Testament

By: Shaun Hutson

Narrated by: Andy Stevenson

For some, death is just the beginning. You have a chance to save the world or the only person you ever loved. What would you do?

Sean Doyle faced danger, death, and other things he'd rather forget during his time in the Counter Terrorist Unit. But times change, even if Doyle doesn't. He's older, but no wiser, and the world he knew has changed.

Now, he finds himself working as a private security consultant in Baghdad, still a city in turmoil. His job is to protect the men working on a new rail line from terrorist attacks. For Doyle, it seems like old times, but this time, it's a different kind of enemy. However, someone from his past arrives to offer him the kind of work he was made for. Doyle is given the chance to rejoin the Counter Terrorist Unit.

The reason is that a case he worked on 30 years earlier has been reopened. A man he thought was dead has been spotted in the company of the Russian mafia. But how can this be? Doyle knows that he himself killed this man one fateful night in Ireland back in the '80s.

The lure of his old life is too much, but when he returns, he discovers there are some catches. After physical and psychological tests, he will have to work with a partner. A man half his age, who seems to embody everything Doyle despises. Between them, these two will have to hunt down the man who Doyle thought was dead. A man with limitless wealth, twisted desires, and the mind of a monster. The man responsible for the death of the only woman Doyle ever loved. It's meant to be a mission, but for Doyle, it's what he does best. It's revenge.

However, when the time comes, he will find answers that threaten not only his life, but his sanity. His old, blood-spattered world will come hurtling back to engulf him, and a decision must be made that defies reason.

Sean Doyle is back, but might wish he wasn't...

The godfather of gore returns to his horror roots with a book that will haunt you. Hours of chills and scares for less than half the price of a 90-minute movie.

Praise for the book:

"Britain's greatest living horror author." (The Dark Side)

"An expert in the art of keeping the reader turning the pages." (Time Out)

"Hutson writes grippingly." (SFX Magazine)

"The one that writes what others only dare imagine." (Sunday Times)

©2019 Shaun Hutson (P)2020 Caffeine Nights Publishing

Good thriller

well narrated. lots of action. supernatural influences.
villain trying to live forever unleashes horrible consequences

Well written action thriller

I enjoyed this book and thought it was interesting and engaging, but it seemed more like a spy thriller than a horror novel. I would have preferred more details about the evil rituals and such that were being done, rather than super detailed fight scenes. I feel this is simply a matter of taste however, and would still encourage anyone interested to give it a chance.

Well Narrated Horror Thriller

I'd never read or listened to a story by Hutson before, but knew he had a pretty successful run of horror novels so I Jumped on the opportunity to listen to this and was not disappointed. Sean Doyle, previously of a Counter Terrorism Unit, is older and employed as private security but when the opportunity to go back to his old life arises the temptation is too much. Things are different now however as he needs a team rather than solo as they go after a man from his past.

It's gripping, frenetic, and exciting and of course gruesome and horrific in the right places, doing a solid job of working double duty as a thriller and a horror story. And the narration provided is top notch as well bringing such a story to life and giving it voice.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

pretty good story

I was given this book for free from audiobook boom and asked to leave an unbiased review for the author and narrator.

This was a pretty good story and the narrator was a good choice and did a good job.

Here are my thoughts for the author. I don’t get the multiple chapters about Doyle in Iraq I don’t think they were really pertinent to the story. If the premise of the story was Callahan and the book more background should have been given to that rather than Doyle. If Doyle was in his 40s and “the incident” occurred 28 years prior Doyle would have been in his late teens to early 20s when it occurred yet he was a major player in the counter terrorist unit??? Callahan has been buried in his coffin for 28 years, but has never tried to dig his way out? When he rises he had been embalmed – no blood in his system, what was the point of him going to the doctor’s office asking for help, it was never explained. No “ceremony” done to completely “bring him back as he was” yet he can get an erection and ejaculate sperm with no blood in his body? Yet Georgina and Vale’s father have blood in their bodies. I know it’s a supernatural story, but attention to detail matters to me especially when your trying to bolster the supernatural aspects of the story. Production team needs to pay attention to the narrators pronunciation of words. Again I would have preferred more story on Callahan and his rituals rather than Doyle’s background, I think that’s more important to the story. The ending – if the book was destroyed and everyone brought back by it, then how is Callahan still animated? All in all though it was a pretty good story, I would have used a credit on it.
I'm adding to my previous review after having something pointed out by the narrator, I said he mis-pronounced some words not thinking that different countries pronounce some words differently. I also wanted to add that Andy is the narrator most of us look for while listening to books. He does the voice changes for different characters and uses inflections and such which to me makes the books more enjoyable. I also wanted to add that I have crappy internet so some of the things I pointed out I may have just missed because of poor streaming from the Audible site.

In the end

First off I must say it took me quite a while to get into this book. I had to retart it a few times and I am uncertain as to why. It started out interestingly enough and the narration was pretty good.
any way once I got into it it went fairly quickly. over all I like the story and the characters. There were a few things that I found bugging me. A few places in the book had repetative language with the same phrase or word being overly used. Happily not all that often. The other main thing was that a few times I felt the behaviour of the characters either altered more than I thought it should or just seemed not in line with how I thought they might act.
Aside from that it was Pretty good and I enjoyed it enough that I would have a look at other work by the author and narrator. I haven't checked yet but I'd be intereted to see what happens to Doyle next.

Testament

The storyline is good.The horror was WAY too gruesome for me. Narrator Andy Stevenson was good.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

Gory And Good

I've been wanting to try Shaun Hutson for YEARS (especially his book SLUGS), and when I was offered TESTAMENT on audiobook in exchange for an honest review, I jumped at the chance. This book IS horror, but it feels almost like a Tom Clancy espionage and military book at first. It's a different style of story than I usually grab off the shelf, BUT it didn't go overboard in the military/counter-terrorist side of things.

I didn't know this was a sequel, but you don't need to read the preceding books to understand this book. While listening, I kept thinking that there must be some history here that would be flashed back to. So, I researched and found that the main character, counter-terrorist agent Sean Doyle, has his own SERIES of books by Shaun Hutson: Renegades, White Ghost, Knife Edge, Hybrid, and this book (so far). I'm sure if I read those other books first, I'd get EVEN MORE enjoyment out of this book, but I didn't NEED to read them.

Andy Stevenson does a great job reading this book. His voice doesn't quite hold up under 1.5x speed like I sometimes use for books, but I didn't mind his pacing at all (in other words: he wasn't too slow). The British "flavour" of this book was very welcome too. I've been listening to a lot "USA"-books, so to speak, lately, and this was a breath of fresh air.

NOTE: The story can be very graphic...violence and hardcore sex. Some of the sexuality of the antagonist could be VERY triggering ...including a fleeting lascivious thought toward a child. Also, threesomes and stroking-of-turgid-member descriptions may make it embarrassing to listen to on public transportation (like I did... "Are my earphones up high enough that others can hear this?"). Sometimes, it felt like too much... but only because I wasn't expecting such lurid detail. Hopefully, this review will help people be more prepared.