Marine One

By: James W. Huston

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

After the presidents' helicopter, Marine One, goes down in a brutal thunderstorm, the government blames the European manufacturer of the helicopter, accusing them of killing the president.

Senate investigations and Justice Department accusations multiply as Mike Nolan, a Marine Corps reserve helicopter pilot and trial attorney in civilian life, is hired to defend the company from the criminal investigations and a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the most notorious lawyer in America on behalf of the First Lady.

Nolan knows that to win his case, he has to find out what really caused Marine One to crash and why the president threw caution aside to go to a meeting no one seems to know about.

©2009 James W. Huston (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Nonstop legal suspense at its best."( Publishers Weekly)

Excellent book

I started not to get this book based on the description from publisher, it did not seem to be something I would enjoy. I love legal thrillers and got it anyway. It was the best decision I have made regarding audio books. The twists and turns will keep you wondering what will happen next. Get the book and sit back and enjoy.

Entertaining!

Great plot, character development and story. The narration was fabulous and though the final result was hinted at the twists and turns kept you guessing.

The Few Brave

Very interesting scenario, tho it seems incomplete. The 1st Lady and Mrs. Collins parts were slight of hand, meant only to distract, as page filler with no intent to reveal anything at all. Effective but as a Marine maintenance type I was totally engrossed in that aspect of the story. Placing all responsibility of wrongdoing and subterfuge at the feet of politicians and the desire for power, influence and money was deftly done. I am impressed.

Awesome!

Fantastic story. Intriguing, interesting and suspenseful. I highly recommend it. The narrator does an excellent job differentiating interesting characters.

15 Stars! Did NOT want it to end.

James Huston is now one of my favorite writers. His plotting’s tighter than a sausage casing. Every part of this puzzle involves volitional characters that fit into this intricate tale like Russian nesting dolls. I’m not sure which genre best pigeon-holes 'Marine One'. It is a legal thriller, yep. It’s a political thriller, uh-huh. It’s a science story, a murder(s) mystery, an international why-dunnit, a PI and even a military yarn. And they work together the way all the disparate stuff satisfies in a slice of lasagna.

I like it that Mike Nolan is not a super hero, but rather he’s people like us with a law degree. Yeah, there are suspense echoes of a David Mamet adaptation of Barry Reed’s great novel, ‘The Verdict’ with overtones of both Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy, all sautéd in a John Le Carré sauce. Like each of those masters, James Huston is a story teller.

Andrew Miller once wrote that “a novel is a collection of anxieties held together, more or less well, more or less interestingly, by the chicken wire of plot" And while the anxieties here are cranked up to 10, the characters are all seemingly possible people and Huston’s chicken wire’s spun from tungsten.

BTW, Joe Barrett once again manages to disappear replacing himself with an accessible ensemble of identifiable characters and an interpretation of their personalities that I’d never have envisioned if I’d read this thing from a book. Barrett reads better than I imagine.

‘Marine One’s’ an Audible Book at its best. It would make a great multi part successor to "House of Cards". Are you listening Net Flicks?

Questionable, but Good Courtroom Thriller

Four stars across the board, even though the story is a little bit of a stretch. Isn't that the case with most courtroom fiction? What I liked about the book was the courtroom drama and the legal wrangling between the major players. The back and forth tactical approach was a great listen.

What I didn't like so much was the rather one-dimensional characters. . . they just weren't that compelling. I didn't find myself rooting for the good guys, nor really disliking the bad guys and it didn't even bother me that a key character was killed. Had all the characters been a bit more developed, I might have cared more and it would have been the perfect court room drama.

As it was, this book is good but not great.

Great Start but Faded Fast

Engaging first few chapters but the story really got lost in a confusing path of angles and turns that never really came together.

The big build up to the ending fell flat when a new twist was added to close out the story.

Go elsewhere.

Legal aspects interesting

This book is another example of a title I picked up on sale and subsequently ending up really enjoying.

The legal aspects of the book are very enjoyable. The story is not plagued by boring legal details, rather it keeps procedural aspects of the law simple while adding in lots of witty legal banter.

The plot develops at a steady pace as it builds towards the anticipated big reveal ending.

I had trouble putting the book down as I was so engaged with where the story would go next.

Great book.

Great Action and Thrilling story!

The story begins with the crash of Marine one helicopter and killing the president. the court room drama to indict the French manufacturer of the helicopter with a high-power New York class attorney representing the first lady and the widow of the pilots and secret service also killed in the crash against the a
small DC litigation attorney representing the manufacturer. lots of twists and turns excellent narration and storyline and in this day and age even more conceivable and believable!

Masterful intrigue!

Excellent storyline and well performed novel that kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't stop listening!