The Gate House

By: Nelson DeMille

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

When John Sutter's aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London.

Now, 10 years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. Taking up temporary residence in the gatehouse of Stanhope Hall, which had been the family home of his ex-wife, Susan Stanhope Sutter, John finds himself living only a quarter of a mile from Susan, who has also returned to Long Island.

But Susan isn't the only person from John's past who has reemerged: Though Frank Bellarosa, infamous Mafia don and Susan's ex-lover, is long dead, his son, Anthony, is alive and well, and intent on two missions: Drawing John back into the violent world of the Bellarosa family, and exacting revenge on his father's murderer - Susan Sutter.

At the same time, John and Susan's mutual attraction resurfaces, old passions begin to reignite, and John finds himself pulled deeper into a familiar web of seduction and betrayal.

In The Gate House, a book that is both a sequel to The Gold Coast as well as a suspenseful stand-alone novel, acclaimed author Nelson DeMille brings us back to that fabled spot on the North Shore - a place where past, present, and future collide with often unexpected results.

©2008 Nelson Demille (P)2008 Nelson Demille

Too much repetativeness of sex and side comments.

If you could sum up The Gate House in three words, what would they be?

Dragged out story.

Would you be willing to try another book from Nelson DeMille? Why or why not?

I might try one more, as the plot was sound and interesting. If second book reads with all the extra sidelines and unrealistic relationships, then forget it.

What about Christian Rummel’s performance did you like?

Christian Rummel read the book true to text, and loved his ability to differentiate the voices of characters to keep them identifiable. Too bad he had to suffer through all the repetitive comments, explanations, and side comments.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Was surprised by the deciding factor for the conclusion. Expected it to be quite a different reason, but through same source.

Review of Golden Coast with insights

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

He said, she said...remove some of them. Tease the mind to find a different phrase with the same meaning. After 10 years, I would of thought the character's would have matured. They both were the same, me, me, me. Could have shared some of that money to do a couple of good deeds.

What was most disappointing about Nelson DeMille’s story?

Did DeMille actually write this book or did he insert a new phrase here and there and remove another one somewhere else?

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator was fine. He did what he could with the way the novel was written. Good the same narrator was used to keep up the pace with, "The Gold Coast."

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Gate House?

There was too much repetition. As an editor, I would have shortened the book so much that maybe a quarter of the book would have remained.

Any additional comments?

There were good parts where the author did help me to better understand, "The Gold Coast." There was an ending that was satisfying because there was closure. I would rate the novel, overall, 3. The performance, 4 and the story, 3. The novel was way too long due to repetition. My computer would not allow me to insert the numbers where they belong, therefore, I'm putting them here.

Really good

Liked all the characters & the parts they played.
Sometimes book sad sometimes funny.Either way I really liked the book!

Boring at times

A good listen overall. It was tiresome around the middle. Just too long. I'm glad I listened to this one instead of reading it because I would have put it down about half-way through and never picked it up again. It has a good ending, wraps it up.

DeMille's Indulgence

A great reading by Rummel. The way-overlong story is made tolerable by DeMille's fantastic dialog. Susan and her parents are insufferable and I have no idea what John saw in her other than her money and her ability to well, you know. I had two stars off because the book is just way too long without much happening, But I put a star back on because of John's wit. This is not like ND's other books, so don't expect a lot of action except sex here and there. In answer to the antagonist's final question: "Yes, you are stupid."

I read the book years ago and decided to relisten to it as an audiobook

Before I get into my critique of the book, I wanted to say that the narrator is brilliant and talented. An amazing narrator. He reads incredibly well, and I thought he did a really good job. The reason I took one star off of the rating was nothing to do with performance capability, but more to do with casting. I just kept thinking that the character would sound a little bit older and have a deeper voice and seem less constantly anxious in the way he spoke. That said I will look for more audiobooks by this reader because he was a phenomenal performer. I just didn’t love him as John Sutter.

As for the book, I really enjoyed it. I have read and reread both the Gold Coast and the Gate House at least two times each because it’s the sort of set of books that really pulls you into a story in a different world and has a delightful comic explanation that explains how things may work outside the world we live in. The dialog is brilliant, the story is great and there was a definite charm to see the happy ending for this book especially when the prequel was a little dark and ambiguous around what happened with the Susan character…how far had she actually gone into her affaire, was it love? Or just a wealthy woman craving a new fun experience and being so deludedly above it all that she didn’t ever consider she could get hurt.
So this book which is the sequel ties all of that up and answers it very nicely, and leaves us with a second fantastic story that has its own villains that the characters need to fight in order to come out and finally get the peace they deserve .

Great!

While in the middle of reading 'The Gold Coast', I found myself so enthralled that I downloaded its sequel, 'The Gate House'. Although one can enjoy this sequel without having read the first, I found that reading 'The Gold Coast' first added to my enjoyment because I was already familiar with the characters' personalities.

I have read all of DeMille's novels except for two, so decided to complete the cycle. I have enjoyed his other works, and have even read some of them twice or more.

Although it's difficult to imagine, as much as i enjoyed 'The Gold Coast', 'The Gate House' was even better. It does not suffer from the obvious hurriedly written narrative so many other novels of today share, as if they were writtn in outline form so that someone can develop into a screenplay.

Like 'The Gold Coast', this novel rises so far above his more recent works as to have been written by a different author. Not only is it a great read from the standpoint of excitement and suspense, but it's a grand love story, and future generations will recognize it not only as popular fiction, but also as great literature.

My wife doesn't read audio books, but I will buy her the printed version so we can enjoy discussing the story line and characters together. The characters are so well developed, that it's quite difficult not realizing they are fictional. Like 'The Godfather', the reader learns a lot about true villains and heroes from this book, and see that they come from all walks of life!

Just a little caution. There are some erotic scenes, so younger readers should defer reading until they are able to understand the context in which they are written rather than being tittilated by their explicitness.

I maintain a library of almost 2,000 novels, and I only get rid of those I don't intend to read again. This one will stay in my library until my dying day, and I will encourage my adult children to read and learn from it. .

Imagine a witty story where not much happens

I am also a long time Nelson DeMille fan and have spent many hours enthralled with his books, and he and Stephen King might be the reason that I listen to audio books in the first place. That said this book is a disappointment.

So much of this book is a rehash of what happened in the Gold Coast, which I listened to as well. DeMille's writing style is very tongue in cheek, but imagine John Corey (his superagent other character) deciding where to eat or going to the D.O.T.. The most interesting dialogue in the world isn't going to keep the audience going for 21 hours. It seemed the author had jokes left on the cutting floor from the first book to be used, and had more material about a mafia don and a socialite tryst.

At some point, the witty dialogue and haranguing about the possible lost of inheritance, problem inlaws, protecting the children from information, and rekindled romance just wasn't worth it.

Bravo

The folks that have given bad reviews simply are not correct.

DeMille is one of the best authors I have EVER read or listened to. Rummel compounds the humor and drives home DeMilles sarcasim with a PERFECT reading.

Gate House is a great followup and I reccommend Nelson DeMille to absolutely anyone....

The Gate House

What a great read. This was a great sequel to the Gold Coast. I looked forward to listening to it and was sad when it ended. I wanted more!