AudioMysteries.Net

Title: The Lost Symbol
Author:  Dan Brown
Reader: Paul Michael
Audiobook 2009
Unabridged
Length: 17 hours

Ears: 1

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The wait was five years for the next in the Robert Langdon series that includes Angels & Demons and the incredibly successful The Da Vinci Code.

The wait is now over and it certainly wasn’t worth it.  To summarize – The Lost Symbol is an overwrought, action less, poorly constructed novel that never rises above the pedestrian, and often succumbs to contrivance.

The story starts out well enough with Langdon summoned to Washington D.C. on short notice to fill-in at a lecture as a favor to an old friend.  The one great scene is the action at the Capitol rotunda where a severed hand is discovered pointing upward.  This puts the plot in motion, or rather slow motion.

Again, like the two previous novels, the action is confined to a very short period of time – in this case possibly only a few hours.  Brown changes his style a bit with several long flash-backs that try to provide background and context for various characters, but too often just bog down the narrative.   Rather than focus on the Catholic Church as Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, this time we are immersed in the Brotherhood of the Free Masons.  I learned way too much about the history of the Masons, their beliefs and rituals.

Warning – minor plot spoilers ahead.  Sorry I have to mention them in order to point out how ridiculous the plot is.

One of the many problems of this novel is the author’s conceit that smart characters including a high-ranking CIA director would not simply explain to Langdon or others what is really going on.  When the term “national security crisis” is used to cover-up what turned out to be nothing more than some embarrassing videos, the reader is left hanging or laughing as was my reaction.  I had assumed there was at least a nuclear device involved somewhere.

And that’s the problem – the stakes were much higher in the other books: the selection of a Pope and the answer to one of the great questions of Christianity.  Instead we get endless blather about the “mysteries of the ancients.”   There was one good twist that I had not seen coming.  But the final chapters of the book that went on and on about the bible etc. were excruciating in their banality.   Even the symbol stuff – solving the puzzles isn’t very interesting.  The movie National Treasure was much more inventive using the Washington D.C. locale.

As a side note, the author seems a bit fixated on castration and shaved bodies of his villains. 

This long and tedious book might be of interest to some, it is well read by Paul Michael, but those of you who enjoyed The Da Vinci Code (and I was among them) will be disappointed.

Reviewed on 11/2/09 by Robert W. Karp

Title: Divine Justice
Author: David Baldacci
Reader: Ron McLarty
Audiobook 2009
Unabridged
Length: 11 hours

Ears: 3

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Bette Midler used to sing “you’ve got to have friends….” And that just about sums up David Baldacci’s fourth installment of the Camel Club series, Divine Justice.  Oliver Stone is on the run after the murderous conclusion of Stone Cold.  In order to protect the remaining members of the Camel Club he has left everything and everyone behind as he flees Washington DC.

In a Camel Club novel, much of the story is about Stone’s, whose real name is John Carr, past.  In this story we get much more of what went on before he became a triple six assassin.  Stone seems to have the ability to make enemies of people who ultimately reside in very high places.  In this case retired General Macklin Hayes, now a shadowy figure in the intelligence community has a grudge to settle.

Hayes is on Stone’s trail and has sent CIA agent Joe Knox to find Stone.  Find him, not bring him in because Hayes has other more lethal plans.

So far so good, Baldacci has provided a clean follow-up to Stone Cold, picking up almost immediately after that book ended.  I have my concerns about these “serial” novels becoming just an extended Bourne type of series, but the characters are entertaining and the action enjoyably easy-to-digest.  However as Stone goes off the beaten path to hide from his pursuers, the author goes straight into cliché territory.

Through the type of contrivance that just screams plot manipulation Stone lands in the town of Divine, somewhere in what I believe was western West Virginia.  As is the case in these sorts of stories, not all is what it seems in the small town of Divine.  Too many people have died in mysterious ways in recent years, and when Stone sees for the first time the maximum security prison called Deadrock looming over the town you know that Stone will see the inside sooner rather than later.

The story has two plots – Stone as the stranger getting involved in the intrigue of Divine, and Knox tracking down Stone.  As Knox threatens the remaining members of the Camel Club in order to find Stone, they now join the hunt for their friend to help him, even if he does not want their assistance.  I enjoyed that part of the story, how both Knox and the others slowly track down Stone.  The story involving Stone in Divine seems all too predictable, down to the widow running the diner, a sheriff that might not be what he seems, and a suicide that probably wasn’t.

There are some nice touches here including a villain whose actions are so horrific you can’t wait until he get’s what is coming to him.  I only wished he had gotten it in a way that was bit more satisfying.  But in the end you find out most of what you need to know about Stone and his friends come to his rescue in a clever and dramatic way.

This is not a very original work, nor is it very subtle.  However it is very entertaining.  Baldacci fans and fans of the Camel Club will be happy.  Those of you new to this author would be better served to start back at the beginning of the series, The Camel Club, or with Baldacci’s other current best-seller, First Family.

Ron McLarty continues to read this series with total control of the characters getting the rural southern dialect just right and giving each of the characters a distinct personality.

Reivewed on 9/22/09 by Robert W. Karp

Title: First Family
Author: David Baldacci
Reader: Ron McLarty
Audiobook 2009
Unabridged
Length: 14 hours

Ears: 4

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The kidnapping of the niece of the president turns into a horrific murder and much more in David Baldacc’s political thriller First Family. The First Lady calls on the services of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, ex-secret service agents, to help locate Willa her brother’s daughter. King has crossed paths with the president and his wife when he helped the then senator avoid a nasty sex scandal. Now King and Maxwell must figure out exactly why Willa was the target, what the kidnappers really want, and how to save the child from what seems to be a ruthless adversary.

Baldacci provides lots intricate detail as the plot unfolds. As he does in the Camel Club series, he deliberately keeps the reader in the dark, only giving us some of the necessary information. You can spend time guessing what is going on while he seems to meander through the background of various characters. In this case we get an awful lot about Sam Quarry and his life in Alabama. Yes most of it will connect, but we do get what I think is a bit too much atmosphere.

I do have a problem with this book; the author succumbs to what has become a common occurrence in these sorts of thrillers in recent years: too much story. Some of you might think that like the saying you can never be too rich or too thin, that there can never be too much plot. However, the “B” plot involving Maxwell’s mother’s death seems to be tacked on just to pad out an already lengthy story.

It’s hard to complain about getting more than your money’s worth, but it might be better to keep to a single plot to keep us more entranced.

The main story has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, even if you can, as I did, guess some of the key points. I enjoyed the book right up to the end, but alas was a bit disappointed about the ultimate outcome. It was a bit passive for me, with an epilog type of explanation of the results for all involved.

Ron McLarty reads with real style. He can voice both the male and female characters well. I think it’s difficult to do justice to a child character – the tendency is to make the voice a bit too cute. McLarty avoids that problem with his narration.

One last comment, in several places in the audio book we get sound effects. Not music, but bullets being fired, explosions, etc. Why do we need that? Baldacci continues to be in good form for this genre. This is great summer reading or listening.

Reviewed on 7/25/09 by Robert W. Karp

Title: The Overlook
Author:  Michael Connelly
Reader: Len Cariou
Audiobook 2008
Unabridged
Length: 7 hours

Ears: 4

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This short novel is based on a magazine story that the author decided to turn into a full-length novel.

Taking place after Echo Park and before The Brass Verdict, Harry Bosch is still feeling the repercussions of the less-than-optimal ending of the Echo Park case.

Now he is assigned what seems to be a random case of violence when a body is found on the side of Mulholland Drive far above Hollywood. The case quickly becomes something much more sinister with national security implications.  At the crime scene Bosch runs into FBI Agent Rachel Walling, now assigned to a terroist task force after her involvment in the Echo Park case.

Bosch and Walling quickly try to take control of the situation.  Niether trusts the other to cooperate based on previous bad-blood between the LAPD and FBI.  What ensues is an intricate plot that leads to the wife of the victim, the LAPD Chief of Police while Harry's new partner learns to adapt to the Bosch style of investigation.  The key to the case seems to be as Bosch has put it - "this case never leaves a single map page."

In my review of The Brass Verdict, I lamented that the reader didn't have Bosch's weary and angry tone down.  Len Cariou reads this selection, and as in the past, he gets if right!  This is Connelly and Bosch at their best. While the story is shorter than recent Connelly titles - it packs everything you expect.

4 Ears out of 5

Reviewed on 6/12/09 by Robert W. Karp