• Behind the Lines

  • The Corps, Book 7
  • By: W. E. B. Griffin
  • Narrated by: Dick Hill
  • Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,575 ratings)

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Behind the Lines  By  cover art

Behind the Lines

By: W. E. B. Griffin
Narrated by: Dick Hill
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Publisher's summary

World War II. On the island of Mindanao, the Philippines, a man calling himself "General" Fertig has set himself up as a guerrilla leader to harass the Japanese. Army records show that the only officer named Fertig in the Philippines is a reserve lieutenant colonel of the Corps of Engineers, reported MIA on Luzon.

Still, the reports filtering out are interesting, and it's Marine lieutenant Ken McCoy's mission to sneak behind the lines and find out if he's for real. With him is a motley group put together as a compromise between the warring factions of Douglas MacArthur and the OSS chief Bill Donovan.

Together, these men will steal into the heart of enemy territory and there, amid firefights and jungle camps, encounter more than they had bargained for. Before they're done, each will undergo a test of his own personal mettle - with results that will surprise even the most hardened of them.

The few, the proud: trace the history of the Marines in W.E.B. Griffin's Corps series.
©2005 W. E. B. Griffin (P)2005 Brilliance Audio

What listeners say about Behind the Lines

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable but the sound engineer needs to be fired

Would you listen to Behind the Lines again? Why?

If you listen to the entire series - you get a lot of redundant information for those who start in the middle. Sometimes it gets a bit tedious and seems "cut and paste" but it's understandable.

Did Dick Hill do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Turning the Philippines General into Jack Nicholson or an 80's Christian Slater impression of Jack Nicholson was funny.

Any additional comments?

I guess the sound engineer had a time limitation. I presume they were trying to make it fit on cassette tape? They released this edition at 30% faster than recorded and distorts Dick Hill's voice. If you can slow it down by 30% you get the regular Dick Hill cadences. That was amazingly distracting. I listen while commuting and seriously thought about returning it for the print edition. It's not impossible to enjoy. If you jump into the story and take the ride - it's a good book.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is NOT read by Dick Hill. Very disappointing

I love this series! But this book is a very disappointing listen. This is NOT read by Dick Hill! Lousy job, especially the reader's rather disgusting belch! Not sure who this reader is....

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Monotonous

Maybe I misread the summary, but I thought the book would describe the actions of forces in the Philippines. However, it was more of a description of the back door politics of the military in Washington. If you want a history of the OSS it might be for you, but if you are looking for a war novel describing the action in WWII in the Pacific, you should look elswhere.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Poorly produced book

This entire series is narrated by the same person, which is important to me. The first six books I cant getx nough of, but the way they produced this book is a constant struggle. Name pronunciation has changed, the editing of the book is very poorly done. They missed multiple errors in storyline.

Overall the story is just as good as the rest of the series, bit this book leaves ALOT to be desired.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing performance

I was very disappointed in this performance. So much so, in fact, that I had to check twice to see if it was the same reader!!

I cannot fathom WHY Dick Hill suddenly decided to change pronunciations of several words between book 6 and this book, but it was VERY jarring and very frustrating. Doesn't he ever LISTEN to his previous work in order to keep consistency? Example: Pronouncing Hon Do as "doo" when up until now he's pronounced it as "doe" (which I was under the impression IS correct). "SECNAV" changed from "seck nav" to "seck nave", with a long A - WHY would he do this? It was jarring enough that it knocked me right out of the story every time I heard it. Haven't decided whether or not to return this.

Not to mention that the voices he uses for several of the characters are noticeably different! And that "pronounced Boston accent" he uses for Pluto (Hon Do) is no such thing - I LIVED in Boston for 25 years and it's nowhere near correct.

That said, one thing I did like was the slight reverb effect added when he was voicing a person's thoughts - that made it quite clear that they were thinking those words and not saying them aloud. Verbal italics, as it were.

It's still a corkin' good story, but I really wish Dick Hill hadn't decided that he just had to start pronouncing things differently than he'd done in the previous 6 books. This would've deserved 5 stars otherwise.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What’s with the Voice?

Tech hell and all of the characters sound completely different. Why is that? It was hard to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What happened to the narrator?

Why do several main characters sound like Jack Nichalson in this book?
Why all the echo effects?
Why did you change from the straight narration of the previous readings.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narration style changed

Don't know why the narration changed, but its not as good as the previous books in the series. Says the same narratoe, but he sounds way different. Doesn't do the voices for the characters as well. Also mispronounces a lot of names and military terms. Wasn't a problem in the books leading up to this one...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great

Great book, as are all of the books in the series
Dick Hill did a good job reading the book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A nother great book in the series.

Dick Hill is great, truly, but his voices in this audio book were a bit of from others.

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1 person found this helpful