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Flawless  By  cover art

Flawless

By: Joshua Spanogle
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's summary

With his explosive debut thriller, Isolation Ward, medical insider Joshua Spanogle earned wide acclaim. Now Spanogle takes us into the dark heart of medicine to tell a terrifying story of a billion-dollar medical breakthrough - and the side effects it unleashes....

A former medical detective for the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Nate McCormick had seen enough suffering to last a lifetime. Now he’s left the CDC, determined to begin a new life with his girlfriend in San Francisco - until the vicious murder of an old friend hurtles him back into the world he left behind. While police hunt for a killer, Nate starts sifting through evidence, convinced that the dead man’s research at a high-tech lab has gotten him killed - and has harmed dozens of innocent women.

With only a handful of clues, Nate soon uncovers a hidden link between his friend’s employer and a dangerous cosmetic drug. But suddenly the stakes are raised. The woman he loves has been thrust into the line of fire, and Nate is running out of time. As more women surface with agonizing stories to tell, Nate makes the most startling discovery of all: a secret alliance between crime, science, and a billion-dollar industry - where some people have already paid the ultimate price for beauty.

Taut, thrilling, and relentless, Flawless takes us on a terrifying, adrenaline-charged journey.

©2007 Joshua Spanogle (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"For page-turning fun, this gory medical thriller has all the elements." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Flawless

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Credits

Good book, but not quite as good as his earlier one, Isolation Ward. Would be worth listening to except for the 2 Credit charge, which I didn't see until after purchase.
His books are good, but certainly not worth more than a Baldachi or DeMille. Just my opinion.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Call it Flawful

I gave this 2 stars for Scott Brick's excellent performance. I took one back because he read it. I will keep this short because I wasted enough life energy finishing this awful mess. Stock wooden characters. Plot contrivances more outlandish than a cartoon.Idiotic self-flagellation. Save your time. Save your money. This review, I promise, is more entertaining than the book.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Better than Isolation Ward!

I loved Isolation Ward, and found Spanogle's writing style addictive, so I used my next credit on Flawless.
I was happy to see that Scott Brick narrated this as well. He always does a great job.
Like Isolation Ward, "Flawless" blends medical thriller, detective, and police procedural. There are even some horror elements.
Not too farfetched either... this sort of story, poisonous injections of an experimental cosmetic surgery procedure, and the cover-up that follows, is actually believable on some level. This is what makes the story evoke so visceral a reaction.
The pace of the story is nice and fast, the way I like it, and the characters are well-developed, especially Dr. Nate McCormick.
There is quite a bit of gore and violence, so this book is not for the faint of heart. But this is what makes the story so gritty.
I loved this book and look forward to the author's next novel.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

16+ hours with Scott Brick narrating - boy, was I excited when this one came out! However, plot turned out to be quite predictable yet painfully drawn out, the main characters were flat when not outright unpleasant and graphic violence thrown in transparent last-ditch attempt to engage the listener. Oh well. I did quite like Spanogle's previous book in the series - Isolation Ward - but this one was a let down.

Oh - and what is with having to pay 2 credits for this one?

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable Scott Brick performance

Wow, so many one star reviews. I suspect you either sit back and enjoy the ride or you hate the book. After a slow start I enjoyed the narration so much that it didn't matter a whit if I could guess where the story would head next, and there were plenty of twists I didn't see. I especially enjoyed every second this protagonist matched wits with an eight year old boy. I will definitely seek more from this author.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not good

Flawless is one of the most "graphic" books I have every listened to. It just seemed to go on and on. Even having Scott Brick as the narrator does not save this one. If I could give it a 1/2 star I would.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not a good

Not nearly so good as Spanogle's first book. I saw through the basic plot very quickly. The narrator read the entire book in CAPITAL LETTERS, making Nate seem like he had absolutely no humanity and was a self-serving jerk. I definitely will listen to a sample before I purchase a book from a narrator I don't know. I definitely will not listen books narrated by Scott Brick. He even read the end credits with too much emphasis on each word.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not Worth the Time

"Flawless" has decent possibilities, but the execution is abysmal. The length of the novel is excessive, and the plot has more eye-rolling twists and turns than a sigmoidoscopy, the latter being less painful.

The prose is amateurish and repetitive, the humor sophomoric, and the voice inappropriate. By the end of the book, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters.

Worse, the reader makes the protagonist sound smarmy and profane by slowing down the reading his "witty" comments. The result was Snidely Whiplash without the refinement.

In short, the book could be improved by killing all the characters and editing it down to two hours before submitting it to the author's high school English teacher.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

please

tedious. lesson on not using guns to protect yourself. lesson on need for free universal healthcare. lesson on liberals heros vanquishing evil. i am now converted from the dark side. scott brick is wasting his talent on this book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Really bad.

Please don't waste your money. This may be the worst book I've ever listened to. The plot line was bad and the narration even worse.
None of the characters is remotely likeable.
Since buying this book I've promised myself that I'll always read the reviews and read what folks say about the narrator before wasting my credits because even if the story had been tolerable the narration would have ruined it.

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2 people found this helpful