This is a review of the audio version, with narration by Simon Vance.
What great luck! I happened to stumble across this book by Peter May quite by accident; but, looking back, I can trace my decision to read/listen to it out for three reasons. First, I've been on kind of Simon Vance narration kick right now, and the title came up as I was browsing through his inventory; second, I read the excellent reviews written here by other amazon.com readers; and third, I'm always up for a good thriller. I'm happy to say that Snakehead (China Thrillers) did not disappoint in any of the three areas.
It's been some time since I've read/listened to a book in which I became so entirely engrossed that I could not put it down until it was finished. And, with about ten hours of audio, this pretty much meant that I spent my entire day yesterday getting absolutely nothing else done but enjoying the book - I couldn't tear myself away from it.
It's really refreshing to be presented with new concepts and material in the thriller genre; I sometimes feel like I'm faced with the same plot over and over again. Snakehead (China Thrillers) is unique; I found it captivating, intriguing, surprising and suspenseful. I also felt that it was extremely well-researched. I came out of it actually learning something new - the scientific and biomedical information was absolutely fascinating, and I appreciated the author's ability to provide information about how all this stuff works, while at the same time fitting it neatly into a tightly-paced sequence of events. I was caught off guard by the narrative several times; I was moved by the realistic thoughts and interactions of the main characters.
And, as always, Simon Vance does a terrific job of bringing this wide range of characters to life in his narration. I'm ready to move on to the next in the series - Runner, The: A China Thriller (China Thrillers)by Peter May; again, with narration by Simon Vance.
