Cherry Mischievous: THE PREACHER

Saturday 7 September 2024

THE PREACHER

The Preacher by Nathan Burrows
Book 1 in The Preacher series
Narrated by Bradford Hastings
Genre: crime fiction
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Preacher:

Who is The Preacher?

Dawn. The English Channel. A small boat arrives crammed with exhausted migrants, not all of whom will make land.

Some of the shattered occupants have already paid for their journeys. Others have arrived with a debt still to be paid. One of the migrants isn't fleeing anything. He's not from Europe, or Africa, or the East. He's from Texas, and he's wearing a robe.

When the traffickers take some of their passengers to pay for their journey, they also take the man in the robe. That was their first mistake.

As the full horror of how the debt is to be repaid emerges, so does the gang's second mistake.

The man in the robe is much more than a preacher.

And this isn't his first rodeo.

Source: Info in the "About The Preacher" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126836454-the-preacher on 13/02/2024/2024.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

I like the supernatural element in the book even if it is just a very tiny bit of the story.

This is my first Nathan Burrows read and I'm glad that I've found him. Will be reading more of his work. Already bought the second book in this series. Although I am not very fond of his writing style where he presents the scene first and then tell the backstory of it later. That means that the first time a reader encounters the "scene", it does not make a lot of sense. It is only later on that it makes sense when the backstory is told. To do this once or twice is fine. But to do this repeatedly is annoying. When I encounter a scene like this, it discourages me from reading on because it does not make a lot of sense to me. Like why would Caleb just let Aleksander rape and even murder Katya if he is supposed to be a kick-ass good guy? That made me stop reading/listening for a while until I forgot my annoyance and picked the book up again. This slowed the reading pace of this book down despite the convenience of the audiobook format.

This is also my first Bradford Hastings audiobook and will be listening to him again.

The audiobook has a bonus novella at the end which is not in the ebook. It is the story of how Caleb started on his journey as a Preacher. I am just wondering if the authorities would put Tommy's death down as a gang rivalry or would they look for some other causes?

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 3
Ending = 3.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (14 hrs and 41 mins listening time)
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Preacher Series:

Meet The Author

About Nathan Burrows:

Nathan Burrows is a writer based in Norfolk in the east of the United Kingdom.

Primarily a thriller writer, he enjoys writing character based books where the people in them are the most important things. His latest series is The Preacher series featuring a unique hero (or is he an anti-hero?) called Caleb who wanders the world — dressed in a robe.

Nathan has worked in some pretty interesting places over the past twenty-five years including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, and Eastern Europe and is still proud to serve. His travels and adventures have helped with writing many of his books, such as the British Military Thriller series, but you’ll have to work out what’s fact and what’s fiction for yourself!

Writing as N.D. Burrows, he's also the author of a dark comedy trilogy. The first in the series is 'The Butcher', a deliciously funny story about — amongst other things — sausages. The second in the series is 'The Baker', which features Norfolk's most useless cult. And finally, 'The Candlestick Maker' is about a fitness instructor with a difference.

Nathan's a keen reader as well as a writer. He occasionally runs marathons, has a Norwich City football club season ticket, and is the proud part-owner of a Daschund puppy called Bertie.

The Narrator

About Bradford Hastings:

Multi-award-winning audiobook narrator/voice-over artist with more than 20 years of experience in the industry.

With a mother who is a professional public speaker, and a storytelling father, it would be difficult for Bradford not to inherit the storytelling gene. Growing up on the imagination and stories of his father, every night it was a different amazing story before bed, or on long car trips his father would weave improvised tales of monsters, and mysteries while Bradford and his two brothers would be swimming in rapt attention in the back seat. His mother was the grounding force, the confidence, ever searching for authenticity in how to tell the story, how to convey emotion, and always having a reason to speak.