Noble Man

Publisher's Summary

Fans of Vince Flynn rejoice!

Jake Noble, Special Forces veteran and ex-CIA operative, is living on his boat, trying to scrape together enough money for his mother's cancer treatments. When the Company offers him 150k dollars to track down a missing girl, Noble has no choice but to delve back into the seedy underbelly of Manila's sex trade. 

With the clock ticking on the girl's life, Noble will need all of his old skills to survive. Every move he makes unravels another deadly conspiracy and what he finds goes deeper than a random kidnapping....

©2015 William Miller (P)2018 William Miller

Good character, good start, needs work

The story isn't as believable as the stories of the best writers, but this is a good beginning. It has a good main character, and the author has talent. I'll come back to Alex Noble when the next volumes are available.

The story is timely and socially moving: sex trafficking as a huge international business. Alex has some good skills and is a noble character. The author needs to put a little more credibility and depth into the locales and the relationships. The book could have used a bit more research into life in the Philippines. For example, the under-financed shelter for abused women needs a new water heater so the women can bathe and wash clothes. It seems the author doesn't know that a lot of cold-water bathing and laundering go on there. The solution is not to take the clothes to the coin-op laundromat. This was perhaps the first detail that had me wrinkling my brow in question.

The women's shelter is run by two women; one woman is kidnapped and the other is concerned. Alex is sent to find her. Not enough is done to enable us to "see" these women--when we finally find out that Samantha Gunn is half Chinese, it had no precedence in the narrative and comes as a surprise. Then Alex falls in love with Sam after a few hours. Not likely. And then the supposedly strong-willed Sam gives up her religious principles about sex before marriage and decides to let Alex decide for her. This is not the description of a strong woman.

I know of 2 other series where the spec ops guy is religious, and it doesn't seem to blend well for me. I happen to be a believing person and, in these women's situations I would be praying mightily, but the faith and praying of the women in this story will clash with many people's sensibilities and expectations in this type of story.

The narrator did a fair job, but needs a little more work on beefing up the accents and distinguishing among the characters. And he needs to learn to pronounce "Tagalog."

The series has a good future given a good researcher and a good editor. I'll be back to see if I can give 4 stars next time!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Jake Noble is not Jack Noble

The Jake Noble series has promise, unrealized promise. NOBLE MAN has lots of action but too little plot. I suspect the next novel in the series will be better. Adam Verner narration is flat. I have two dozen novels in my Audible library narrated by Verner and this is the first time he has failed to earn 5 stars.

L. T. Ryan writes the outstanding Jack Noble series. This novel is not part of that series.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Really excellent story..

Other than an Australian accent that sounded like someone from Sth Carolina, this was an excellent listen. The story was gripping.

Highly recommended

Nice debut...but religious overtones a bit much

if Jake Noble becomes more like Sam Gunn, the series is doomed to fail ; I am hoping he doesn't.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Generic

Bad very bad ! Story so unoriginal that it’s awful,the performance of the narrator is too hammy,overall it’s just too much sorry