HEART of the HUNTER (audiobook) by Deon Meyer

Originally published in 2002.

English Audiobook version published in 2013 by HighBridge Audio

Read by Simon Vance

Duration: Approximately 11.5 hours

Deon Meyer's novel Heart of the Hunter features a very large black South African man named Thobela "Tiny" Mpayipheli who used to be part of the armed resistance movement to the South Africa's Apartheid government which collapsed in 1994. He was trained by the East German secret police and was part of multiple assassinations. He had a talent for violence. When the Apartheid regime ended he suddenly found himself on the outside, an anachronism. His skills were no longer needed and it would be better for the leadership if he just went away. So, he took his skill set to a drug lord but he soon realized there was no large sense of purpose, no lofty ideals in organized crime.

At that point Mpayipheli decided to bank his money, go straight and retire completely in South Africa. He met a woman with a young son, moved in and devoted himself to this new family they created. He took a job at a motorcycle repair place and everything seemed to be just about as perfect as anyone could make it.

That is until he gets word that a trusted old friend from the old days will die unless a hard drive is delivered to Lusaka, Zambia. He decides he has to go even though his wife begs him not to. When government officials stop him from boarding a plane to Zambia his old training kicks in and he escapes and goes on the run while trying to work his way to Zambia. He borrows a high-powered BMW motorcycle and finds that he is being pursued by government officials, the police and even a special forces unit. Meanwhile, South African officials want to know what is on the hard drive and everyone is scrambling to catch him and cover everything up before the truth gets out because someone has leaked the story to the media and now everyone is wondering who the mysterious big man on the BMW is and why he is running.

Deon Meyer. Photo by Krimidoedel

Deon Meyer is a South African writer who writes in the South African language Afrikaans. I only mention it because sometimes translated works are clunky, but this book is not. But, if you are not familiar with South Africa's Apartheid history and how South Africa's role in the larger Cold War between the U.S.S.R and NATO then I would imagine this book would be quite confusing.

The audiobook was read by the incomparable Simon Vance who covered a multitude of accents, male and female characters, children and old people (the old man who writes folk songs was particularly memorable) with ease. If Simon Vance were to read my grocery list it would sound important. When he reads (performs is a more accurate term) a book it is an experience.

While this was a good book, it was not a great one. The ending was too drawn out. Too many of the different threads of the story that were meticulously laid out in the first couple of hours never did really come together (the biker clubs that are sympathetic to the mysterious rider on the BMW are a great example. They are mentioned many times because they want to express some sort of biker solidarity but when they finally appear it is only for a few seconds and they just fade away).

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: 

HEART of the HUNTER (audiobook) by Deon Meyer.

Reviewed on August 28, 2013

Note: I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

SLEDGE (short story) by Ernie Lindsey

Published by Amazon Digital Services in 2013 as an e-book.
Estimated length is 35 printed pages.

Mary Walker is a private detective these days. Five years ago she was a police officer who confronted the serial killer known as "Sledge." He earned that name by killing three police officers with a sledge hammer. Mary was the only one to survive a confrontation with Sledge. He smashed her thigh bone with the hammer and then let the head of the hammer rest on her throat. She choked until she passed out and then, inexplicably, he left her there.

Walker quit the force and when the story starts she is a struggling private detective staking out the loading dock of a furniture factory when she discovers that Sledge is back and he has unfinished business with her...

I rate this short story 4 out of 5 stars. Walker is an interesting character, the action is solid, a mood of foreboding and dread is created and there is a bit of a twist at the end.

This short story can be found on Amazon.com here: Sledge by Ernie Lindsey.

Reviewed on August 24, 2013.

BACK of BEYOND (Cody Hoyt #1) by C.J. Box

Published in 2011 by Minotaur Books

A person who left a comment on one of my Amazon reviews told me about C.J. Box and gave me the title to his first book featuring Joe Pickett. I found it at the library and I was hooked. If you like Michael Connelly or Robert Crais you will love C.J. Box. If you like Tony Hillerman, you will enjoy Box's descriptions of the local landscape and the people of Wyoming and Montana.

Back of Beyond is the beginning of a new series, not a part of the outstanding Joe Pickett series. It features Cody Hoyt, a broken-down alcoholic of a cop who drank himself out of a job as a big city cop in Colorado and is now in Montana, in danger of losing his last chance job as a cop.  The story starts out with as strong of an opening as I have ever read: "The night before Cody Hoyt shot the county coroner, he was driving without purpose in this county Ford Expedition as he often did these days. He was agitated and restless, chain-smoking cigarettes until his throat was raw and sore."

So, that's pretty much Cody Hoyt the whole book through. He is talented, headstrong and pathetic. The only good thing he sees about life is his high school-aged son who lives with his ex-wife back in Colorado. But, there's a good cop underneath all of the junk that comes with his troubles. When his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor is found dead in a remote cabin he knows it was not the drunken suicide of a man that has fallen off the wagon. He goes against his bosses and investigates on his own and gets himself suspended (after he shoots the coroner during his investigation).

Hoyt continues to search and the sparse clues he finds point to a larger conspiracy involving a wilderness outfitter that leads tours into the rugged back country of Yellowstone National Park. The problem is that his son is on that same trip (yes, it's a giant coincidence, but I went with it). Hoyt has to catch them (he lives in Montana but he is hardly a woodsman), figure out who the murderer is and stop him or her before anyone else gets killed, especially his son.

Hoyt never becomes a likable character, but there is a bit of redemption in his actions as the book progresses. The supporting characters, like the retired wilderness guide Bull Mitchell and his partner Larry make the book work.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Back of Beyond by C.J. Box.

Reviewed on August 17, 2013.

CAR TALK: MATERNAL COMBUSTION: CALLS ABOUT MOMS and CARS (audiobook) by Tom and Ray Magliozzi

Published by HighBridge Audio in 2005
Duration: 1 hour, 11 minutes

The hosts of NPR's Car Talk, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, offer highlights from their radio show with the theme
of motherhood. If you are not familiar with the show, well it is unique. Two brothers who aren't really mechanics (but do have a lot of experience fixing cars) take calls about cars and car repair. They laugh and mercilessly kid one another and sometimes actually get around to offering advice on how to fix a car.

Some of the highlights feature their own mother as an in-studio guest, the rest are from callers. Topics include a mom who does not want to break down and buy a mini-van, a mom who wants her sixteen-year-old to buy a sports car and my favorite - the older mom who plans to drive her 1977 Datsun 510 station wagon from Houston to Massachusetts that prompts a hilarious side bet between the brothers.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Car Talk: Maternal Combustion: Calls About Moms and Cars.
Reviewed on August 15, 2013.

DON'T GO (audiobook) by Lisa Scottoline

Published by MacMillan Audio in 2013

Read by Jeremy Davidson
Duration: 11 hours, 25 minutes

Unabridged

Lisa Scottoline breaks new ground in Don't Go. For years, she has written courtroom dramas and legal thrillers. This time, Scottoline tries to tie together two distinct stories featuring Dr. Mike Scanlon, a podiatrist from Philadelphia.

One is the story of an Army doctor doctor serving in Afghanistan and the other is a murder mystery.

 Scanlon is a member of the National Guard and when the story starts he has been called up and is serving in Afghanistan. Podiatric surgeons are in high demand because of the common use of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) that explode under military vehicles and damage the feet of the passengers.

Mike has left a wife and an infant child back in Philadelphia. His wife dies from a household accident and his wife's sister and her husband care for the child as he rushes back home to make funeral arrangements. They agree to care for her for the duration of his tour in Afghanistan and when he decides to serve another year because they are in such desperate need of doctors with his special skills.

Lisa Scottoline

The problem with Don't Go is that these two stories do not mesh particularly well. The smaller, but much stronger story is the one in Afghanistan. Scottoline has done some research here and she tells it in a compelling and moving way. The characters have real zing.

On the other hand, the Philadelphia characters are very two dimensional and Scanlon's sister-in-law has an obsessive need to keep the baby on its nap schedule (and the never-ending conversations about the nap schedule) that borders on mental illness. When a father returns home from more than a year in Afghanistan with a horrible injury and wants to see the baby you immediately let him see the baby and throw the @$&%! nap schedule out the window for the day!

Scottoline throws in a murder mystery that just does not fit, but it does little to liven up the home front part of the story. However, the investigation by Scanlon is so haphazard and so full of gut feelings that it felt contrived - like a separate story was grafted to the main story just to add length and a little punch. Major family confrontations flare up and are solved so quickly that it seemed clear that Scottoline was trying to pad the story or really had no sense of how she wanted to end it. For what it's worth, I would have been very happy to have had the entire book just about the adventures of  Dr. Scanlon in Afghanistan.

Jeremy Davidson read the book and he did a solid, if not exciting job. He did a good job with the French accents of Scanlon's wife and his sister-in-law. Oddly, it is never really explained how Scanlon meets and marries this French lady (or, if it is mentioned, it was glossed over quickly and I missed it). One of the characters is mentioned as having a North Philly accent. I am admittedly no expert on Philadelphia, but to me it sounded like a combination of California surfer dude and Australian.

Note: I received a download copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this audiobook 3 out of 5 stars. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: DON'T GO by Lisa Scottoline.

Reviewed on August 14, 2103.

THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Chet and Bernie #4) by Spencer Quinn

Published in 2011 by Atria Books

Chet and Bernie are private detectives. Well, Bernie is a private detective. Chet is his dog - a police dog (almost!) that failed to make it all of the way through his training. The story is told completely told from the perspective of Chet, the dog who pretty much understands human society, at least enough to tell the story. What he does know for sure is that he and Bernie are inseparable partners and they always have each others' back.

In The Dog Who Knew Too Much Bernie is hard up for money again (Bernie can generate income but he likes to speculate in questionable investments) and he accepts what should be a simple job - pretend to be a woman's boyfriend while she goes to pick up her son at a summer camp in the mountains so that her ex-husband will finally understand that their romantic relationship is over. He quickly determines that this ex-husband has a violent past and is involved in shady business involving lots of money and makes a mental note that this case may be more than his client has described.

Spencer Quinn

It turns out that there is more to this case, but it is not what he expected. When they arrive his client's son has gone missing - he disappeared during the night on an overnight hike with his bunk mates and his counselor. Bernie and Chet begin the search for the boy but he immediately finds an abandoned gold mine, rumors of meth labs and plenty of corrupt local officials. That's when things start to get interesting...

For those of us who live with a dog, this series rings true. Spencer Quinn should be commended for capturing a dog's take on human society, his go-go-go enthusiasm (including the many times Chet hears a dog barking and suddenly realizes that he is the one doing the barking) and his good and loyal nature. I liked the story, not so much for the mystery but, instead, for the characters. Chet and Bernie are like old friends to me and it was good to catch up a little bit.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Dog Who Knew Too Much.

Reviewed on July 25, 2013

TEST of FIRE (audiobook) by Ben Bova

Read by Dean Sluyter

Duration: 10 hours, 46 minutes

Published by Blackstone Audio in 2013

Unabridged

Sci-fi legend Ben Bova’s 1982 book Test of Fire is a look at a near-future Earth struck by a giant solar flare that literally destroys all life in Europe, Asia and Africa because that half of the planet that was facing the sun at the time. North America is partially devastated by a limited strike of nuclear missiles from Soviet Union. Central America and South America do not figure in the story.

The near future Earth has a lunar base (for mining) and a fleet of space shuttles that regularly take off and land on earth from very long runways. The lunar base survived the solar flare unscathed but faces the difficult challenge of how to provide for all of its needs with little or no support from Earth.

The lunar base is led by a council and that council is led by Daniel Morgan and his scheming wife. Morgan leads an expedition to Cape Canaveral for supplies and to look for survivors. He returns with both but is struck by the pitiful condition of the people he left behind. Civilization has all but ended for them and he wants to make sure that thousands of years of art, philosophy and science are not lost. He wants to work with the people on Earth but is overruled by the council due to the behind the scenes machinations of his wife. They want to write off the Earth and focus on keeping the lunar base alive.

While Morgan’s wife schemes and sleeps with powerful members of the council to get her way and betray her husband, Morgan decides to return to Earth on a mission to retrieve fissionable fuel to power the base’s nuclear plants (the moon lacks those elements). Morgan retrieves the fuel and refuses to return to the moon, even though his wife is pregnant. He is considered a traitor and for twenty years his son, Alec, is taught that his father betrayed the base.

Photo by Gregory H. Revera

Alec is trained to lead a mission to Earth to retrieve the fuel and to get even with his father who is believed to have set up a kingdom among the “barbarians,” as the survivors are called.  Alec brings superior technology, including laser cannons, but far inferior numbers, including a member of the council who may want to kill him and marry his mother. Even though the earth soldiers are at a disadvantage when it comes to weapons, they have the advantage when it comes earth’s gravity, heat, humidity and viruses.

While this book is based on a tremendous premise and is filled with characters that feel as though they belong in a Greek or even a Shakespearean tragedy, it never lives up to its promise, which is odd considering that the book is basically a revision of a book he wrote in the early 1970s called When the Sky Burned, making this the second draft of the same story. Despite the revision, too many characters, such as Alec’s mother (who dominates the first half of the book), just disappear from the story as it goes along. Also, very few of the characters are even likable. Daniel Morgan is presumed honorable, but he is inscrutable. His wife is plain evil. At first Alec is a sympathetic character, but early on in the book he rapes a female doctor while on a dinner date in her apartment. Personally, I found it hard to root for rapists. In the end, I just listened to see how Bova was going to end the book all the while wondering what David Weber would have done with it.

Dean Sluyter’s reading of Test of Fire certainly did not help my enjoyment of the book. It is not that Sluyter has a poor reading voice – to the contrary, he has excellent diction and a nice deep tone. But, he reads slowly and tends to get a little William Shatner-esque in long passages with odd pauses and breaks. There was not much differentiation between the male and female characters and most of the male characters sounded very similar. It may be that his reading style is better suited for non-fiction rather than fiction where listeners (at least this one listener) place a premium on a more dramatic reading performance.

Note: I received a download copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: TEST of FIRE by Ben Bova.

Reviewed on July 24, 2013.