Diamond Reef

A Chase Gordon Tropical Thriller

By: Douglas Pratt

Narrated by: Aidan Harris

Chase Gordon has the life.

The former marine works part-time as a bartender to support his life island-hopping on his 40-foot sailboat.

When the pretty young wife of one of his fellow marines shows up looking for her husband, Chase steps in to help her out. Immediately, he finds himself in a stand-off between one of South Florida's most dangerous drug dealers and the DEA.

Now, he's left wondering what kind of trouble his friend might be facing. Can Chase even save him?

Filled with action and adventure, Chase Gordon is the next Travis McGee.

©2020 Douglas Pratt (P)2020 Douglas Pratt

Fun adventure

I really liked my first listen of this series. It was adventurous and since I am residing in Florida and boat and fish, it struck a tone with me. I like it enough to look for the next episode. At first I wasn't into the narrator, then after I gave it a listen I was alright with Aiden. Keep mind my benchmark is Ray Porter, so that's a tough one. He did a good job overall. As with all these stories, you have to be able to relax and enjoy it, knowing that the idea that these guys really would get in the middle of all off this is far fetched. What I like is that the author is a good researcher and most of them lingo and military references are on target for the most part.

Exciting action story

The dialogue and descriptions evoke strong mental images of Florida and beach life. If John D McDonald is a "10", Doug Pratt is a strong "8" / "8.5". The only negative was the reader consistently pronouncing "gunwale" as "gun-whale" instead of the correct "gun-nel"...clearly not someone familiar with boats.

nice 1st story in a series

n" was a little put off with the sexuality but I figured it's modern authors... I like the story line.It's a simple, flawed knight in shining armor. A story in the great Florida tradition of Travis Mcgee, (John D Macdonald) James W. Hall’s "Thorn",Charles Willeford, Miami Blues Hoke Mosley Randy Wayne White Doc Ford,Alex Rutledge series by Tom Corcoran if you haven't read these authors, lucky you. some great ones to explore. I could have mentioned more...a shout out to my dad for turning me on to Travis Mcgee...look forward to the next book in this series

Hard to make it through the voice burn

The narrator is really hard to listen to and really takes away from the main character. The overall story was good but any time the main character was supposed to come off tough or charming the reader made him sound whinny and weak.

Liked the main character, not too overbearing

Good story with enough twists and turns to prevent the plot from being a cliche

Reader mispronunciation of Macon, GA and Mobile, AL.

Reader needs better prep of southern cities names. Mispronunciation was laughable to a southerner. Took away from the story to me.

I enjoyed this book

excellent store enjoyed it will purchase the rest of this series. made me want to continue listening

Good listening

Sounds to be a good series I enjoyed the first one quite a bit already have the next one in my library.

Off to a great start

I’m only into the second book in this series, but want to take the opportunity to heap praise, pats on the back and encouragement to continue on Mr. Pratt. He appears to have the skill set and desire to carve out a niche alongside John D. McDonald that has gone unfilled since John D. passed away. Granted, that’s an extremely high bar, but we can hope that Mr. Pratt can continue to hone his already considerable skills. And with McDonald as his inspiration, he’s on the right track.
I was charmed and delighted when the redoubtable T. McGee put in a cameo in Pratt’s second book in the Gordon series, Dark Cay. Cementing in my mind that Mr. Pratt has the master in mind as he pens this series.
My only quibble is with the narration of the audiobook versions (at least the two I’ve listened to). I don’t know how much say an author has in choosing a narrator, but I imagine Mr. Pratt must cringe when he hears the narrator of his books butcher pronunciation of, especially, nautical terms such as gunwale, which is pronounced as “gunnel,” not gun-whale.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of listening to Robert Petkoff’s impeccable reads of McDonald’s Travis McGee series has heard what is probably the zenith of collaboration between author and narrator, leaving everything else falling discernibly short of the ideal.
That said, I am thrilled to have stumbled across the Chase Gordon series and avidly look forward to devouring them all. Thank you, Mr. Pratt, for having the courage to dabble in John D’s oeuvre.

Narrator is easy to listen to - Good story

I’m glad I found this series. I like to listen to books while on long distance drives. The story line is believable, and the pace is good. I’m looking forward to the other books in this series.