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Whisper of Death
Paul Morgan, a washed-up novelist, is wasting his life away in Zanzibar. But his luck changes when he meets Angelika, a young orphan girl, and her guardian, a retired British spy … Sandollar, the ex-spy, tells Morgan the story of his deadly World War Two spy career, complete with Nazi gold and assassinations. He then sets Morgan off on the trail of the psychopathic British spymaster who betrayed him. On his quest, Morgan finds himself trapped in a dangerous web of deceit and murder, and finally uncovers the terrible secret the British spy establishment is desperate to keep. Whisper of Death is an action-packed spy and adventure tale that sweeps from Zanzibar to the Tanzanian wilderness, from London to deepest Africa.
475 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 30, 2024
Title: Whisper of Death
Author: David Lambkin
With thanks to publisher: Penguin Random House
Whew - Whisper of Death by David Lambkin is hardly a whisper, more a shout, as this rollercoaster, action packed thriller sweeps from the late 1930 war years to the early 2000s. There’s a Bond like feel to this novel which has all the ingredients of adventure, lust, spies, exotic locations, shoot outs and a layer of interlocked stories that the reader can get hooked on. I learnt a lot about Zanzibar, East Africa and Tanzania (on my bucket list) as well as conservation, the horror of hunting and how to load a gun – oh and some of the specific gun types. Lambkin packs an awful lot of information into this novel so it does require a g degree of concentration as the story unfolds.
2002 and we meet author Paul Morgan. Washed up, aimless, he has been sailing the Zanzibari coast researching an article for an international magazine. Landing on a small private island as a treat after three months on a boat, fact is – he is lonely, rather wasting his life, drifting, pretty much longing for a past (and a love) that is long gone. But a summons from Miss Mary, enigmatic owner of the island and its exclusive hotel is about to change his life and take him on a quest that has all the trappings of a modern-day crusade.
Meeting the robust 80+ Amedeo Sandollar - the name is a story, let alone the fact he was a British spy at 18. Did I mention Bond? No surprise when Ian Fleming is introduced into the story as Sandollar’s handler during the war (martinis and all). His ward, 12 year old Angelika, is mature beyond her years; her conversation rather too adult. She of the nut brown body, African warrior scars, white hair and searching gaze. She who has nurtured lion cubs, about to be returned to the wild and that inherent danger that sets the story rolling.
As the story develops we go back to Sandollar’s past - betrayal, torture, lust and love: and the link to the present – the massacre that took Angelika’s parents. There is revenge at play here and Lambkin creates a relentless adventure. African and Greek myth vie with a mystique that haunts the African plains; poetic yet dangerous, colonialism and colour clash, and a list of baddies about to get their comeuppance. And then there were more…
Underlying all of this are the daily conservation challenges on our lands, the ruthless hunters and the greed that drives them. Locations are so much the meat of this story and the author is so obviously an adventurer himself - loving the wild and the animals that inhabit them. Lambkin is a passionate storyteller but my personal taste would have been less is more. I ended up skipping a lot to get to the meat. It felt a bit like a movie, scene after scene after scene and my feeling was this was written more with a male audience in mind. However, I did appreciate his writing, research and powers of description.
Author: David Lambkin
With thanks to publisher: Penguin Random House
Whew - Whisper of Death by David Lambkin is hardly a whisper, more a shout, as this rollercoaster, action packed thriller sweeps from the late 1930 war years to the early 2000s. There’s a Bond like feel to this novel which has all the ingredients of adventure, lust, spies, exotic locations, shoot outs and a layer of interlocked stories that the reader can get hooked on. I learnt a lot about Zanzibar, East Africa and Tanzania (on my bucket list) as well as conservation, the horror of hunting and how to load a gun – oh and some of the specific gun types. Lambkin packs an awful lot of information into this novel so it does require a g degree of concentration as the story unfolds.
2002 and we meet author Paul Morgan. Washed up, aimless, he has been sailing the Zanzibari coast researching an article for an international magazine. Landing on a small private island as a treat after three months on a boat, fact is – he is lonely, rather wasting his life, drifting, pretty much longing for a past (and a love) that is long gone. But a summons from Miss Mary, enigmatic owner of the island and its exclusive hotel is about to change his life and take him on a quest that has all the trappings of a modern-day crusade.
Meeting the robust 80+ Amedeo Sandollar - the name is a story, let alone the fact he was a British spy at 18. Did I mention Bond? No surprise when Ian Fleming is introduced into the story as Sandollar’s handler during the war (martinis and all). His ward, 12 year old Angelika, is mature beyond her years; her conversation rather too adult. She of the nut brown body, African warrior scars, white hair and searching gaze. She who has nurtured lion cubs, about to be returned to the wild and that inherent danger that sets the story rolling.
As the story develops we go back to Sandollar’s past - betrayal, torture, lust and love: and the link to the present – the massacre that took Angelika’s parents. There is revenge at play here and Lambkin creates a relentless adventure. African and Greek myth vie with a mystique that haunts the African plains; poetic yet dangerous, colonialism and colour clash, and a list of baddies about to get their comeuppance. And then there were more…
Underlying all of this are the daily conservation challenges on our lands, the ruthless hunters and the greed that drives them. Locations are so much the meat of this story and the author is so obviously an adventurer himself - loving the wild and the animals that inhabit them. Lambkin is a passionate storyteller but my personal taste would have been less is more. I ended up skipping a lot to get to the meat. It felt a bit like a movie, scene after scene after scene and my feeling was this was written more with a male audience in mind. However, I did appreciate his writing, research and powers of description.
August 13, 2025
This cracker of an adventure novel ticks all the boxes for me. Think James Bond on a working holiday: the action moves from Zanzibar to the Tanzanian wilderness, to London, and back to Africa. Whisper of Death is thrilling and flamboyant, full of escapist locations, lavish lunches, cocktails, eye-watering violence, sex, humour and spycraft ... and the writing is so damn good. You’ll come out the end both shaken and stirred, having traversed almost a century of intrigue while acquiring useful titbits like which binoculars brand works best when you’re carrying out an assassination. Brilliant. Five-star escapism!
April 8, 2026
I loved this book - having read Night Jasmine Man recently - it was like saying hello to an old friend - as I live in Southern Africa it was all so familiar.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews