Mission Flats

By: William Landay

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Former DA and rookie writer William Landay delivers a white-hot thriller. When a Boston DA is found brutally murdered in a lakeside cabin in rural Maine, local Police Chief Ben Truman is forced to head down to Boston to follow the few fragile leads he has in the case. From a retired Boston cop, he learns the ropes of big-city policing, and finds that it is a more corrupt and cynical endeavor than the job he's been doing back in Versailles, Maine. The search for the murderer will lead Ben to the highest echelons of the Boston Police Department, where the ghosts of past crimes haunt the present case, and Ben finds himself defending his own innocence while trying to uncover the truth about the murder.

©2003 William Landay (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Tough but true: a first-time novelist has to bring something new to the table - something like the trumps that William Landay throws down in his high-stakes police procedural, Mission Flats.... Landay writes with eloquent intensity...about the no-win ethical choices that can corrupt or otherwise crush a good cop.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“You'll get everything you paid for in William Landay's debut thriller, Mission Flats.... Landay is a superb writer who can evoke visceral emotional reactions with skillful evocative prose.” (St. Petersburg Times)

“Landay's story is rife with nuanced characters and the gritty realism of street justice. His tale is reminiscent of his fellow Beantown writer Dennis Lehane, which is a true compliment.” (Rocky Mountain News)

struggled to finish

The book was not nearly as good as "Defending Jacob". The narrator was painful to listen to.

cliff hanger right to the end

this book gave me a feeling of being there from start finish. I enjoyed the book

Very bad narration of a Boston accent

Boston accents were terribly off and voice of Kelly’s daughter ruined the character in this audiobook. I read this book years ago and it was great. I loved it. Listening to it is not recommended.

Disappointing

Listening to this book was one of those rare occasions when I found myself rooting against the protagonist. Perhaps this has something to do with the melodramatic, over acted narration. I will never download another book read by this narrator.

I also found the ending completely contrived and manipulative. It is as if the author is playing a bad joke on the listener for having spent 9 hours of his life listening to each piece of the puzzle needed to solve the mystery, only to find that none of it had anything to do with the ultimate solution.

I want those 9 hours of my life back!

This book is just bad.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Well starting with changing the narrator would help. He was seriously acting all the "villain" characters with the same slow, meandering lisp. Hard to explain but harder to listen to.

What could William Landay have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I don't like this question. I don't know... Written a better story?

Any additional comments?

Too bad about mission flats. I really liked Defending Jacob and it's hard to believe that it came from the same author. Blah.

Dishonest

I read mysteries because I enjoy the twists and turns of the plot. I love getting the clues right, or getting them wrong if I've been artfully misdirected. I detest being lied to and that is what this author does. Dean Koontz uses paranormal to explain away plot inconsistecies; Landay doesn't bother. He gives us an ending that tells us to ignore all the development of characters we gone through and just accept his contrived, deceptive ending. As a former DA, Landay has held me in contempt. Don't let him do it to you.

Throw this Fish Back

The narrator does a good job with a flawed novel. This author has a habit -- see Defending Jacob -- of hiding important facts. In this book, he simply lies. In the pre-confession part of the book, during the development of the principal character, who is also the narrator, the author misleads us into believing that this principal character inspects the cabins by the lake (where the murder occurs) once every few weeks. There is no reason for the author to deceive us here...this is the straightforward establishing section of character and of the facts. However, it later turns out that this is a total misrepresentation. But it is necessary to lead us in the wrong direction. This is simply dishonest storytelling. I conclude that an author whose subtext in both this and Jacob is truth, ethics, and the law, he is not worth reading or respecting. This is harsh but it is accurate.