Kill Zone

A Sniper Novel

By: Jack Coughlin, Donald A. Davis

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

An American general is captured by Islamic extremists in the Middle East. They threaten to behead him within days. One strange fact: Moments before he is rendered unconscious during the attack, the general notices that his unseen captors speak American English. What's going on?

Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson, a top level marine sniper, is vacationing on a boat in the Mediterranean when he receives orders to mount a top-secret mission to rescue the general. But as he and his men prepare to land in the Iraqi desert, they immediately come under ferocious attack, and Swanson is the only man left alive. How did the enemy know details of a mission known only to a few top government officials?

Swanson takes off across the desert alone to find the captured general and realizes he is fighting a particularly ruthless and dangerous enemy: American mercenaries working for a very high-level group of American officials with ties to the White House itself, part of a clandestine conspiracy whose hidden agenda is nothing less than total control of the American military. Their sworn enemy is the captured general whose fate now rests in Sniper Swanson's hands.

Full of the kind of action author Jack Coughlin lived during his career as a marine sniper, Kill Zone marks the debut of an extraordinary writing team.

©2007 Jack Coughlin and Donald A. Davis (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Okay second half but this didn’t click for me

This book started rather slowly for me. There was a lot of cringe, groans, tropes and rants to begin and if this book had still been in my return window it might have been a DNF. But I persisted and the second half was okay with fairly constant action. What I like was the relatively constant action in the second half. What I didn’t like was several things. First, I really didn’t like the Kyle Swanson character - he just didn’t click for me. There were no other lead characters that I cared about either. Second, there was a lot of unrealistic behaviors. Of course you have to suspend your sense of reality with thriller books like these but there were several instances in which characters didn’t respond in the way they would certainly have in those situations. Third, there was a pervasive feeling of juvenile joke cartoonishness, as if the author was trying a bit too hard to appeal to a certain kind of reader. That said, if you do read this book, plow through because it does get better. Still I doubt that I will continue this series. There are a lot of better options in this genre. Lastly, I have to say that I did not like Luke Daniels as narrator. His voice for Kyle Swanson only made Swanson sound even more annoying than he otherwise would have, and many of his other characters sounded cartoonish.

Good read

Enjoyed the book. Narration was great and the story was well written. Kept my interest and can’t wait to start the next one

Regretfully Late to The Party

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

ABSOLUTELY! If you like the Mitch Rapp books by Vince Flynn or the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor you will love this series of books featuring Kyle Swanson. Kill Zone was a great lead-off book!

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes! I listen to audiobooks while putting in long miles on a bicycle. The suspense the authors built up had me so totally lost in the story I missed turns and forgot where I was. The story was very well executed and full of twists and turns.

What does Luke Daniels bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Very easy to distinguish between all the voices of the characters. He brought just the right amount of emotion to each character where appropriate.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened while riding the bike, commuting in the car, doing laundry, vacuuming and even through a speaker while in the shower so yes, I guess you could say it was close to in one sitting!

Any additional comments?

I am so sorry I'm so late to this series. Finished book 2 which was just as good and have book 3 ready to go after I finish re-listening to The Wastelands Dark Tower 3. Highly recommend it!

Great book. Well written.

A fantastic story. Well written, Marine. I plan on listening to the next book. I hope it’s as good as this one.

Love the gritty tale

Excellent company while working. Loved the plot line, tech and main character profile. Worth checking out!

Great start to the Sniper/Kyle Swanson series!

Kill Zone, first published in 2007, is an excellent start to this great soon to be (August 2017) 10 novel suspense/espionage/military series which was not available in audio until after the 7th book was published. This forced me to purchase the first 7 novels in the series in other formats.

If the listener likes books by such authors as Andrew Peterson, Brad Taylor, Brad Thor, Scott McEwen, Vince Flynn, and Mark Greaney, then he/she is virtually assured to like this series.

All of es-US Marine Sargent and sniper Jack Coughlin's books, including his autobiography Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper, are coauthored by Donald A Davis.

The first 8 audio books in this series were performed to perfection by Luke Daniels. Then the audio book publisher changed to Scott Sowers for novel 9. Sowers is okay, but he is not Luke Daniels. I will never understand why such changes are made. The narrator for the 10th novel in the series (In the Crosshairs) has not been announced.

Slow start... Painfully slow start.

It is extremely slow to start. I switched to other books twice. Once it gets going it is acceptably paced.
If you are looking for a sniper book this isn't it. The sniping parts are washed down or hand grenade accurate.

Disappointing...

What did you like best about Kill Zone? What did you like least?

This is the first ever Audible book purchase that I may not finish. The dialogue at times is nothing short of sophomoric, and the performance is painful to hear. The voices and accents are cartoon-ish (if that's even a word). I am about halfway through I would guess, and so far there are no surprises. I hope the finish provides one, but I have low expectations. I still don't know if I will finish it. I suspect the timing of my next credit's arrival will be the determining factor...

How could the performance have been better?

The voices and accents didn't help me identify the speakers, and were a definite distraction from a mediocre book.

Was Kill Zone worth the listening time?

It's a toss up for me.

Any additional comments?

I would love to be able to write, so I am loathe to criticize. However, in this case the feedback is warranted. Hope the authors and narrator can take something away to improve. For me, the book and performance were not good.

narration is not good

I really liked the story but the voices of the characters were not good. the main character sounded like a 50's movie gangster and the ultra macho voices for many of the other characters were just over the top and silly. reading this would be better than listening

Well Done!

I was looking for a book to listen to on a drive, came across this one and decided to give it a try. I was a bit concerned after a few chapters that I made the wrong choice, but stuck with it - I still had hours to go. Glad I did. About 1/3 of the way in the story hit its stride and was well done. I enjoyed the characters, action and detail. I would like to listen to more but there are no more unabridged Kyle Swanson/Sniper books, I hope audible changes that soon. The second book is available but is abridged. I have no use for abridged stories, what is the point?