Beyond Blue

By: Austin S. Camacho

Narrated by: Allan Callaway

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

Beyond Blue features a team of unique and intriguing detectives whose only purpose is to help police officers in trouble. The story follows four of the agency's cases, which overlap and intersect: An undercover officer is in danger of really being drawn into a life of crime; a crooked lawyer is destroying police careers by making arresting officers appear to have violated criminals' rights; a cop's wife accuses him of abusing their daughter; and a retired police detective could lose his job in airport security because of drugs being smuggled in through JFK International. Pursuing these cases is a team of unique and intriguing detectives. The agency's director, the enigmatic Paul Gorman, sits at the center of the action, pulling the strings to direct his team to solve their cases and cover each other.

©2014 Intrigue Publishing, LLC (P)2017 Intrigue Publishing, LLC

Great Story, memorable characters, ok production.

“Beyond Blue”
Author: Austin S. Camacho
Publisher: Intrigue Publishing, LLC (September 1st, 2014)

Narrator: Allan Callaway
Audible.com Release: February 20th, 2017
Length: 7 hours and 43 minutes (Unabridged)

Camacho, author of several detective thrillers, writes a unique and interesting story about a privately funded para-police organization who helps New York Police Officers out of career ending situations due to personal and professional issues. At the helm is the no-nonsense and street savvy Paul Gorman who leads a team consisting of former NYPD Police and military. The plot unfolds with seemingly four separate cases regarding a crooked lawyer, a drug smuggling ring, a six-year undercover officer infiltrating the New York Mafia, and a street cop accused of child molestation by his divorce seeking spouse. These four cases are loosely connected culminating in a satisfied conclusion. At times, the dialogue and plot-points border on the absurd, but Camacho’s writing is straight-forward and creative providing an exciting private detective story that will appeal to hard-boiled noirs and police dramas. I hope Camacho continues to write more tales with Gorman and his team.

Allan Callaway narrates “Beyond Blue” and I was originally not impressed with his voice but my opinion did change because Callaway provides a rather impressive experience matching the action and sometimes humorous moments of the narrative, revealing unique flavors of each character, and deftly brings out the wit and sarcasm often found in seasoned police officers and private detectives . What really shines for the narrator is his ability to switch back and forth between characters providing accents and traits that are theatrical and appropriate. At first, I was not convinced Callaway was the right choice for this noir-style tale but certainly would be disappointed if he does not helm the next one.

Where this audio book fails is in production, which is unfortunate. Lines are repeated or re-recorded words later dubbed in creating a less than polished presentation. I have listened to amateur podcasts with better sound than this one and wonder if a basic laptop and microphone were used for recording.

Overall, “Beyond Blue” is good offering the perfect summer read with great banter between characters in slightly far-fetched scenarios, or a decent listening experience but some listeners will find the production values somewhat questionable.

Note:
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good story

The story and idea for beyond blue agency was great
I like how it was told through different storylines kept it interesting
And although the narrator was good several mistakes were missed in editing
overall based on the story I’ll checkout more by this author
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

Astoundingly poor production

I'm utterly astounded by the poor production of this audiobook. It's adequately performed by Allan Callaway, but there are numerous outtakes remaining in the audiobook that should have been edited out. I heard at least 3 in the first chapter alone and there were many more throughout the remainder of the audio. It's very unprofessional.

The characters are interesting and quite colorful, but the story is blatantly contrived and predictable. I do appreciate that there are multiple cases woven through the story and all are tied up nicely in the end.

Note: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

High action story

Great action story, many plots weaving together creating a captivating novel.
Vocal performance was well done and fits the mood of the story well.
I hope there are more in the series.

I recieved this audiobook for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Good Police procedural with a twist

Good Police procedural with a twist . I enjoyed this audio book and will look for more from Austin S. Camacho . There are lots of characters , Male, Female and accented, That said, Allan Callaway did a good job delineating each.

Thanks for this listen

Slight audio issues, But really good story

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Allan must have had some issues with editing the recording. Occasionally throughout the whole story you hear lines like the character is repeating itself.
Other than that the character voices were well done and as usually Austin did an amazing job with the story. 4 cases all wrapped up nicely with twists and turns. I really enjoyed it.

Good story, hope this is the start of a series

This book could have gone from good to great with a different narrator. The narrator played the women like they were trashy characters from a 70's sitcom. He did a decent job voicing the male characters

The storyline could have given more backstory to each of the characters. Overall the book was an average listen. I would buy a second in the series if there is one.

The audiobook was provided by the author in exchange for a review.

3.5 stars

Narration: This was my first book read by Allan Callaway, and I have to say that although he had a wonderful voice, he read too fast to keep up with what was going on. I normally listen to audibles while at work since my job can get repetitive, but this was too intricate for that, then add in the speed he was going and there was no way I could follow. Once home, I had to slow the playback down, which really isn't too big of a deal. There were repeated sentences, skips in the recording, and worse of all there was very distracting background noise.


Story: Some basic thoughts as I listened: there were way too many he/she said, asked, replied. Some sentences could easily have been removed from the story to improve the flow. I felt that it wasn’t ready for audio with a final script edit.

I think this would have been an amazing read! The storyline was a good one that you don’t see every day. It seemed well-written from the story point of view, and once I was able to slow it down, I enjoyed the characters. I’ve not read anything by Austin S. Camacho before, but I’ll be looking for his ebooks. I would still give another audio a shot as well, as long as there was another narrator for it because I enjoyed how things worked and moved, but the narration was just not for me.

The Boys in Blue

A team of undercover "detectives" come together to form what is called Beyond Blue. Their mission, since September 11, 2001 is to help New York police officers either fight crime, support fellow officers and to be another source for the boys in blue to lean on, should they need it.

Although this is one book, there are 4 different "cases" that are occurring and each case is basically like a new story, with added twist and suspense that made you want to keep listening. My favorite story line is with Ruby Sanchez, who is a mixed Latino, with a no-nonsense attitude. Her mission, or what was initially her mission was to bring down a drug operation, that was perceived to be occurring with Rafael, her new "boy friend", however this turns out not to be the case and they are both held captive. My heart was beating so fast when she escaped the house and I could find myself routing for her to run for her life. Absolutely fantastic!

What was not fantastic, but could have been, was the narration. Calloway did a great job with the characters and the voices, however, he did not listen to his work prior to submitting it, which is disheartening, as there are many, many duplicates, which really takes you out of the book. Not just duplicates, but also volume/equalizing was off in some spots too. I feel like when you go to all of this effort to give a great performance, yet you do not bother to relisten to you work prior to submitting is actually kind of sad.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom

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law-enforcement, action-adventure

Excellent read for cop friendlies. The basic premise of BBI is righting wrongs done to good cops by criminals and even corrupt coppers or simply doing the good job in ways that are a bit sideways. Lots of action and the interwoven plot lines are filled with misdirections and red herrings. LOVED IT!
Wish I could avoid nitpicking the narrator, but he needs to edit better instead of allowing multiple repeated sentences. AND, the word cartage as in hauling products or furniture is not a French word, especially in Brooklyn! Otherwise, he did a decent job, but this book really deserved better.
I hope that this book is the start of a series!
Really happy that I won this audiobook in a giveaway!