If you are into stories of action and you like to be thrilled along the way, I can recommend you give “The Suppressor” a listen; it is the first book in the “Silence Jones Action Thrillers Series”. The story is on the edge of being a bit noirish, but not over the top graphically. I have a feeling once you finish this audiobook, you will be picking up the others as well. The book is written by Erik Carter who has a total of two series, including this one, currently available on Audible. This is the first of his material I have had the pleasure of listening too. For me, what made this book even more enjoyable was the exceptional narration by one of my favorite narrators, Gary Bennett. I very much enjoyed his narration of the “Dragon Mage” series and would happily listen to him voice nearly anything. Mr. Bennett is a seasoned narrator with just under one hundred books narrated on Audible at the time of this review. The story starts off at a high speed and it only increases as you get deeper. If this seems to be a book you would enjoy, give it a listen.
The story is a about a man who was an undercover police office within a crime syndicate, but a tragic event occurred which turned him in to a man who could only focus on revenge and causing pain to those who took everything from him. Without giving away too much (no spoilers), we see his involvement in systematically deconstructing the organization which ultimately hurt him while additionally working for a secret operation whose goal is to help those in need, much like Robin Hood. Even with all his rage, we see that Silence has compassion and that he cares for those close to him. He is not solely a methodical rage killer, but also a man with a heart and empathy for others. However, revenge clouds one’s mind and judgement so we see that he often gets lost in his rage.
I found the writing style to be a bit more descriptive than I like in book of this type. I like to have enough detail to mentally paint the picture, but not so much that my imagination does not have to work. With that said, I think the author did a wonderful job in giving the characters purpose and reason for their actions. Each of the main characters had depth and feeling which is often ignored by many other authors. Although I am not a fan of chapters that move around in the story’s timeline, I like chronological stories, I think it works for this audiobook once you get the idea of what is happening. Lastly, I wanted more background, and I would suppose others did as well, and I believe that such might be addressed in the prequel story which I will be reviewing shortly as well.
The audiobook’s narration was performed by the wonderful and talented Gary Bennett. He has come to set the stand for me with his professional audio quality and his ability to bring life to each of the story’s characters. Overall, the audio was clean of any auto effects such as swallows, page turns, etc. However, I did notice a few places with a bit of a garbled sound during complete silence. I know this is not often the fault of the audio, but more when the audiobook gets encoded by Audible. I mention it here only as some have asked I do so in my review. Let me be clear, Mr. Bennett shines and this little bit of audio noise does not take away from the story being told.
For parents and younger listeners, this book contains mature subject matter, profane language, and some rather graphic scenes of violence. As I had stated earlier, this has a noir feel and many of the things that define this genre are contained in this audiobook. I would not recommend the book for anyone but mature listeners or those not easily offended by the items mentioned above.
In summary, if you like actions and noir-type thrillers tales, I would suggest you give this audiobook a listen. Even though the writing is a bit descriptive, the character depth makes up for this drawback. For me, the narration brought the book to life as Mr. Bennett was able to make the characters pop out of the story and feel like they were actual people you knew. I can say that I look forward to listening to the other books in this series.
Disclaimer: This audiobook was provided at no cost by the author, narrator and/or publisher in exchange for posting a non-bias review.