If Angels Fall 

By: Rick Mofina

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed's life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.

Reed's friend on the case is legendary San Francisco homicide inspector Walt Sydowski, who has one of California's highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death. Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.

©2000, 2013 Rick Mofina (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Great Book

This is my second Rick Mofina book and both have been great books.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to the very end. I'm not usually fond of police procedural's which involve civilians such as psychologists, counselors, writers, or otherwise, but this story is one of the exceptions and tracked the parallel - sometimes crossing - paths of Tom Reed, a journalist and crime reporter, and detective Sydowski. There is a murder and three kidnappings of children in a short space of time and clues are few and ambiguous. But the story is to be read not told about. What I can say is that all the characters were completely believable; people anyone might know and yet not boring because the story carries them forward. This story gives you a lot of threads and I had some idea how they might all tie together, but the details are what mattered. There is the minutest amount of graphic description of the first missing child who is found murdered. Other than that, the reader is pulled along by incredible suspense. The procedural aspects of both the police and the media rang very true and the drama was all in the murder, the kidnappings, and the efforts to get to the truth. Something I much prefer as opposed to drama in the personal lives of the characters. This isn't to say that some of the trials and tribulations of the characters aren't there. There is enough to make them feel real but not so much that they become more of the story than the story. I really loved both the main characters, Sydowski and Reed, different as they were. At times, I was a little reminded of Jeffrey Deaver books, but with a different intensity and a lot less gore - and I think I prefer this Mofina although i am a big fan of Jeffrey Deaver. I am generally not one of those 'can't put a book down' people but this is one book that I really didn't want to put down. It is a complex weaving of a lot of threads that just makes you want to get to the end to see how they will come together. But you don't want to get to the end either, because the read is so good you don't want it to end. Another plus is that the ending is a good one in that the book doesn't fizzle out as so many good stories tend to do before the end. Good to the last word. I got this book for free, but I'll be happy to spend some money on more Mofina books. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves a good detective story.

Christian Rummel was fantastic with the delivery of the story

Disturbing story.

It was well written and did keep you at the edge of your seat. However extremely disturbing story. I know I'm going to have nightmares. Wanted to stop reading but couldn't put it down

Great suspense thriller by an author I had ...

...never heard of until Audible listener Shelley reviewed one of his books several weeks ago. This is the 5th novel by Rick Mofina I have listened to since. None have disappointed, or even come close!!

If Angels Fall is the first novel in the journalist Tom Reed and cop Walt Sydowski series. It is the first novel released by author Rick Mofina (in the year 2000). Mofina demonstrates his ability to sustain and build suspense to an incredible intensity, and to tell a great story.

Narrator Christian Rummel does a great job. For a man with a deep voice he is absolutely marvelous with the voices of women and children.

I highly recommend this novel and this series as well as the novels in Mofina's Jason Wade series.

Good book but horrible topic

Would you listen to If Angels Fall  again? Why?

No. It was a solid book. Christian Rummel is the usual Master of this kind of story. It is very slow to get you invested, but after 3 or 4 hours it finally does hook you. But I have looked at the topic's of the next 4 books in this series. What is the author's fascination with sexually and physically abusing children? That is messed up. I will have to seriously think about continuing. Maybe I will just skip book 2 (more likely). I can understand doing the topic if you had a good idea, but why dwell on it with 2 books?

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

This is the first book I have listened to.

What about Christian Rummel’s performance did you like?

Chrisitan Rummel is in the top 3 Narrators out there along with Ray Porter, RC Bray. He is just a master of the craft and can even do decent voices so everything isn't in the same voice. When choosing a new book he is one of 5 authors that I click on and choose from their work because I know they don't do crappy books. I have never been disappointing with Rummel, Ray Porter (my favorite), RC Bray, Mark Boyett, or Scott Sigler (author and narrator of his own books).

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

Nope, too long for 1 sitting.

Great book

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. It kept me wanting to not stop until the end.

Scary, could actually happen

Ripped from the headlines. Unbelievable tension, politics interfering with solutions, insecurity interfering with identifying the culprit

slow. very slow start. if you

read chapters 1 and 2 then skip to 46 it picks the story up a bit. then you'll only need to skip ahead 30 seconds a few poi ts every other chapter.

Very Good Story

I enjoyed the story, loved the narrator. My only complaint with is a really a big complaint was that it had way too many "unnecessary" characters. They may have been necessary to move the story along but why did they have to have a back story?

If Angels Fall

This book lives up to all my expectations for Rick Mofina and then some. The combination of newspaper and police work makes for an outstanding story.

This is an excellent series. I started with the third installment not realizing it was part of a series. As soon as I finished the third book, I went straight for this one. Now I will start the third book.

Great listen!

With it's well developed characters, interesting storyline and excellent narration, what more could you ask? Well worth the listen!

I can’t say I liked it

I don’t like to leave any bad reviews, so I’m just going to say that this book just didn’t suit me.

I expected more of a psychological bent to it, but it didn’t meet those expectations.

The narrator did a good job.

great

great book, narrator does a brilliant job. can't wait to listen to the next one.

Got my attention from chapter 1

This book got me gripped from the start. Overall, a good story. Loved it.

Terrific

This is the most gripping book I have come across in ages. I look forward to searching out more of his books. Hail Rick Mofina - The Master!!!

Great story lots of twists.

I’ve really enjoyed this listen. It was my first Rick Mofina novel but I’m sure it won’t be my last. The narrator was excellent although it did take a while to get used to his narration style so be patient it’s well worth the wait. Story telling was very good and kept you interested throughout. As a someone else suggested it would make a great TV serious or film.

Narrator killed this book.

This had the makings of a good story, my main gripes were...

The narrator is dreadful, sounds like the sort of voice that does trailers for Action movies....that's ok for a 2 minute trailer, but I couldn't get past chapter 12 before the grating got to me.

Too many characters and the narrator just couldn't carry the load of the voices needed.

He does the narration for the rest of the series, so I'll probably just read the books instead as it was an interesting story.

Wow. What a plot.

First Rick Mofina read. What a plot. Really enjoyed it. Just not the attempted female voices - narrator got on my nerves with this.

Make a great movie!

Fantastic listen. Great story. Great performance by the narrator! Will definitely listen to more in the series!

Great story.

A bit long but very compelling. I had to get to the end and hoped for a happy ending

Tense, & Fast Paced,

Couldn't put it down, story kept revealing more drama, to suck you in to each character, even those on the periphery. one of my favourite thrillers so far.