Leopards Kill [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Jim DeFelice (Author), William Dufris (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2007

Former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier Jack Pilgrim has it all - big bucks, a successful security business with plush government contracts, a beautiful wife. Then Pilgrim’s partner, Merc Conrad, goes missing in Afghanistan with a chunk of government cash and most of the company’s assets. The CIA threatens to throw Pilgrim in jail if he doesn’t find Merc and return the money. Pilgrim knows his business - and his extravagant lifestyle - are on the line, but Merc saved Jack’s life three times while they served together in the army in Afghanistan. So Jack owes him. Big. Determined to find Conrad, Pilgrim returns to Afghanistan. The country is in chaos as the United States prepares to pull out. Pilgrim follows Merc’s trail to the border area of Pakistan; with every step he seems to descend deeper into a Dantesque hell. Rumor has it that Conrad has fielded a guerrilla army and is hot on the trail of Osama bin Laden. The farther into the uncharted border zone Jack Pilgrim goes, the larger the legend of Merc Conrad becomes. Pilgrim’s odyssey into the Afghan badlands has him questioning his own reality, and the closer he seems to get to Conrad, the more peril he faces. If Jack Pilgrim wants to get out of Afghanistan alive, he may need Merc Conrad now more than ever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

DeFelice has fashioned a powerful quest novel out of what could have been just a clever homage to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Mercury "Merc" Conrad, on a shadowy assignment into present-day Afghanistan, has disappeared with $2 million of CIA money, which the agency wants back. Since Merc saved the life of his friend and business partner, ex-Special Forces soldier Jack Pilgrim, on three earlier occasions, Jack sets out to find and rescue Merc. The journey takes Jack deep into Afghanistan, a heart of darkness if there ever was one, propelling him to the very edge of civilization and beyond. Jack fights for his life on almost every page with the action slacking off only in the rare moments when he can sit back to rest and ponder questions of morality, loyalty and honor. DeFelice has coauthored many novels with such thriller writers as Stephen Coonts and Larry Bond, but this and his other solo efforts, including Threat Level Black and Coyote Bird, prove that he can write and fight with the best of them. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been recast a few times, and while it's debatable whether another reimagining is necessary, DeFelice's version is a ripping good read. Jack Pilgrim, a former Special Forces operative, now runs a security firm that handles "special" assignments for the U.S. government. When his partner, Merc Conrad, vanishes into Afghanistan with a couple million dollars belonging to the government, money that was supposed to finance a mysterious project called Leopard, the CIA presses Jack into service: find Conrad, they say, or we'll turn your life upside down. Jack's journey takes him deep into Afghanistan's uncharted territory and leads to a confrontation with Merc, who has a few secrets to reveal. DeFelice makes no secret of his debt to Heart of Darkness, but the novel works with or without the Conrad parallel: the writing is snappy, the characters well drawn, and the story well told on its own terms, which include some shrewd commentary on the Bush administration's war on terror. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• MP3 CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD; MP3 Una edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423331516
• ISBN-13: 978-1423331513
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,344,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SHANGRI LA OF MAN-MADE HELL, July 12, 2007

By 

F. Rosen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leopards Kill (Hardcover)

LEOPARDS KILL is a crackerjack thriller with more on its mind than just blowing things up. Jim DeFelice uses his Afghanistan setting as a metaphoric hell to put his new character, soldier of fortune Jack Pilgrim, through his paces. As Pilgrim advances further away from civilzation in his quest to find his missing partner Merc Conrad, his humanity dwindles away until finally all that is left is the essential urge to survive at any cost.
The book climaxes in a Shangri La of man-made hell that stayed with me through the long hours of the night.
Fred Rosen, author, There But For the Grace of God: Survivors of the 20th Century's Infamous Serial Killers

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Apocalypse Now for a new conflict, February 24, 2010

By 

Robert Casamajor "Action Reader" (Fair Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Leopards Kill (Mass Market Paperback)

It seems that Jim DeFelice and I are old friends. I have never met the man, but I have read almost every piece of fiction he has ever been a part of. Needles to say, he is on my list of "must buy" authors.
Leopards Kill does not disappoint!
The opening paragraph pretty much lays out the state in life many men of my vintage seem to have reached and somehow , just don't feel that good about it. DeFelice's main character, aptly named Jack Pilgrim, sets out on a pilgrimage to find out what has happened to his close friend and business partner who has gone missing with all of their business funds as well as a lot of CIA government money into the wilds of the Afghanistan / Pakistan border region.
Pilgrim's search evokes Captain Willard's (Charlie Sheen) search for Colonel Kurtz ( Brando)in Coppla's 1979 classic Apocalypse Now. Pilgrim is slowly stripped of his carefully self constructed reality and becomes forced to deal with another world of hopeless and vicious individuals as he searches for what has happened to the man who has saved his life more than once. A well written, thought provoking read....

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Done, September 19, 2009

By 

Kenneth Casey - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Leopards Kill (Hardcover)

I have read Jim Deflice before, but as an author with Dale Brown. This is the first book I have read by him, and am enjoying it. The characters have a depth to them, and you can almost see the locations for the way he describes the places. He sometimes detours from the story line, to bring something out of the past, that at times can be a little hard to figure out why, but in giving it time, it will come to fruition.

I will get another book by this author, and enjoy it just as much.