Dead of Winter

Charlie Cooper Thriller, Book 4

By: Mark Dawson

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Charlie Cooper is sent to Prague to investigate—and eliminate—the leader of a group of far right hooligans guilty of the murder of an Interpol agent. Cooper is on his final warning and is expected to get in and out with minimal fuss, leaving just the body of his target in his wake.

But then Cooper meets a young man who has fallen under the spell of the group's charismatic leader . . . will he be able to ignore his conscience and follow his orders, or will he complicate matters by trying to get the young man to safety first?

©2024 Mark Dawson (P)2024 Production Copyright WF Howes, Limited

Another great entry to the Cooper series

4.25 Stars ⭐️

This was a short story in the fairly new Charlie Cooper series. Charlie is given an assignment that was supposed to be relatively easy - he is to assassinate the leader of a neo-nazi type group.

In the course of doing his investigation into the group, he ends up befriending a young man who is part of the group, but who seems as if he really, really wants a way out. Charlie uses him to get critical information to help with his intended job, but things get complicated when Interpol gets involved and when Charlie begins to feel a bit protective of the young kid. Unfortunately, there are consequences to that.

As always, Mr. Dawson creates a wonderful and interesting storyline which held my interest the entire way through. I listened to most of this on audio and David Thorpe did his usual great job with the narration.

Mark Dawson inexplicably goes political

One would expect that Mark Dawson would be the last author to fan the flames of political diatribe - in this case a plot about a ultra-right, fascist-type, bad guys ring, albeit at least this one is outside the U.S., unlike where other authors like David Baldacci have recently headed - i.e. inside the U.S. So we can at least give Mark Dawson credit for that. But most of us have had enough of hearing about the extremists on either the right or the left. Problem is, if you pick one to point out as the bad guys, one assumes you're on the other side. I tend to doubt Mark can be characterized as such, but this, especially in the current climate, was an unwise choice of plot. Other than that, may Mark Dawson press on with John Milton and Charlie Cooper, although with Charlie, isn't it time to go to full length books?. Bringing back Isabella Rose would also be a good idea. Other than that, David Thorpe, as the narrator, continues to rank as the best among the best.