Martin

Eric Metaxas succeeds in bringing to life the overwhelmingly diabolical environment of Hitler's Germany, the unprepared and lax condition of the German Christian community, and the intensely public and pesonal stories of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, disciple of Christ.

To steal a phrase from C.S. Lewis, the pages (or in the case of this audiobook, the sections) of this book fairly rustle with the life contained therein. Metaxis accomplishes a grand slam: acedemic scholarship, literary quality, and masterful storytelling.

At the end of this book, I was compelled to say 'thank you' to a modern day saint and to grieve over the price paid by a father of the faith for the Kingdom of God.

Malcolm Hillgartner's narration of this book is superb.

I already have three of my friends hastily consuming this work so that we can share our common experience.

I have recommended this book to my best friend and toughest critic - my wife. That is a strong compliment to Author Daniel Silva and to Narrator George Guidall. My taste for modern day spy genre books is nearly insatiable. In contrast, my wife has little time and less patience for anything that is not concretely and usefully biographical or at least intellectually stimulating (which coincidentally makes me wonder what she sees in me or hopes to someday see in me after 42 years of marriage). This book (other than the ending) is masterfully composed and presented. The Gabriel Allon series lives on.

As is true of all the Allon series, Silva is very gifted in the portrayal of his characters' humanity. In Fallen Angel, this is epitomized in the tender hushed minimalism of Allon's moments with his institutionalized first wife. And in a professional collaboration which religiously avoids all too easy opportunism, Guidall portrays within the undertones of the encounter an almost unbearable tense agony of what could and should have been. As the listener and observer I deeply desired that the moment could have been held just a little longer so that I could touch that fleeting sunset just for a few breaths more. But in their wisdom, neither Silva nor Guidall's director allowed such license because life does not grant such things. We move on and attempt to cherish. Good books do things like that.Curtains are drawn in respect of the characters.

I wish the same could be said for the book's ending. Unfortunately, the author uses a few contrived plot twists to conveniently dispose of the antagonist. And the character is inadequately developed in the overall story anyway. But truly that is nitpicking an otherwise excellent book.

If this man had a septic cleanse of his brain

Absolutely never

Audible has GOT to do a better job with its 'about this book' information. In this book a seventeen year old girl is drugged and sodomized by multiple people - obviously much to the pleasure of the author. As a father of daughters and as a normal human being, I was overhwelmed with horror. Get with it Audible!!! Take some leadership in junk like this!!!! And that's just at the beginning of the book. I felt like I had dragged my imagination through a cesspool for the next two weeks.

Once in awhile, I desire to stretch my audiobook listening habits in hopes of being pleasantly surprised by the quality of a novelist whom I haven't heretofore read, the freshness of a different genre, and the wonderful intangible of connecting with another time or place or view of reality. This book neither disappointed or thrilled me. I felt I met Ms. Christie at her very average. This book had the feel that it was written to meet some kind of quota or deadline faced by the author. Nevertheless, it is a likable. Inspector Poirot is, well, everything that you would expect him to be and nothing more -- or less. The villain is, of course, a surprise (or it wouldn't be an Agatha Christie novel). Hugh Fraser's narrative performance is very good. But for him, very good is average. Glad I read it, but wouldn't have missed anything if I hadn't.