The Book of Fate

By: Brad Meltzer

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

In six minutes, one of us would be dead. None of us knew it was coming. So says Wes Holloway, a once-cocky and ambitious presidential aide, about the day that changed his life forever. On that Fourth of July, Wes put Ron Boyle, the chief executive's oldest friend, into the presidential limousine. By the time the trip came to an end, Wes was permanently disfigured, and Boyle was dead, the victim of a crazed assassin.

Eight years later, Boyle is spotted, alive and well, in Malaysia. In that moment, Wes has the chance to undo the worst day of his life. Trying to figure out what really happened takes Wes back to a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, mysterious facts buried in Masonic history, and a 200-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson.

But what Wes doesn't realize is that The Book of Fate holds everyone's secrets. Especially the ones worth dying for. The Book of Fate. What does it say about you?

©2006 Forty-Four Steps, Inc., All Rights Reserved (P)2006 Hachette Audio, a Division of the Hachette Book Group USA

Critic reviews

"Meltzer's many fans will enjoy this substantial meal of a book." (Publishers Weekly)
"Skillfully written...the plot fluidly integrates historical fact and fiction....Fans of thrillers that reach far back into history will be, well, thrilled." (Booklist)

flat characters and whiny protagonist

This book is just not fun to listen to. As many other reviewers note, the protagonist is so whiny and self-pitying that it's hard to care what happens to him. The other characters are flat and the plot, which could have been interesting, is hard to follow and not well developed. The narration is also only mediocre.

Couldn't Finish It

"Do you want cheese with that whine" I can't stand whiners, male or female. After 1 hour and 4 minutes I couldn't take any more.

Poor for a Meltzer book

This book was a disappointment. The hype of some sort of Masonic conspiracy was not lived up to and the plot wandered around way too much. I've enjoyed several of Meltzer's books and picked this one up hoping for the best, but it was not to be. I actually set the book aside in favor of podcasts & music and it took twice as long to listen to as comparable books. I can't recommend it, and I have not said that about many of the books I've listened to. The reader/actor did reasonably well with the material he had to work with, though.

rubish for a story

not a great story line just garbage wish I could get a refund. hope others stay away from this.

Needs to be edied down 50%

Bloated, confusing plot lines. Interesting iidea poorly executed. scott brixk kad little to work with and much of the dialogue is characters shrieking and being dense. Skip this one

Story is sidetracked by repeatedness and errors.

I drive a minimum of 1,000 miles per week and most of that time is spent "reading" audiobooks. I have to say that this book was a let-down for 3 main reasons.

First, I was ecpecting a "National Treasure" type storyline filled with deep conspiracies and secret societies. The conspiracies turned out to be very shallow not so much unbelievable as uninteresting.

Second, the story is dotted with several annoying little errors. Reviewer 'Bob' pointed out that "exploding flashbulbs" are no longer used. Also mentioned in the book is a 9mm Sig Revolver -- should be pistol -- as well as a tow truck with matching yellow sirens -- wouldn't the sirens be audible and the LIGHTS be yellow?

Lastly, although the caracter relationships are well developped -- the caracters themselves are hard to care about. The protagonist is so self-pitying and whiny, you almost hope for the worst just to shut him up.

Too Long - Too Slow

I love thrillers, and I only like reading Unabridged audiobooks. This was the longest slowest, unthrilling book I have listened to yet. The entire book should have taken 4 hours. The plot was mediocre. If you want two great books by different authors - read:

Deception Point by Dan Brown and Mortal Prey by John Sandford

passable, not great

This mildly held my interest for the first half. Though a number of times I found myself totally disinterested.

Then the pace and story picked up about half way through. I'd give the first half 2.9 stars, and the second half 3.75 stars. Still nothing great, but I enjoyed the second half okay. Not a regret, but I don't really recommend it, either.

Three of my all-time favorites in this genre: The Faithful Spy, The Chairman, The Lincoln Lawyer.

An unhappy first

I have been an Audible listener for nearly ten years and, until this book, I had never failed to finish a book. I'm sorry to say that streak has been broken. It wasn't a matter of being bored, this book is so bad that it actually became unbearable. I just couldn't go on. I didn't even make it far enough in to find out what the damn Book of Secrets was. Seriously, this is really bad.

Hard to get through

Man, this was a tough listen. The plot takes way too long to develop and doesn't live up to the foreshadowing. Ultimately the plot is just not believable, much less comprehensible. The author establishes no reader empathy for any of the characters. The dialog and monologs are shallow and repetitive. The descriptions of the characters' emotional responses to different situations are stilted and often silly. By the way, cameras haven't used "exploding" flash bulbs for decades. This is just an example of the overwrought prose of this largely sophomoric effort. Using Scott Brick as the reader just makes matters worse. His overly dramatic delivery and constantly varying intonations are hard to take in the best of circumstances but this material and his style bring out the worst in each other. I need to stick with my self-pledge to avoid his work in future and now I will add Brad Meltzer to the list as well.