In Liars & Thieves, he's sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in Virginia's remote Blue Ridge Mountains, where top government operatives are debriefing a star defector: the ultimate KGB insider, a man with records on every operation and every dirty trick the shadowy intelligence agency has ever run, from Lenin to Putin.
Carmellini arrives to find the guards shot dead, and a ruthless team of commandos - American commandos - slaughtering everyone in sight, then setting the house on fire. He escapes a hail of bullets and a deadly mountain car chase with what seems to be the sole survivor, a beautiful and mysterious translator who steals his car and leaves him for dead at the first chance.
What secrets did the defector know? Who would have killed to prevent him from talking? And how could a hit team act so fast, so efficiently, and so murderously without intimate, inside knowledge of the debriefing?
Smart money says someone in the U.S. government is behind the massacre and is now after Carmellini. And that begs the biggest question of all: in a world where nothing is as it seems and no one is who he pretends to be, who can Carmellini trust?
Finding out will be terrifying. The answer may be deadly.
©2004 Stephen Coonts; (P)2004 Brilliance Audio
"Tommy is smart, brave, skilled and possessed of enough self-deprecating, wisecracking wit to endear him to readers. Jake Grafton makes an appearance to help save the day, but Tommy proves himself more than capable of saving the world on his own." (Publishers Weekly)
"Barry is adept at accents and offbeat characters, and the story gives him a lot to work with." (AudioFile)
"Fast Paced - Good Read!"
Right from the first few minutes this book held my attention. The story always moved along. CIA thief Tommy Carmellini is quite an interesting character. Sometime I had to laugh a the character...
The plot although pure fiction is based on a historical defection.
If you like Thommy Cormellini character, you will probably like books by Lee Child (main character Jack Reacher) and books by Vince Flynn (character Mitch Rapp, et al.).
"Good Listen"
I like the Tommy Carmelini character in these books. Some say that Jake Grafton should be front & center. Not ever having read one where Grafton was THE character, I really enjoyed this. I love Carmelini's sarcasm and sense of humor.
"Good story, mediocre narration"
I liked the whole Grafton series and I like the new lead in Tommy. The story was exciting and kept you guessing who was the good guy and bad guy until almost the end - and some of them you love to hate.
Tommy, the accidental hero, works for Grafton and Grafton still has it too, even at his advancing age. It's quite fun.
The narration is OK, but there's much better out there. Since much of the book is in the first person, when there's little or no change when looking at other characters points of view it can sometimes be a bit confusing and I had to rewind a number of times to understand where the story was. But don't let that keep you from listening, because this sets the tone for Tommy's future stories and is worth the time.
"Great fun read"
Really enjoyed this...nice humor, twisted plot lines, good characters. Reader has excellent command of voices and conveys the humor and drama in excellent fashion (though wish he would pause briefly at "change of scene!" Carmellini is a very promising character...
great book
"Johnny Dollar"
To me it's a modern day radio
Very easy to predic where it was going. Reminded me of XM radio old time radio shows with a modern twist, I will keep reading but to rate it with Vince Flynn Mitch Rapp is a insult.
"Dissapointed"
I really like the Deep Black series, but this title predates Deep Black, and is not up to par. I not sure if it's the narration or the attempt to be old Noir style, but it sounded like it wanted to be a Raymond Chandler type, but in modern day, which isn't working. Half way through listening and I wanted anyone interested to know to PASS on this title even at the $4.95 price.
None
No. Do not like his treatment of this title
It's unabridged is both good and bad. May not finish if it doesn't get better soon.
If you've never read Stephen Coonts, pick a different title, try a Deep Black series.
"Fair Storyline, Poor Quality"
The editing on this recording was not good - volume fluctuations, echoing, background noise, etc.
The storyline was just okay; there were many more interesting aspects of the storyline that were not explored. Basically, the author took the easiest route and focused on a single character-line. There were a few lame attempts to expand the storyline beyond the single character focus, but they were short lived and overall ineffectual.
"Great listen"
I admit that I had no clue where this story was going. I thought the narrator did a great job, and the story itself moved along nicely.
"Good Book!"
Good characters, some good plot twists, overall very entertaining. It makes you wonder if this could happen or if it has happened in real life.
"Attention graber"
I hadn't read or listened to any books by Stephen Coonts before, but now I've become a fan. This audio grabs your interest from the get go, and holds it until the end.