The Plantation

Payne & Jones, Book 1

By: Chris Kuzneski

Narrated by: Dick Hill

The first to disappear is a ski instructor in the secluded mountains of Colorado. Hours later, a pregnant woman is abducted from a crowded hospital. Two places, two incidents, a single motive. And so it begins....

One by one, in cities across America, people of all ages are taken from their homes, their cars, their lives. But these aren't random kidnappings. They're crimes of passion, planned and researched years in advance with a singular objective in mind: Revenge.

Ariane Walker is one of the victims, dragged from her apartment with few clues to follow. The police said there's little they can do for her, but that isn't good enough for her boyfriend, Jonathon Payne.

With the help of his best friend, Payne gives chase, hoping a tip about New Orleans somehow pays off. Together, the duo slowly uncovers the mystery of Ariane's abduction and the shocking truth behind the South's most violent secret: The Plantation.

©2009 Chris Kuzneski (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

" The Plantation is a rip-roaring page-turner. No reader will easily forget it." (James Patterson)
"Excellent.... High stakes, fast action, vibrant characters, and a very, very original plot concept. Not to be missed!" (Lee Child)

Good story & performance

Too much extended gory detail a distraction. Needed editing. Excellent narration! About an hour could be shaved off.

Loved it!

I love Payne and Jones. Their banter is wonderful. I hope to have many more books from them

Intense

This book is definately not for the squimish - lots of very violent scenes. What is interesting about this book is how there's so much humor that had me laughing out loud. It's not overdone but is used skillfully to balance the more intense moments.

The narrator has a great gift for creating good male characters voices, but I was not impressed with the female voices he did. Also, in his non-dialogue narration his own accent was a bit too much for my taste in narrators - though I've read that he is a favorite of many listeners.

Incredible Story

This was an awesome book. The author did much research to put it all together. Writing is one thing and research also for accuracy of subject content is totally appreciated. I've read one other book by this author and it was good. This one was awesome. Some parts were hard to emotionally deal with but excellent. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys murder mysteries and thrillers. Dick Hill is also my favorite reader. Should have been an actor. He can change dialects and accents 4 times in a paragraph with ease. I sometimes search by narrators name to see what's new. This one is on audible only a few days and is a very good book. I will read it again sometime for sure.

This book was a totally unexpected surprise

What did you love best about The Plantation?

This had a great plot, ditto for story telling, characters etc. after reading some of the not so great reviews I had this in my wish list for about a year and finally decided to give it a try. So sorry I waited so long. This book had everything going for it. I will definitely be purchasing more from this author.

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

Oh yes! The brutality of the acts carried out by these kidnappers in the name of revenge was horrible. Not too horrible to listen to for entertainment purposes though.

Have you listened to any of Dick Hill’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Dick Hill is one of my FAVORITE narrators and as always did a fantastic performance!

Very good debut

I didn't enjoy "The Plantation" quite as much as the subsequent entries in this series -- possibly only because it doesn't have all the exotic locales of the sequels -- but I still recommend this audiobook. It contains plenty of excitement, plus lots of education about the horrors of slavery, thanks to Kuzneski's thorough research. For some perplexing reason, we always enjoy hearing the adventures of indestructible, tough good guys saving the world; and Kuzneski's two main characters -- former (allegedly now retired) special forces soldiers and best friends, Jonathan Payne and D. J. Jones, definitely fill that bill. This audiobook suffers a bit from Dick Hill's over-acting; but I encourage the listener to hang in with the reading anyway, because of the good plot. It may also help to know that Dick Hill's reading of subsequent entries in this series improves.

good solid story. a fun listen.

good solid story. a fun listen. it seems like a god start to a series.

Annoying narration

I had a very difficut time getting through this book because of the Narrator. I found the constant change of accents and dialects annoying at best and it seems to take him forever to say anything because of the (dramatic?) pauses. The story was a bit too graphic for my taste, but a good story nontheless.

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Look out Preston and ChilD there's a new sheriff in town
Can't wait to get to the next story!!!!
Great

To many heroics to pull off believeably

I was able to finish this book, and am a fan of the genre but this book seemed more Hollywood than literature, and sometimes that works but in this instance I was only mildly entertained by it. The ending was never in doubt and the heroics so easily pulled off and accomplished amid bad actors who seem vulnerable to every move the "elite of the elite" (which is becoming to cliche all in itself) military squad is able to make. I am trying to think of the reason I listened to the whole book and like bad fried rice it is forgotten as soon as it is out of sight, which may in the end be the best thing about this book.
If you are a fan of the genre, like me, you may work through the book with a mild bit of entertainment, if you are not a fan then this is not going to be a good book for you.