Familiar but Undeniably Original

Michael Ridpath's contribution to the 'Group Fifteen Files' series of wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am one-off adventures fits the mold but is satisfyingly atypical. In this one, the protagonist (ex-SAS trooper Björn Thorsson) has to match wits with a murderous American financier, a French assassin, and British off-the-books spies [ie. "The Firm": including Group 3 (Intelligence) and Group 15 (Ops)]. Ridpath skillfully weaves a sinuous plot and provides believable characters with relatable motivations. The story includes the tech/tactics descriptions and action that Mark Dawson fans expect, but is sufficiently different from the 'John Milton' novels to be invigorating.

David Thorpe once again turns in a commendable performance (Audible Studios Inc. did well to hire him to read Dawson's novels). Thorpe understands the plots, settings, and characters intuituvely.. and reads with spot-on timbre, cadence, and tone. His narration isn't flawless, mind you: his voice-acting is hit & miss (brilliant American accents, but fairly weak Russian & Icelandic ones, for example) and his reading rate is too slow (I recommend playback at 1.15X to make up for this deficiency).
Altogether, however, I am impressed with Mr. Thorpe.

With creditable writing, an above-average narrator, and great production values.. 'Little Sister' merits 9 stars out of 10. Because of the short format, it was appropriately offered for free as part of the 'Plus' initiative, but if they ask you for money, it's worth it. The story suffers from the typical deficiencies of this genre - superficial reasoning and the requirement that you suspend disbelief - but fans of Mark Dawson (or really any Action-Thriller reader) will enjoy this offering.

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