Buried in Black

Task Force Orange Series, Book 1

By: J.T. Patten

Narrated by: Steve Marvel

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Deeper Than Deep State

In this explosive new series, former intelligence expert J. T. Patten takes you deep inside the top-secret operations you'll never see on the news: our deadliest weapons in the war against terror....

Buried in Black

In the clandestine world of shadow ops, he's known as The Man from Orange. A master of surveillance, signals intelligence - and silent killing - special operative Drake Woolf has been groomed and trained by the old-guard intel community after his CIA father and mother were murdered in Tunisia. Now he works for Task Force Orange, handling cases the government doesn't want its fingerprints on. Woolf can always be relied on to carry out an assignment with surgical precision - and exterminate a threat with extreme prejudice.

But his latest mission is different. Woolf knows the targets personally. He trained them in Iraq to be the perfect killing machines. Known as the "Mohawks", these Iraqi rebels know our secrets, our strengths, and our weaknesses. And they're using this knowledge to launch the deadliest attack the world has ever seen - on American soil....

©2018 J. T. Patten (P)2019 Tantor

Incredible start to a new series

Wow! This book is the Tesla of thrillers. It goes from 0-100 in mere seconds. Kicking off with on of the best prologues I've ever read, J.T. Patten is flying up the ranks as one of the top writers in the genre with BURIED IN BLACK. You can tell Patten is more than a writer. With his insight in counterterrorism, in-field operations, cyber warfare, and everything in between, it is easy to see that Patten knows exactly what he's writing about. As someone who works in cybersecurity, I was partially expecting to be hyper-critical of every and any technological slip-up, but everything was spot on. He hit the nail on the head with every, little detail. It felt almost like a Clancy novel but was half as long (which is a good thing). Patten introduces his newest character, Drake Woolf, who is easily one of the most impressive protagonists I've seen in years, and takes him on a wild adventure around the world.

BURIED IN BLACK is non-stop action from the first page until you flip the back cover. It is one of those books that will literally have your heart racing as you read it. I can't recommend this book enough, especially if you're a fan of thrillers. Great characters, great plot, great insight, great action, perfect thriller.

I was very impressed with the narration. It was superb.

Entertaining and Oddly Paced.

The beginning was promising, offering a different kind of protagonist (Bird Dog). The pace was fast, and the writer seemed interested in character development. A little past half way something happened as the story became confusing (not non-understanding, more like jumping around). It was a bit overwhelming and annoying.
I did however finish it and I was glad I did as the writer, in my opinion, settled down and let the story develop. The ending normalized the story a bit and left the door open for the next chapter. Not sure that I’d buy it but one never knows. After a day or two, once I’ve digested, I just might. Happy listening.

Find another narrator!!!!!!

I wouldn't recommend using this narrator. I was hoping that he might have gotten better through the story but, that didn't happen. I'm on the second book and it's the same narrator... no improvement ...@#¥£!!. Any chance you can redo both books with a different narrator? please!!?!!?

Justme

The book was good. The story was good. Not great, for me it jumped around so much at times it was confusing. The narrators voice was not my favorite either he sounded often like he needed a nap.
I most likely will look for the second in series at library or hope for a 2 for 1 deal with audible.

good enough

I will read at least one more in this series to see where it goes, though I have to admit I didn't really pay a lot of attention to the details . . . this book is probably 3 hours longer than it needs to be.

More please

I could not turn it off. This was a great story line. I’m excited for the next one.

Interesting tech story

Imaginative story built around the title which, says it all. This is better if you go with the story line.

Fantastic leading characters!

Nothing to dislike about this one! It’s up there with Clancy, Flynn, Greaney, Carr and I’ve read them all. I love the underlying humor in this book - hoping for more soon!!

Realistic and Terrifying

The one thing you get with a J.T. Patten book is authenticity. He lived and breathed this stuff, so when you read his stories the realism and authenticity really stand out. He’s able to throw in specifics that feel real but you know (or at least hope) are fictional. Another thing you get with a Patten novel is a deep appreciation of just how many different layers there are in the government. Every time you think you have the layers figured out – he throws another one in, just to show you that this onion is much bigger than you originally thought.

The main character Drake Woolf aka Birddog was a fantastic leading man. He’s flawed in multiple ways and even though he can be completely ruthless – he also has a heart. Not enough of one to get him killed or leave him out in the open. But enough of one that you can get behind rooting for him. (This also had me Google the meaning/definition of birddog – this is what I found “a person hired to locate special items or people…” – I think that fits pretty damn well).

Every time I thought I’d figured this one out I was wrong. I knew going into it that it was going to be a deep and engrossing story but this one surprised me.

I thought that Steve Marvel did a pretty nice job with this one. I can’t tell if it was just my copy or what, but it was a little bit quiet. Nothing turning my car stereo or bluetooth speaker up didn’t fix but I wanted to point it out. His narration style fit the book well.

Slightly off topic of the review. Using a name like “Mark Watley” really threw me. While listening to this I was completely taken out of the story for a moment because I thought they were saying Mark Whatney (you know, the man they left on Mars in The Martian). It really doesn’t take away from the story for more than that moment I just had to point it out because I ended up needed to look at the book to figure out what his actual name was.

Horrible nasal narrator

Good story ruined by a horrible narrator. A very annoying nasal voice, which is also monotone.