Tarantula

A John Milton Short Story

By: Mark Dawson

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list.

In this second dip into his case files (see 1000 Yards for a further novella), Milton is sent to Italy to investigate the death of a colleague from Group 15, the secret assassination squad that liquidates those considered to be impediments to the furtherance of British interests. Milton discovers that the agent was involved with the Camorra, the powerful Mafia clan that controls the territory from Naples to the tip of the Italian boot. He identifies the assassin as a man nicknamed Tarantula. Now Tarantula, and his boss, are entries in Milton's ledger. And all debts need to be paid.

©2014 Mark Dawson (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Good novella

I like listening to shorter books as a change from 12+ hour novels and this author fits the bill. The story is straight forward without a lot of self analysis or long romantic scenes that add little to the plot. It takes a fast pace to keep my interest. If you like stories where the good guy takes out the bad guy, you will lie these.

It was okay

This book was okay but not my favorite to listen to. It was violent (the series is about an assassin after all) but there was so much narrative rather than conversations between characters that it made it a little boring.

Great fast paced listen!

listened while doing yard work. Story engaged my mind enough that it went by in no time.

An improvement

This is a much better novella than 1000 Yards by the same author. It does not leave you wondering what happened in any scene. I still find the narrator horrible. His failure to correctly pronounce terms important to the story, leave me wondering WTF, does he speak english? I will likely return this story due to the narrator.

Enjoyed but not so great

Love Dawson however this story just had absolutely no plot ! I loved the pads and the characterization. But it unraveled very fast . A little abrupt in its ending !

Fun

Great read. Easy to follow, I grew to like the story and narrator more and more as the book progressed.

Good Short Story

This was a pretty good story! I wish it were longer though. The Dawson and Thorpe wonder team succeeds yet again. I highly recommend to all.

What are you doing?

The rifling only goes part way. Really? The speed of the rifling has to do with the weight of the bullet. If the bullet is light, a fast rifling will make the bullet explode, before impact. If the bullet is heavy, a too slow riffling will not make the bullet stabilize. Just ONE shot, come on, always at least two! He's number 8? In book one he was number one. In book one, after he killed the man and women, he didn't kill the child. That's why he decided to leave Group 15. Your next book is less than 6 hours? Come on fellow, give us our moneys worth. I think you need some one that knows firearms and reads your books, before the next one. BTW, I really enjoy the John Milton series.

A perfect way to unwind

These Novellas are exactly the right size… just about 2 1/2 hours…

The stories introduces the characters, develops the story… and brings it to a solid conclusion 👍👍👍

Great read and listen..

So, another short story about The Cleaner John Milton. This time he was sent to Italy to find out what happen to Agent Three and take care of business once he did find out, which he did.

I did start reading the book The Cleaner but I felt a little lost so after 6 chapters I quit and went on to other books BUT now think I understand John better and why he wanted to quit The Group. And I get why he feels the need to help people in need instead of just killing people because he was told to. He already had 50 kills so he wanted something more out of his life.

As to the narration: He was great. When the book called for a laugh by Ernesto David Thorpe let loose a nasty, evil laugh. His reading skills are simply wonderful.