Listen free for 30 days
-
Soft Target
- Soft Target, Book 1
- Narrated by: Ellery Truesdell
- Series: Soft Target, Book 1
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £24.19
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Soft Target II: Tank
- Soft Target, Book 2
- By: Conrad Jones
- Narrated by: Ellery Truesdell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conrad Jones has done it again with his Alec Ramsay books. Crime thriller writing that will have you chewing your fingers as you listen!
-
The Child Taker
- Detective Alec Ramsay Series, Book 1
- By: Conrad Jones
- Narrated by: Julia Farhat
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A stand-alone novel based on high-profile child abductions, which have been followed by millions of concerned parents on the news. Five-year-old twins are abducted from a tent in the Lake District and the hunt for a dangerous paedophile ring begins. Police procedure follows the premise that 60% of abducted children are murdered within the first four hours of being taken. The first hour is called "The golden hour" and the longer a child is missing, the less chance there is of them being recovered unharmed.
-
-
Dreadful narration.
- By A. Palmer on 25-08-14
-
Northwind
- Robert Hoon Thrillers, Book 1
- By: JD Kirk
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Former soldier. Ex-copper. Current man on the edge. Shunned by his old colleagues, and dividing his time between a dead-end job and the bottom of a whisky bottle, former Police Scotland detective superintendent Bob Hoon’s life is a mess. Then an old face from Hoon’s Special Forces days turns up asking for help: His teenage daughter has been missing for months, the police have drawn a blank, and he needs the kind of help that only Hoon can provide. And besides, Hoon owes him one.
-
-
Hoon is a hoot! I'm no kidding
- By Darkangel on 19-10-21
-
Brick
- By: Conrad Jones
- Narrated by: Diana Croft
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a teenager is the victim of an unprovoked attack while walking his dog, a murder investigation begins. A cruel twist of fate makes his innocent family the targets of a vicious campaign of terror. As the detectives of Liverpool's Major Investigation Team try to contain the violence, several key members of an organized crime family begin to topple, causing shockwaves across the planet.
-
-
Brick
- By mani on 15-04-18
-
Silent Tide
- DCI Boyd Crime Series, Book 1
- By: Alex Scarrow
- Narrated by: Aubrey Parsons
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sinking boat is spotted off the South Coast. Waiting onboard is a grisly discovery. DCI Boyd, recently relocated from London to Hastings, is now with the East Sussex CID, and his first case is that of a local businessman and his new young wife, missing in the English Channel. All that remains of them is a grim scene aboard their half-submerged yacht and a digital trail of clues that could put Boyd and his daughter, Emma, in danger.
-
-
Brilliant start to a series
- By SandraL on 06-06-22
-
The Contract Man
- Alex King, Book 1
- By: A P Bateman
- Narrated by: Joe Mills
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an MI6 agent is found to be keeping records of his missions to protect himself from betrayal he unwittingly makes himself a priority target. But how do you silence the most dangerous man imaginable? Send him into hell on earth. While Alex King is sent into Northern Iraq to tidy the loose ends of a botched mission, the archipelago of Indonesia is under communist threat from within its own military. A consortium of worried businessmen call for desperate measures and seek the services of an assassin.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Mr on 10-09-20
-
Soft Target II: Tank
- Soft Target, Book 2
- By: Conrad Jones
- Narrated by: Ellery Truesdell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conrad Jones has done it again with his Alec Ramsay books. Crime thriller writing that will have you chewing your fingers as you listen!
-
The Child Taker
- Detective Alec Ramsay Series, Book 1
- By: Conrad Jones
- Narrated by: Julia Farhat
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A stand-alone novel based on high-profile child abductions, which have been followed by millions of concerned parents on the news. Five-year-old twins are abducted from a tent in the Lake District and the hunt for a dangerous paedophile ring begins. Police procedure follows the premise that 60% of abducted children are murdered within the first four hours of being taken. The first hour is called "The golden hour" and the longer a child is missing, the less chance there is of them being recovered unharmed.
-
-
Dreadful narration.
- By A. Palmer on 25-08-14
-
Northwind
- Robert Hoon Thrillers, Book 1
- By: JD Kirk
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Former soldier. Ex-copper. Current man on the edge. Shunned by his old colleagues, and dividing his time between a dead-end job and the bottom of a whisky bottle, former Police Scotland detective superintendent Bob Hoon’s life is a mess. Then an old face from Hoon’s Special Forces days turns up asking for help: His teenage daughter has been missing for months, the police have drawn a blank, and he needs the kind of help that only Hoon can provide. And besides, Hoon owes him one.
-
-
Hoon is a hoot! I'm no kidding
- By Darkangel on 19-10-21
-
Brick
- By: Conrad Jones
- Narrated by: Diana Croft
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a teenager is the victim of an unprovoked attack while walking his dog, a murder investigation begins. A cruel twist of fate makes his innocent family the targets of a vicious campaign of terror. As the detectives of Liverpool's Major Investigation Team try to contain the violence, several key members of an organized crime family begin to topple, causing shockwaves across the planet.
-
-
Brick
- By mani on 15-04-18
-
Silent Tide
- DCI Boyd Crime Series, Book 1
- By: Alex Scarrow
- Narrated by: Aubrey Parsons
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sinking boat is spotted off the South Coast. Waiting onboard is a grisly discovery. DCI Boyd, recently relocated from London to Hastings, is now with the East Sussex CID, and his first case is that of a local businessman and his new young wife, missing in the English Channel. All that remains of them is a grim scene aboard their half-submerged yacht and a digital trail of clues that could put Boyd and his daughter, Emma, in danger.
-
-
Brilliant start to a series
- By SandraL on 06-06-22
-
The Contract Man
- Alex King, Book 1
- By: A P Bateman
- Narrated by: Joe Mills
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an MI6 agent is found to be keeping records of his missions to protect himself from betrayal he unwittingly makes himself a priority target. But how do you silence the most dangerous man imaginable? Send him into hell on earth. While Alex King is sent into Northern Iraq to tidy the loose ends of a botched mission, the archipelago of Indonesia is under communist threat from within its own military. A consortium of worried businessmen call for desperate measures and seek the services of an assassin.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Mr on 10-09-20
-
Under Dog
- Carter Brothers, Book 1
- By: Kerry Kaya
- Narrated by: Annie Aldington
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 19-year-old Tommy Carter throws away a promising career as a professional boxer to work for local villain Davey Abbott, everyone thinks he’s made a huge mistake - collecting debts and working in strip clubs is no life for a young lad. A brutal fighter, Tommy quickly earns a reputation for himself and becomes Davey’s trusted right-hand man. But when Davey is murdered Tommy is shocked to learn that Davey has left his business empire to him - Tommy’s the boss now. No one believes Tommy will succeed. But there is only one rule Tommy lives by...always back the underdog.
-
-
paper gangsters
- By dave on 16-06-22
-
A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller
- DCI Logan Crime Thrillers, Book 1
- By: JD Kirk
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was the biggest case of his career the worst mistake he ever made? Ten years ago, DCI Jack Logan stopped the serial child-killer dubbed "Mister Whisper", earning himself a commendation, a drinking problem, and a broken marriage in the process...When another child disappears a hundred miles north in the Highlands, Jack is sent to lead the investigation and bring the boy home. But as similarities between the two cases grow, could it be that Jack caught the wrong man all those years ago?
-
-
Brilliant unless you're a lover of cats!
- By Mrs D J Fraser on 13-08-19
-
Takeover
- The Allegiance Series, Book 1
- By: Edie Baylis
- Narrated by: Annie Aldington
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daddy’s girl Samantha Reynold hadn’t bargained on unexpectedly needing to step into her father’s shoes and take over the family casino business. Pampered and spoiled, Sam knows nothing about the rules of this glamorous but deadly new world. She has a lot to learn and even more to prove. But she won’t let her family down, especially when it looks like they could lose everything to their biggest rivals - the Stoker family.
-
-
Not impressed!
- By jaime goldsmith on 26-03-22
-
Broadland
- British Detective Tanner Murder Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: David Blake
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a girl’s body is found strangled, raped, and horrifically mutilated by a boat’s propeller, deep in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, newly arrived Detective Inspector John Tanner is asked to assist with the investigation. At first, all the evidence points to a man who had a multi-million-pound reason to kill her. But when an alibi is produced from an unexpected source, and another body appears at the base of a slipway, Tanner finds himself turning to local girl Detective Constable Jenny Evans for help.
-
-
Broadland
- By Daisy on 13-09-19
-
Blackout
- By: Tom Barber
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young counterterrorist cop Sam Archer arrives for work at the Armed Response Unit expecting a quiet day. But unbeknownst to him, a storm is coming. Three men have already been killed that morning. One committed suicide by the River Thames. Another was strangled in his car in Washington, DC. And the third was shot in the face in his high-rise New York apartment as he slept. The deaths seem random, thousands of miles apart. But they are all connected - by a shocking event 15 years ago.
-
-
Gripping storyline brilliantly Read.
- By Keith Williams on 10-01-20
-
Cold Barrel Zero
- By: Matthew Quirk
- Narrated by: Peter Coleman
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A code hidden in plain sight. An American black Ops team that went too far. John Hayes, a disgraced elite soldier, returns from exile and risks everything to get back to his wife and daughter and to take revenge on his accusers with a series of escalating attacks inside the United States. Thomas Byrne is the only man who can stop him. Byrne once fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic, but he gave up the gun.
-
Pen 33
- By: Anders Roslund, Börge Hellström
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bernt Lund harbours a sickness. He is a monster: in the mind of society, in the mind of his nine-year-old victims' parents, and in the mind of his fellow inmates. Lennart Oscarsson has a situation. The worst scenario imaginable for the head of Aspsås prison's department for sexual crimes. These two men's actions are about to hand DCI Ewert Grens the most profoundly sickening and impossibly sensitive case of his career, and in Stockholm's history.
-
-
Terrible narration
- By Lee on 12-01-20
-
Tom Revilo
- By: D C Stansfield
- Narrated by: Mark Revel
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the freedom fighters it was an incredible opportunity to strike deep into the core of the United Kingdom. No longer need they rely on soft targets, murdering ordinary men and women, to build fear and terror. Now they could attack at the heart of the British Government, killing Members of Parliament one by one until their demands were met. The planning had been extensive and years in the making. The highly trained team was already in England and a traitor, high up in the British Secret Service, was providing them with all the information they could possibly need. They could not fail.
-
-
Engaging from start to finish
- By Gareth Dedman on 22-03-18
-
A Wicked Profit
- By: D C Stansfield
- Narrated by: Danny Elliott
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I need to speak with The Grey Man," said Gregov and watched the effect it had on the elegant man in front of him." "I don't know who you are talking about," he blustered. "The man who runs your bloody secret service and has done since before my time. I have something he will want." "You are bluffing," said Sir Evelyn but did not call his dogs forward. "What do you have?" Gregov took a deep breath, "London is going to be destroyed by a weapon of mass destruction." "How do you know?" "Because," said Gregov. "I sold the weapon."
-
The Silent Man
- The Harvey Stone Crime Thriller Series, Book 1
- By: J.D. Weston
- Narrated by: Greg Patmore
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To find the killer, he must lose his mind...When a missing teenager is found on her parents’ doorstep, Jennifer Standing becomes the only survivor in an ongoing serial killer investigation led by Detective Inspector Matthew Myers. The case has nearly broken him. The faces of the victims haunt his every waking moment, and now, at last, he has the suspect in custody. However, when another man’s body is found with Jennifer’s DNA on his skin, and the suspect refuses to talk, Myers is forced to let him walk free - a move that will push him to the very edge of sanity.
-
-
superb detective story
- By johnathan goodall on 29-03-21
-
Takedown
- By: Stephen Leather
- Narrated by: Paul Thornley
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a British Special Forces soldier goes rogue, carrying out an attack at a US Army base in Syria leading to the death of two men, ex-MI5 controller Charlotte Button is hired to work out what his plan is and to take him down before he can carry it out. When the man returns to the UK, it looks like the threat will be a lot closer to home. Charlotte puts her best man on the case - hitman Lex Harper.
-
-
Emerging From Shepherd's Flock
- By Simon on 02-02-17
-
Hit and Run
- The DI Stella Cole Thrillers, Book 1
- By: Andy Maslen
- Narrated by: Helen E. Moore
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Inspector Stella Cole was a rising star in London’s Metropolitan Police. Then a hit-and-run driver killed her husband, Richard, a human rights lawyer. Grief drove her to booze and pills. Back at work after a year’s compassionate leave, Stella secretly re-investigates his death and begins to suspect a cover-up. Freelance journalist Vicky Riley was working with Richard to expose corruption buried deep inside the legal system. Unaware that powerful people are out to stop her, she contacts Stella.
-
-
Audible
- By christine williams on 12-10-18
Summary
Conrad Jones has done it again with his Alec Ramsay books - crime thriller writing that will have you chewing your fingers as you listen!
Soft Target is the first book in a series of thrillers that follow the hunt for a nefarious killer. The book begins in famous US tourist destinations where suicide bombers cause carnage before attacking the United Kingdom.
What listeners say about Soft Target
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Leon
- 25-07-17
awful narration
A good story ruined by terrible narration. The narrator couldn't do any of the accents.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jane Shepherd
- 06-08-16
Terrible narrator
I nearly gave up on this audiobook after just a few chapters as I couldn't stand the narration. As I was interested in the story I decided to change speed to 1.5 and put up with the grating voice, awful accents and mispronunciation but I wish they'd employed a British narrator or an American who was good at accents and understood British English or who just read the book without bothering with accents as that would have been easier to stomach than the preposterous attempt this narrator made at English regional and Irish accents. I'm afraid it detracted so much from the story that at the end of it I wasn't really sure how good the novel really was. If the same reader is used for the rest of Conrad Jones's novels I'm going to have to decline to continue with the series. Not an enjoyable experience.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KelA
- 04-04-15
Amazing story
If you could sum up Soft Target in three words, what would they be?
Gritty, brilliant, entertaining
Have you listened to any of Ellery Truesdell’s other performances? How does this one compare?
No I haven't. I have to admit I didn't really like Ellery's performance. His attempt at accents wasn't brilliant to say the least.
Any additional comments?
If you haven't yet discovered Conrad Jones, what are you waiting for?!!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-05-22
Awful narration
The story is spoilt by the dreadful accents of the narrator. It was difficult to concentrate on the story as I was fascinated by the dreadful English, Irish, Liverpudlian and Middle Eastern accents which was a shame.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 29-01-21
Could not listen to it.
I did not manage to listen to one chapter as the narration was too slow and boring. The accent was atrocious, why on earth use an American to read an English book. Just no right. I am so disappointed because I brought all five in the series as I have previously read them and found each book excellent. But there is no way I can listen to them. Waste of money.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- G. Jones
- 18-08-20
If Wayne Rooney read Tom Clancy audiobooks
I had to finish this audiobook despite it making Dan Brown sound like Dostoevsky. I can only imagine that the actor set to read this novel didn't turn up and, in a fit of panic, they got the studio caretaker to sit in for him.
Comedian Tony Law has a great joke....Books are good aren't they? But not if the acting in your head is s%@t !
Audiobooks are good aren't they? But not if the person chosen to read them is unable to pronounce words is his own voice - let alone attempting others.
If I had endless time to kill I'd go back and sift through this book for the words "tourist" and "terrorist" it would make an interesting quiz to see if people could make out which word the reader was actually saying.
One might think that a book set in Liverpool might have someone with a little local knowledge read it.
Instead what we get is something akin to an old man in his shed doing the voices for the Action Man toys he's playing with, if he thought they all should sound like a combination of characters from Scooby Doo and John Wayne tribute acts with a speech impediment.
I've grown up in Liverpool and regularly went on holiday to Anglesea (or Angler sea as our narrator says - we won't even go into his attempts at Trearddur Bay or Penmaenmawr) and my great grandmother lived on Holyhead (holey head as Ellery says) so the settings of the book were of real interest to me. As was the story, a terrorist plot set in Liverpool and North Wales.
This book made me laugh out loud for all the wrong reasons. Mainly when the author had read out a passage of speech and the author (in order to colour the scene) says what accent they've just spoken in. Ellery's Liverpool Chinese, Liverpool Asian, Oxbridge, North Wales and Belfast accents would leave accent connoisseurs bemused and wondering which planet they were from let alone which UK region.
Were it just the accents it would probably be OK but the ability to read and pronounce words is so important and Ellery seems incapable. Whoever directed this audiobook needs a good talking to. The word "quarry" is pronounced "kwore ree" for compost we get "com post (as in mail)" and as mentioned the "terrorist verses tourist competition" is hilarious.
So bad was the performance that I couldn't tell if the author was actually any good. One friend asked if it was read by a computer. Alexa might have done a better job and would, at least, know how to pronounce Warrington!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Doe
- 28-09-19
The accent just didn't do it
Great story but the various English accents and town names were way off the mark. The narrator would have been better keeping to his American accent and letting the listener use their imagination
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Kelly
- 15-07-18
Terrible narration
Not enjoying this series at all. Stay away the attempt at accents is just dire.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Pam Marchetti
- 03-07-15
Narrated by a computer?
I couldn't get through the book because of the narration. I couldn't focus on what was being said.