Buried Secrets

By: Joseph Finder

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Joseph Finder introduced Nick Heller, a “private spy” who finds out things powerful people want to keep hidden, to widespread acclaim from the critics and wild enthusiasm from the readers, in the New York Times best-selling novel Vanished. Now, in Buried Secrets, Nick Heller returns, finding himself in the middle of a life-or-death situation that’s both high-profile and intensely personal.

Nick has returned to his old home town of Boston to set up his own shop. There he’s urgently summoned by an old family friend. Hedge-fund titan Marshall Marcus desperately needs Nick’s help. His teenaged daughter, Alexa, has just been kidnapped. Her abduction was clearly a sophisticated professional job, done with extraordinary precision. Alexa, whom Nick has known since she was young, is now buried alive, held prisoner in an underground crypt, a camera trained on her, her suffering streaming live over the Internet. She’s been left with a limited supply of food and water and, if her father doesn’t meet the demands of her shadowy kidnappers, she’ll die.

And as Nick begins to probe, he discovers that all is not quite right with Marshall Marcus’s business. He’s being investigated by the FBI, he has a lot of shady investors, his fund is in danger and now he has a lot of powerful enemies who may have the motivation to go after Marcus’s daughter. But to find out who’s holding Alexa Marcus hostage, Nick has to find out why. Once he does, he uncovers an astonishing conspiracy that reaches far beyond anything he could have imagined. And if he’s going to find Alexa in time, he will have to flush out and confront some of his deadliest opponents ever.

©2011 Joseph Finder (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Good Book! 3.5 overhall

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the story which never lagged. It has a likable hero and intense story.

What aspect of Holter Graham???s performance would you have changed?

I wouldn't change anything in his performance it was fine.

Was Buried Secrets worth the listening time?

Yes, and worth my credit. I will buy more from this author as they become available.

Any additional comments?

I gave this a 3.5 because to me this is a Good Book. I reserve 4 and 5 for great books.
as I want to be fair with my reviews. I listen to books for entertainment and also to divert my mind from concerns. To do this the story must hold my attention and this one did.

Loved It!

This was my first book by Joseph Finder. WOW! I found the book fascinating. I loved the way the book took twists and turns to make guess as to what was happening. Will try more of his books.

Good book!

A lot of reviews criticize the narrator in this book - but I really enjoy his voice, Great story - great book!!!

A little to neat

Overall, the narrator does a great job of conveying the suspense that Mr. Finder has written. Could REALLY do without the “sniveling” voice he does when the characters are upset. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it incredibly distracting and over-the-top.

A great story except for one little thing... the convenient connection of the tattoo and the administrative assistant. Not sure what I’d have done differently, but it seemed a little to “neat” for me.

Good listen.

I'm not much of a critic. I either like a book, or I don't finish it. I finished it.

Lots of Techno, terribly flawed otherwise

The hero is unblemished, invincible and ultimately unconvincing. I don't know anything about weapons and so am, in my ignorance, impressed if what is said is true. But the details of the plot are so unrealistic that I've crossed the author off my list.

Slow and predictable

Would you ever listen to anything by Joseph Finder again?

possibly--but I'd read the reviews carefully. This moved too slowly.

Any additional comments?

Book contains scenes of a person buried alive--if you are claustrophobic or averse to this type of plot, avoid the book. Also, the author seems to think that young teenage women are not technology savvy--a ridiculous assumption in this day and age! He even has one of the characters voice that opinion!

This superhero is a bit too super for me

Nick Heller can outsmart the smartest bad guys, out fight the meanest bad guys, has an assistant who can do impossible things with computers. And he's the only adult that kids will trust. It's just a bit too much and somehow doesn't work for me. With Nick Heller against you, with his talents, I almost feel sorry for the bad guys - in this one-sided fight with a very inevitable outcome ;-)

Offensive story and descriptions

I have always liked Joseph Finder before but in this book he included offensive and disturbing torture and killing methods that are nothing more than gratuitous violence. In addition, many of the story lines defy reality, and do not make sense in the real world. I had to stop mid book and will not go back to it. I hope he will return to his more realistic and less graphically violent story-telling. Otherwise, I will not read him again.

Not nearly Finder's best

If you are not easily annoyed by irritating teenagers this is the book for you. Unfortunately for me there are three of them in this book and it gets tiresome. They clearly bog the plot down. Nick Heller could be a great protagonist, but he clearly needs to stop hanging around anyone under the age of 25. Not nearly as good as Vanished, the prior Nick Heller saga, which also suffered from Gabe, Heller's insufferable nephew.