The Fixer

By: Joseph Finder

Narrated by: Steven Kearney

New York Times best-selling author Joseph Finder's breakneck stand-alone thriller about the secrets families can keep - and the danger of their discovery.

When former investigative reporter Rick Hoffman loses his job, fiancée, and apartment, his only option is to move back into - and renovate - the home of his miserable youth, now empty and in decay since the stroke that put his father in a nursing home.

As Rick starts to pull apart the old house, he makes an electrifying discovery - millions of dollars hidden in the walls. It’s enough money to completely transform Rick’s life - and everything he thought he knew about his father.

Yet the more of his father’s hidden past that Rick brings to light, the more dangerous his present becomes. Soon, he finds himself on the run from deadly enemies desperate to keep the past buried, and only solving the mystery of his father - a man who has been unable to communicate, comprehend, or care for himself for almost 20 years - will save Rick...if he can survive long enough to do it.

©2015 Joseph Finder (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Keeps you listening

Very well done. A look inside Boston politics.

Twist and turns, all the way keeps you guessing.

Not the Great American Novel, but...

I liked the premise of this book, however it just did not bring me to the edge of my seat. It was an ok mystery with a very good narrator.

Ok-not great

The storyline was creative, but filled with overused phrases and proved too predictable. The narration was a bit too stiff and sounded read rather than performed. Overall, not terrible but definitely has room for improvement.

Loved it

Then again I have thoroughly enjoyed everything of his I've read. I highly recommend this book.

A fairly good novel, clearly not a "thriller"

I've enjoyed all of Joseph Finder's books, read/listened to most of them more than once, but this new one, "The Fixer" isn't my favorite, not by a long shot. It's a fairly good novel. In listening, I never once went away with the fairies, never had to backtrack, so it's interesting enough. No complaints there.

But. I'm trying to isolate what the issue was. How about this: there are many of us who complain about books in which the gorgeous young female protagonist, knowing there is a vicious killer lurking out there somewhere, will hear a noise at night, and decide to go outside and investigate, all by herself, right? Well, here we've got her male counterpart.

I'm not sure what the exact diagnosis is -- naive, gullible, too-trusting, not sufficiently cynical or maybe just plain dumb, but this guy gets himself in more "fixes" (how about that?!) than any reasonably aware 30-something would ever do. When we get to the last hour of the book, and once again, Rick heads off by himself into what is obviously a danger zone -- while I'm sure the entire reading audience is screaming, "DON'T GO -- ARE YOU NUTS??" -- he goes anyway. Happily. Confidently. Good grief -- whaddya gonna do with a guy like that? Honestly, his too-trusting character gets almost silly.

One avenue I thought Finder was going to take -- but he didn't -- was typical: At the very beginning, Finder has Rick (who found all this money) go out and make several $9000 deposits into bank accounts at several different banks, saying he knows he's safe from "Homeland Security" if he keeps it under $10,000. Finder might ask former Congressman Denny Hastert how well that kind of thing worked for him. Pretty silly -- or naive -- for Rick to think he could simply obey the letter of the law and Homeland Security would leave him alone. Maybe there's room for a sequel there, when the feds take after Rick which, sooner or later, they surely would.

Two positive things: they chose exactly the right narrator. Steven Kearney's boyish "Aw shucks gee whiz" voice quality is just perfect for the gullible Rick. The narration is great -- Kearney does well on the Irish accents, too. Well done.

And secondly, the novel is a fine meditation on fathers and sons, what sons know about their fathers, how much they don't know, but make judgments about anyway. I resonated with that on my maternal side. I never really knew my mother, wish I'd had the chance Rick had, to discover something about her that would have changed the way I remember her. In that sense, it's a fine novel indeed.

So? Not Finder's best -- "Company Man" remains my all time favorite. But still, worth a listen.

Never Got Going

What did you like best about The Fixer? What did you like least?

Best - the narrator
Worst - implausible recoveries

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Predictable

Which scene was your favorite?

The discovery near the beginning.

Do you think The Fixer needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

NO!

Any additional comments?

This was my first book by this author and I would have liked more emotional depth.

Great Book

Just listened, first listen of finder and Kearney and will be trying to find more. I'd recommend

Dark secrets

Journalist searches past to right the corruption of the powerful who spared no life who got in the way, including his father!

A GREAT STORY

Would you consider the audio edition of The Fixer to be better than the print version?

Yes. I could listen while I worked.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Rick Hoffman because we got to watch him mature over the course of the story.

What does Steven Kearney bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Steven Kearney captures the characters perfectly.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes - it turned out that way.

Predicable

No twists. No turns. Obvious ending and I still have 10 words left before I can submit this torturous review.