Mayhem: A Detective Matt Deal Thriller

Detective Matt Deal, Thrillers Book 2

By: Stephen Bentley

Narrated by: Chris DeFazio

Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Don’t mess with Deal.... Mayhem will follow.

At the funeral of two of his hit men, Mike Russo, capo of the New Jersey Mob puts out a contract on Detective Matt Deal for his part in the killings.

At the same time another funeral is taking place in Florida. Deal will soon learn just how badly his world is broken...and it’s about to get worse.

The long awaited sequel to book one in the series - Mercy.

Fans of Jack Ryan or lethal killers like Reacher or Scot Harvath will devour this novel.

©2020 Stephen Bentley (P)2021 Stephen Bentley

Dark and Intense!

This is the second book in the Detective Matt Deal Thriller Series. The story continues where the first book left off. The storyline is action packed, dark, intense, and very entertaining, filled with violence, intrigue, and twists and turns. Once again, my heart broke for Matt’s daughter Mercy. Excellent narration from Chris Defazio. Looking forward to listening to Mobocracy the next book in the series. #StoryOrigin

Intriguing

As always an awesome detective story. Plenty of suspense and action to keep you intrigued. The narrator definitely helped make amazing.

Baskerville Book Reviews

Just like the first book, the villains are comical & unbelievable. It’s vulgar, over-the-top action movie bullshit and I love it.

One thing about the villains that annoy me is how unrealistic the cartel in this story is. I’m growing tired of movies, shows, books, etc. that paint cartels as these lovable psycho’s who will tell you about how they’re going to torture and kill you. But not before they go and get a drink and it’s always the boss handling business. I’ve seen it in Sons of Anarchy, Person of Interest, Mayans MC, a Fast and the Furious movie, and probably more. I’m over it. Cartels are ruthless. Too many writers treat cartels like gang bangers. with reach.

One thing I noticed with book 2 was how it switches between first and third person. First-person for Matt Deal and third person for everybody else. I have no idea why it does that, I don’t remember if the first book did it. But I found it distracting as hell.

There’s a scene where Matt Deal has to be told that trans women are women. Which he makes a big deal about, but eventually cums around to. It felt forced, but being transgender, I did appreciate the effort.

Another goddamn cliffhanger ending. Just like the first book, it ends on a cliffhanger ending. I’m already into this series, but I still find it annoying that anybody stumbling across this book wouldn’t know they need to pick up 3 (or more?) books to get the full story. I get that it’s an ongoing story. But these endings literally end mid-scene. When listening to the audiobook, it can be jarring when the book suddenly stops.

I have little to say about the narrator. His performance was good. This is one of the rare audible books I’ve listened to that didn’t have poorly connected session recordings.

If you’re reading this review, you’ve probably read part 1. This book is more of the same. So if you enjoyed part 1, you’ll enjoy this book as well.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

Another well-written story from a very good author

Mayhem (Detective Matt Deal #2), my second highly enjoyable read from author Stephen Bentley, An author I'd not heard of before getting the opportunity to read & review these books! December seemed to be my month for new authors, January continued the trend, and now February. A well written, entertaining read, with intriguing, well-developed characters. Initially, I was going to say the two books easily could have been combined into one but after reading this book I realized that it's just the author's style to end books the way he does. A bit slow to start but when it took off I couldn't turn pages fast enough. Chris Defazio"s outstanding narration again adds greatly to a good book's enjoyment. “I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review." I look forward to reading more from this author. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

Recommend

I enjoy detective stories and this one is one that I could read again. I would recommend this book if you are a fan on books that have to do with detectives. The characters are written to where it seems they are real and the environment is well displayed.

Grim Repercussions

Stephen Bentley's Matt Deal series is gritty, raw, and visceral. This sequel picks up soon after the ending of the first book and Matt Deal has a contract out on his life, for his previous actions. This story is filled with twists and turns and a lot of non-stop action; however, the reader is starting to see an emotional growth in Matt Deal that wasn't present in the first book. I recommend this series to anyone who likes hard-boiled mysteries. Chris Defazio's narration is great, adding an extra layer of entertainment to the story. I was given a free copy of the audiobook and I have voluntarily left this review.

Matt Deal is back to take on the cartell.

I received an offer of a review copy of the Mayhem audiobook through StoryOrigin and after reading in the title it was a Detective thriller I jumped on the opportunity. Once again, this Matt Deal story starts right off with intense action and doesn’t let up until the very end. Interestingly enough, the graphic adult situations in Mayhem were far fewer and a bit less in detail, then they were in Mercy, which made this story much more enjoyable. While the narration is good, it could have used accents for Matt and the other English characters.

Great Read & Listen

If you like action heroes with the tenacity of Baldacci's John Puller, or Child's Jack Reacher than this is your book and series. Great Characters and a solid story line. Chris DeFazio does a good job of narrating. Recommended...I was provided a free review copy of this audiobook, and this is my unbiased review.

Over the top

Neither the story or the narrator impressed me much. I didn't like the narrator's voice but I got use to it. The story itself I thought was just over the top.It didn't feel possible to me to have all of this happen to one person.

Revenge Part Two!

The audiobook storyline is a continuation from the first book in the Matt Deal Thriller series. If you enjoyed book one “Mercy” you will enjoy “Mayhem”. The narration is too slow for my ears, listening to the audiobook at 1.3x to 1.5x speed does help somewhat. I received this audiobook from the author at my request and have voluntarily left this review.