The Gate House

De: Nelson DeMille

Narrado por: Christian Rummel

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

DeMille writes another excellent book!

The Gate House is the sequel to The Gold Coast. The Gold Coast has a huge fan base and the readers wanted more. DeMille delivers a great sequel (18 years after the publication of The Gold Coast).

Do not read this book before you have read The Gold Coast. It is not good as a stand-alone novel. I believe that the current neutral CUSTOMER RATING is because the book was either read out of sequence, or the reader expected that the genre was like most of DeMille's other books, which are fast pace espionage/thrillers.

The Gate House story is set 10 years after The Gold Coast and just after 9/11 (fall of New York's Twin Towers). The main character John Sutter, is still the witty and sarcastic wiseass with big brass balls. Lots of laughs and erotic sex scenes.

As a sequel which picks up 10 years later, DeMille writes more dramatic fiction to build the lives of the characters, so reasonably, the pace of the book is not always a high tension thriller. That said, I could not put this book down.

The reader Christian Rummel voice and style was a great choice for both these books. I especially liked his women's society voices as well as John Sutter the WASP lawyer.

Although I am a big fan of the narrator Scott Brick (who reads many of DeMille's Books) his style and voice would not be suited to these two books.

Brilliant Conclusion to Gold Coast

Many have complained the book is too long and contains rhetoric not useful to the story. They claim to have been bored.

I was sorry the book ended. It is a full and complete review of the pertinent aspects of Gold Coast. It reviews and expands our understanding of all the characters as well as the Gold Coast mentality.

I feel this book is better constructed and nuanced than Gold Coast. This is a terrific listen and the narrator is in a class by himself.

Jim Droste

Great Sequel!!

Do listen to Gold coast first. DeMille himself considered it his best work. Like most DeMille books it's nothing like any other. I couldn't put either book down!

Got caught up with the Sutters

I'm a Nelson DeMille fan. At about 1/3 the way through I thought - where is this book going? No real plot - only reminiscing about the past. But I got caught up in the story and laughed out loud in many places. I could really relate to John Sutter and his wacky friends and family. Looking forward to the next DeMille creation.

I enjoyed other DeMille books more.

What made the experience of listening to The Gate House the most enjoyable?

Narrator was fantastic.

If you’ve listened to books by Nelson DeMille before, how does this one compare?

There seems to be a lot of verbosity and fluff in this one. It could have been shorter and I could now be half way through another DeMille book.

Which scene was your favorite?

Don't want to give away anything.

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

Get the book.

If you like the Gold Coast

You will like this one too. John, Susan, and a host of other characters pick up where Gold Coast left off. John is his usual scarastic self, and Frank's offspring add some interest. You don't have to have read the first book to enjoy the second. Makes you want to visit Long Island.

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.

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.

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 .