The Millionaires

By: Brad Meltzer

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 14 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Two brothers who are desperately chasing success get more than they bargained for in this suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller of wealth, crime, and social climbing.

Two brothers. Three secret service agents. And millions for the taking.

Charlie and Oliver Caruso are brothers who work at Greene and Greene, a private bank so exclusive there's a $2 million minimum to be a client. But when the door of success slams in their faces, the brothers are presented with an offer they can't refuse: $3 million in an abandoned account that can't be traced. It's the perfect victimless crime. Charlie and Oliver opt to take the money, but get much more than they bargained for.

Now, with a lot of extra zeroes in their pockets and a friend found dead, the Secret Service and a female private investigator are closing in. Whose money did they take? How will they stay alive? And why is the Secret Service trying to kill them? Both Charlie and Oliver quickly realize it's not easy being The Millionaires.

©2002 by Forty-Four Steps, Inc., Alll Rights Reserved (P)2002 by Time Warner AudioBooks, a Division of the AOL Time Warner Book Group

Critic reviews

"A fast-paced, fresh-scrubbed tale of financial adventure." (Publishers Weekly)

Love this book

I purchased this book a while back and recently listened to it again. It was just as good as it was the first time.

Can't Buy You Happiness

The Millionaires simply proves that "there ain't no free lunches"! Every man has his price and for Ollie that price is $3,000,000.00! Faced with an opportunity to pull off the perfect crime (a crime no one knows about) Ollie and his brother,Charlie, jump in with both feet. Yet only moments after taking the leap they are suddenly thrown into a situation that only goes from bad to worse every time they try to extricate themselves from it. Before long bullets are flying, people are dieing and everything points to them being on the next slabs at the morgue. This book is light and doesn't bear great scrutiny to determine its feasibility, but it is also very entertaining. If you have a few hours to spare it will satisfy.

Riveting

Wonderful listen! Nothing standard about the plot. Twists and turns kept me engrossed in the story.

Dated Formulaic Meltzer

Oliver Caruso is a typical Brad Meltzer protagonist -- an ambitious young professional from humble roots who wants to get ahead but is naive and gullible. In the Millionaires, this Meltzer Everyman works at a private bank, hoping to eventually earn a place in a prestigious business school. Oliver's brother David is the opposite -- an artist, musician, and borderline ne'er-do-well who also works at the bank just to make a little money. When the opportunity arises to commit a victimless, untraceable $3 million electronic theft, Oliver is reluctant but Charlie talks him into it, using all of the plot points already established.

Then it all goes to hell.

The Millionaires is a classic double chase -- the brothers have to evade the law while they pursue the real criminals (yes, they themselves committed the crime that starts things off, but the real criminals are really bad guys -- not going to say more to avoid spoilers). As in any double chase, the key is the mcguffin. Unfortunately, this mcguffin (electronic banking) is not all that interesting to begin with, and is seriously out of date. Still, the book is not bad, if you like Meltzer -- yes, his protagonist makes some poor decisions, but he's set up to be naive and gullible, so he will make poor decisions.

I've read most of Meltzer's thrillers (to use his own categorization to distinguish from his non-ficiton and children's books), but this is the first I've listened to. In print, his book are page turners. In audio, I cannot characterize this as a car idler. I try to avoid Scott Brick if possible, but with Meltzer, that's not possible, Brick narrating almost all of his thrillers. This is early Brick, so it's not totally un-listenable. Meltzer is best, to my taste, when he writes about DC insider politics. This is not at all set in that world. Still a fan, though.

A million twists

Meltzer never fails to create characters i find relatable. During the suffocating books I get so engrossed in the stories I can sometimes predict the next lines and often catch myself mimicking what I imagine the character reactions to be like. I probably look silly to anyone around me. You can never go wrong spending a credit on one of his books.

A story that could easily happen

Where does The Millionaires rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Probably midrange.

At times I loved it and couldn't stop listening and other parts I felt like, come on, come let's move on.

Would you be willing to try another book from Brad Meltzer? Why or why not?

Yes I liked the story line ( for the most part ) and the characters. They weren't all shiny polished and perfect. They had everyday struggles like most of us do.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

He is a very good performer. For me it is about the narration. If I don't like the narration I can't get through a good story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You really thought you could pull this off???

Any additional comments?

Worth listening to

Fantastic!

Fantastic story from start to finish!! The narration was more thrilling than the story, kept you intrigued and captured in the drama!

Good, not great

I found the constant infighting between the brothers a pain to listen to. I almost abandoned it a few hours in for this reason, but stuck with it. I can't really recommend it though.

WOW!...What a SHOW!

This is not just a book...IT'S A SHOW!

I'll bet the biggest fan of this book is Scott Brick, the narrator. He reads this book as if he wants to share with us all the excitement and pleasure that he received when he first read it. Brad Meltzer wrote quite a gem, and Scott Brick made it shine with brilliance.

Add this treasure to your audio vault...it's PRICELESS!

I loved it

I have to admit that I could not stop listening to this book. I found the plot unexpectedly entertaining, with many original twists and turns. The characters were very likeable, even if you sometimes wanted to smack them for their naivete.Who cares what they did to begin with? You were rooting for them till the end.

Scott Brick did a great job reading it, like only he can do when he doesn't overdo himself.