The Midnight House

By: Alex Berenson

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

The number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Deceivers delivers a gripping John Wells thriller that takes listeners into the darkest shadows of a silent war....

One morning, a former CIA agent is shot to death in the street. That night, an army vet is gunned down in his doorway. The next day, John Wells gets a phone call. Come to Langley. Now.

The victims were part of an interrogation team that operated out of a secret base in Poland called the Midnight House, where they worked over the toughest jihadis, extracting information by any means necessary. Now Wells must find out who is killing them. Islamic terrorists are the likeliest suspects, and Wells is uniquely qualified to go undercover and find them. But the trail of blood leads him to a place he couldn’t have imagined: home.

©2010 Alex Berenson (P)2010 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Berenson combines his thorough knowledge of the Middle East with an acquired sense of corporate intrigue in this bullet-paced, psychologically engaging tale of torture and espionage.” (The New York Times

“A superbly crafted spy thriller that doubles as a gripping mystery.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Arguably Berenson’s best thriller yet.”(Library Journal)

slower than usual...

narrator is absolutely fantastic . this is the 4th John wells book for me, and was slower than the others

I liked his first two books in this series better

Except for at the beginning of the book, there wasn't much action. I guess I was expecting a more exciting story. His first two books in the series were much better

John Wells On his Own

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. I would recommend it but would also suggest that they read the first books in order to get a feel for John Wells. This story is about a dark ops that gets darker but then you find out that the guys weren't as bad as you first thought

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Midnight House?

At the end when John Wells discovers the secret of The midnight House. You don't expect high ups in our government to be murdering their own and fortunately it isn't that clear what they are responsible for. You need to read the book to find out.

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

Mr. Guidall is an excellent narrator and he is able to give the listener the nuances of the characters.

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

Not necessarily. It was an intriguing story and I wondered what was going to happen when Wells was on his own traveling through Egypt and pretending to be from Yemen but you just knew he couldn't be killed off and that was a relief.

Bit different and not up to previous books

This one seemed to wander around and explore other characters because maybe there wasn't much left to explore with our protagonist. Not a bad book (though the veneration of a notable real political figure is a bit naïve) but I found it slower than the previous books in the series. Still, if you've enjoyed the ones up to here, you'll like this one.

Enjoyable story

The John Wells series has been great until this book my personal feeling was that the level of excellence that I enjoy of the series was not there; to quote a friend "it was good but it could have been better". Hoping the next book in the series lives up to my expectation that the first four provided.

I wanted to like it, but didn't

This book had all the key elements that could have made for a good listen--secret interrogations, tough protagonist, terrorists, a great narrator, etc. Unfortunately the story line fell a bit flat and there were too many people coming in and out of the investigation. I struggled through it and wish I hadn't.

Solid 4+ star action thriller!

When Audible put all Alex Berenson's John Wells series espionage thrillers on sale for $4.95 it gave me the opportunity to buy at a low price the 2 of the 9 books I did not have. All of the John Wells series are 4 star or better. Midnight House is no exception. Wells, an ex-Army Ranger and ex-CIA agent, is also a (marginal) Muslim. He is one of the more interesting of the espionage thriller protagonists.

George Guidall narrates as usual and he does a great job.

From the headlines of the W years

Smack dab in the middle of George W. Bush's Presidency we were hearing about sites like this. Some softer individuals who have never placed themselves in harms way liked to criticize anything that comes anywhere close to this, and while they may have some good points, there still needs to be a good view of the bigger picture. John Wells seems to understand this as he takes the reader through this journey.

Outstanding performance and Author

Great 👍drama. Surprises occurring at every chapter. I look forward to listening to more of the books by Alex Berenson and George Guidall.

Excellent NARRATOR

Would you try another book from Alex Berenson and/or George Guidall?

We found the story subject matter to depressing and morally degrading.

Have you listened to any of George Guidall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, he is excellent.