False Flag: A Frank Bowen Conspiracy Thriller, Book 1

Another brilliant thriller/mystery from Jay Tinsiano. Great kickoff to this series. Lots of action this one kept me hooked. I liked Pandora Red better but this was pretty good too.

The narrator gave a good performance.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

A well written and suspenseful story, with a lot of twists right from the start.

While I enjoyed the story, what impressed me most was the narration. CHRIS MACDONNEL does a wonderful job and most definitely enriches the experience of listening to the audiobook. He is great across all the characters, seamlessly transitioning from one to the other.

FALSE FLAG was a good start for a new thriller. Right out of the gate this book was energetic. It had a good storyline with a great character in Frank Bowen. He's on vacation and suddenly he's in a whirlwind of trouble and doesn't know how or why until he thinks someone switched his luggage. A bomb went off and all hell broke loose.

I really like the character of Frank and can see plenty of room for more of a back story with him in the future installments of the series. The supporting characters were good but not as well-defined. Perhaps they're just temporary to this setting.

There were a lot of twists in the story and a few times I got sidetracked however it was very suspenseful and engaging. JAY TINSIANO is a great new author and I can see him take off with this series building Frank Bowen into the ranks of Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher.

CHRIS MACDONNELL does a terrific job narrating this audiobook. His accent gives Bowen more character. He has nice voice inflections and keeps a steady pace while speaking clearly. I really like him for this series. He's a good match for the story and I hope to hear more from him in the future.

Audiobook received in exchange for an unbiased review.

Engaging, suspenseful, and comfortably predictable

I most certainly would

Theo was one of my favorites, but Chris did a fantastic job across all the characters, regardless of gender or native tongue.

What do you fight for when you are lost in a sea of betrayal?

The story was good, but the narrator, Chris really made the experience top-notch! The fact that the main character was British, and clearly so is Chris, really added an authentic flavor to the story. Thanks Audible for recruiting such a great narrator. I will look for other books narrated by Chris MacDonnell!

False Flag was a genre within a genre for me. While I do enjoy thrillers immensely I haven’t actually read (or listened to) a political conspiracy thriller. So I was very excited.

Frank, who just broke up with his girlfriend and has a bit of a dark history, decides to take off on holiday, presumably to discover himself, and lands up in Goa, a beach resort, in India. Here he meets a couple of unsavoury characters who seem thoroughly innocent at first but are actually pawns in the game of Xiangqi. He does what any innocent tourist would do, he gets recommendations from other tourists and locals at each destination and following these leads gets him into a world of trouble.

A bomb goes off, another bomb goes off, a man is dead and he’s on the run. I didn’t enjoy the story up until this point. From here on it got a little exciting and eventful.But it picks up after he gets into Bangkok.

The beginning parts of this book felt like an elaborate background painting with no exciting additions to keep the reader thrilled. While the author hints at a past for Frank his interactions with his friends seems forced and it feels as though it has been dragged a little too much to create a reason for him to be running away from something that isn’t specified. Also, the locales should have been further explored. As someone who has been to Goa often it felt like the author hadn’t exploited the location as well as he could have. Once Jimmy comes into the picture though, it moved quickly and kept on the same way till about half an hour from the end.

After it picks up the author manages to maintain a fast pace, keeping you on your tiptoes and waiting to see how everything unravels. The only gripe I have is that it was rather obvious midway who the culprit was. The point of a mystery thriller is to keep things mysterious and it wasn’t as mysterious as I had hoped it would be. I won’t say who it is, listen for yourself to find out.

Now about the narrator, Chris MacDonnell, whom I did not enjoy. I’m someone who likes the age of the narrator to sound like the age of the main character. The narrator sounds very old and it did not suit this book. It felt like he would do a better job of narrating a book like The English Patient or maybe a non fiction about history. Because of this certain parts felt awkward and uncomfortable.But the audiobook production seemed smooth and was comfortable on the ears.

All in all I would recommend this for someone who is new to thrillers. If you are a seasoned reader you might not enjoy this as much.

Audiobook provided for review by the publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Both Mr. Tinsiano and Mr. MacDonnell are masters at their respective crafts! This is the second book that I've enjoyed with this duo. An international conspiracy thriller that will leave you hesitant to press the pause button on your Audible app.

The author does an incredible job creating the relationship between the characters of the story and the reader/ listener. The narrator's portrayal of all the characters and his ability to change accents and voice pitch allows a truly believable performance that leaves little to be desired.

If you're looking to start a series that keeps you on the edge of your seat to the very end, I'd definitely give this book!

*This book was provided at no cost to me by author, narrator, or publisher for an unbiased review.

Yes. It is light reading and has a decent plot.

The very beginning when he was trying to come to grips with life and his mortality

Not monotone

No

This book was a light read and fairly short. It did have a plot at least unlike so many today. One has to wonder why you would fly half way across the world to find yourself; but many do so not unusual. Chris MacDonnell could use a bit more dynamics in his performance but at least he did not put me to sleep.