting. I'm not an expert on the various accents and dialects of Northern Ireland, or anywhere, for that matter, but it seems like a lot of time and effort was put into making the accents and dialects accurate for the characters. The different accents really make the story pop.

This is a very promising start to a series. The tension builds several times during the novel, and especially at the end, where the stage is set for the protagonist to become a very effective tool in the trade of war and terror.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in European terrorist groups of the late 20th Century, or political thrillers, or just action novels in general. Definitely worth a read.

Okay

This book was very hard for me to get into. I'm not sure why but it was hard to follow and stay focused on the story line.