The Copper Bracelet

By: David Corbett, Joseph Finder, Jim Fusilli, David Hewson, Lisa Scottoline, Gayle Lynds, P. J. Parrish, John Gilstrap, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Alfred Molina

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A peaceful picnic in the French countryside explodes in violence. A mysterious assassin hisses a deadly threat. And events are set in motion that could propel India and Pakistan down the road to nuclear confrontation.

Two years after the events of the Audiobook of the Year - The Chopin Manuscript - former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton and his Volunteers once again must crack a secretive conspiracy that not only threatens their lives, but the stability of the world. Their race against time will take them from London to the U.S. to Russia and beyond. And at the heart of it all is one question: What is the secret of the Copper Bracelet?

Sixteen of the world's greatest thriller writers collaborated on The Copper Bracelet. Once again, as he did with The Chopin Manuscript, Jeffery Deaver wrote the first chapter. Then, each successive author wrote a chapter in turn, finally returning it to Deaver to complete this thrilling sequel.

The Copper Bracelet was written by:
Jeffery Deaver
Gayle Lynds
David Hewson
Jim Fusilli
John Gilstrap
Joseph Finder
Lisa Scottoline
David Corbett
Linda Barnes
Jenny Siler
David Liss
P.J. Parrish
Brett Battles
Lee Child
Jon Land
James Phelan

PROJECT EDITOR: Jim Fusilli

©2009 International Thriller Writers, Inc., Jeffery Deaver, Gayle Lynds, David Hewson, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Corbett, Linda Barnes, Jenny Siler, David Liss, P.J. Parrish, Brett Battles, Lee Child, Jon Land, James Phelan (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This was like playing on an all-star team, and all the hits were home runs." (Lee Child)

"A feast for the senses, The Copper Bracelet continues the standard of excellence established by The Chopin Manuscript. Action, intrigue, suspense, they are all there. Another certified no-question-about-it-winner from a remarkable collection of talent. Bravo." (Steve Berry)

"What a blast to collaborate with some of the greatest suspense writers around on the thriller event of the year." (Joseph Finder)

"I can't think of a more enjoyable writing experience in my twenty-five years of being a fiction author than writing The Copper Bracelet and its predecessor, The Chopin Manuscript. We writers spend way too much time by ourselves in dark rooms, and it was a delight to emerge from the cave and hang out, so to speak, with my peers. I have to say that I sat down to read the manuscript with more than little trepidation. I needn't have worried. I was blown away...[and was] fascinated to see how a group of authors with vastly varied writing styles and approaches to creativity produced such a cohesive thriller with a relentlessly fast-paced narrative. (And, okay, I'll admit, I got a voyeur's kick in seeing how my talented co-authors ply their craft.)" (Jeffery Deaver)

No clues

I like mysteries and I like to try to put the pieces together, but this book had no clues. I just had to go along for the ride and wait until they told me stuff. Nothing was ever figured out by anyone. I do like the concept, but The Chopin Manuscript was much better.

A Big Ugly MESS!

I have so many comments on this book; I must resort to bullet points

POSITIVES:
~Exciting Concept
~The Chopin Manuscript was good
~Alfred Molina is a good narrator

NEGATIVES:
~Some of the authors go over the top trying to make their splash, and in this case it ruined the story

CHAPTER/AUTHOR Review:
1. Jeffery Deaver: Great job establishing a solid foundation to a potentially good book
5-Stars

2. Gayle Lynds: Starts twisting the story, in the wrong direction
2-Stars

3. David Huson: Continues to twist, again in the wrong direction
2-Stars

4. Jim Fusilli: Tries to put the story on track, does a good job
4-Stars

5. John Gilstrap: Builds on what Fusilli wrote, nicely
4-Stars

6. Joseph Finder: Good writing, adds intrigue and action. I'm starting to get excited about it now!
5-Stars

7. Lisa Scottoline: TERRIBLE! She basically ruins the entire effort! I am glad I had a chance to see how bad an author she is before ever purchasing any of her work.
0-Stars, actually negative!

8. David Corbett: Tries to recover, does a good job
4-Stars

9. Linda Barnes: Continues on Corbett's save and does so nicely
4-Stars

10. Jenny Siler: I like what she did, builds on recovery and adds intrigue
5-Stars

11. David Liss: Continues with story line and does a good job
4-Stars

12. P.J. Parrish: Good intrigue and action
5-Stars

13. Brett Battles: Starts unfolding, tying a few things together
4-Stars

14. Lee Child: Gets the story rolling to its climax
5-Stars

15. Jon Land: Drops the ball with ridiculous twists
1-Star

16. James Phelan: Fumbles Land's fumble
1-Star

17. Jeffery Deaver: What can he do but end it? He does, but he can't save it.
3-Stars

Overall I can't recommend it.

Lisa Scottoline should have been kicked out of the process after reading her disaster.

I am not sure if I would listen to a third effort. I would probably wait to see if the reviews were good prior to purchase.

BAD BAD BAD

I took this book because I was curious how a "book written by a committee" will look like. I thought it could be a good experiment. Well, it reminded me the "broken phone" (a.k.a Chinese whisper) child game where a message is passed between in a whisper between the participants and it is always entertaining to see what was the original message and what was reached to the last person.

Although at sometimes I wanted to throw this book (and it rarely happens to me), I decided to "suffer to the end" just to give it a full chance. I was very disappointed and especially from the way it is being marketed, which in my mind is somehow a mislead. So I started with low expectations, but the end result is unfortunately much worse than I could imagine.

While they are all fine writers, none has tried to develop any of the characters. Each author had to add their own twist, so you get a book full of unbelievable twists, and a plot, that as many reviewers said, chaotically jumps from one place to another.

Bottom line, an interesting experiment, but why pay for it?

Don't bother a total waste of time & money

Did any of the co-authors read Jeffery Deaver's opening premise or did they just make up anything that came to mind without continuity in mind. I enjoy most of the co-authors' books so this one was 10 times more disappointing. To my mind it should never have been published.

The reader was good

It seemed like the authors were involved in a private joke to see who could outdo the others with ridiculous killings and blow ups that had little context. It was almost funny.

There is no plot and the characters are 2-dimensional at best. I loved the name "Harold Middleton" though, and the reader gave him the perfect voice.

I so enjoyed the farce of the Chopin Manuscript, but this farce was not clever and fell flat.

Copper Bracelet Review

Disappointing at best. Disjunctive and lack of flow. Plot was mundane and the story line was shallow.

Copper Bracelet

Any additional comments?

The Chopin Manuscript - multiple authors. Released in 2007, 7.5 hours of listening. Harry Middleton and the “Volunteers” are introduced in a mystery involving a newly discovered Chopin manuscript. The ‘Volunteers’ is a small group of clandestine good-guys that goes after bad-guys with the aid of alphabet soup named organizations across the world.

The Copper Bracelet - multiple authors. Released in 2009, 8.5 hours in length. A story that starts with a bang: an exploding cell phone and laptop at a beach sting involving Harry Middleton and his cohorts. Subsequent chapters morph into a twisted, confusing, and globe trotting mess that ends with an assassination attempt.

The Starling Project is written by Jeffery Deaver alone and released in 2014. A shorter story just over four hours long, but told in the manner of an old fashioned radio mystery. Lots of sound effects like footsteps, car doors slamming.

The first two books in the series, The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet, are collaborative efforts involving multiple writers - each author responsible for one chapter. A single narrator, Alfred Molina, does a credible job - no trouble with male/female voices, good diction, sound effects a little over the top, but decent productions. The books begin with a foundation by Jeffery Deaver and the final chapters are his efforts to bring all the disparaging clues to a close. This wasn’t the plan, I’m sure, but it’s what appears to have resulted.

The books lack the cohesiveness of an overall vision because there are so many cooks in the kitchen stirring the plot with their own vision. The efforts were likely fun (or frustrating?) for the authors, but resulted in books that were difficult reads. Lots of rewinding and muttering of “What the…?”. The best parts of these stories are the chapters written by those you would expect. Jeffery Deaver, Joseph Finder, and Lee Child. In my opinion, the rest tried too hard to ‘make a splash’ and ultimately damaged the overall effort. My cliched opinion: Everybody was not using the same playbook - shoot me.

The last book in the series, The Starling Project, is completely different from a production standpoint. The book is the performances of a myriad of narrators/actors, special sound effects of bombs, gunshots, creaking doors, and heart-thumping music fill - basically an elaborate radio drama. Smooching/moaning during a few sex episodes distracted from plot. These scenes are presented in a ‘fade-to-black’ manner, but are eye-rolling and ridiculous. Although the plot is interesting, Jeffery Deaver uses Harry Middleton conversations to wrap up much of the story - pulling loose ends together in the last few minutes of listening. This book is more about production than story.

The Harold Middleton Series was created in audiobook format only. The series has decent reviews and is certainly an extraordinarily usual effort. Suppose I’m alone in a ‘meh’ opinion - but, there it is.

don't waste your time or money

The most unabashed piece of garbage I have ever tried to listen to. After six hours, I could still not have cared less about any of the characters or the outcome of the supposed plot. If I could give it a zero star, I would.

what am I istening to?

After three chapters I actually forgot what I was listening to. Usually, I do my workouts while listening to books and today I got half-way through the run while listening to this book and realized I wasn't listening. Pacing is poor and I think the different authors are trying to be too clever or at least confusing it with being complex. Go back and pick a classic like Buchan's "39 Steps" and skip this silliness.

Less of quite enough

Mediocre at best.