Rage Against the Dying

By: Becky Masterman

Narrated by: Judy Kaye

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

Audie Award Finalist, Mystery, 2014

You have never met an (ex) FBI agent like Brigid Quinn

“Keeping secrets, telling lies, they require the same skill. Both become a habit, almost an addiction, that’s hard to break even with the people closest to you, out of the business. For example, they say never trust a woman who tells you her age; if she can’t keep that secret, she can’t keep yours. I’m 59.”

You have never met an (ex) FBI agent like Brigid Quinn Brigid’s career - the disappearance and presumed murder of her young protégée, Jessica. Floyd knows things about that terrible night that were never made public, and offers to lead the cops to Jessica's body in return for a plea bargain. It should finally be the end of a dark chapter in Brigid’s life. Except…the new FBI agent on the case, Laura Coleman, thinks the confession is fake, and Brigid finds she cannot walk away from violence and retribution after all, no matter what the cost.

With a fiercely original and compelling voice, Becky Masterman's Rage Against the Dying marks the heart-stopping debut of a brilliant new thriller writer.

©2013 Becky Masterman (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

I hope there are more of these on the way!

Where does Rage Against the Dying rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have listened to many, many audiobooks and this is easily in the top ten.

What did you like best about this story?

The protagonist is a strong, quirky retired FBI agent who is (gasp) over fifty. Like many of us who are over fifty she has a vibrant life (in every facet) with meaningful work, interesting friends and a strong loving relationship with her husband. She is physically strong and capable and allows herself to really connect with the families of the victims of the crimes she has investigated. This is a richly nuanced character, complex and wryly funny.

Which scene was your favorite?

It would be very hard to describe without giving away an essential plot element but involves a decision she comes to regret and the internal dialogue which is funny, frightening and full of pathos.

The narrator of this book could not be better. She fully captures the character with her laconic observations.

This charater ranks right up there with other strong female protagonists from authors such as Navada Barr and Sue Grafton.

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

If you're tired of vampires, zombies and tennyboppers here's the film for you. A thinking person's action movie!

Any additional comments?

I sincerely hope Ms Masterson has other books coming. Now that I've made friends with Brigid I want to see and hear more of her.

25 of 25 people found this review helpful

It's hard to like a dumb hero

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People who enjoy feeling much smarter than the book's hero.

Has Rage Against the Dying turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, but I certainly will avoid the author.

Have you listened to any of Judy Kaye’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but she's a great narrator.

What character would you cut from Rage Against the Dying?

The main character.

Any additional comments?

In my humble opinion, no book’s plot should hinge on the main character behaving like a complete moron. The entire story is driven by our supposedly intelligent hero, retired FBI agent Brigit Quinn, making an astoundingly stupid decision at the book’s start, for reasons that make absolutely no sense. She acknowledges her own stupidity, constantly complaining that she sure was dumb, before compounding her stupidity with many more mistakes. Though presented as a legendary field agent, Quinn shows complete contempt for the standards of law enforcement, again for no apparent reason. She falsifies, destroys, conceals, and steals evidence, her actions leading to the deaths of other innocent victims. Though the reader is repeatedly assured that Quinn was a superb cop, what we actually see is either an amazingly inept or corrupt individual. It’s hard to believe that she ever solved a case, and by half way through the book I was hoping that someone would arrest her and take us all out of our misery.

24 of 24 people found this review helpful

New author with potential for ongoing series - - -

I was browsing the mystery section for a new author to try out, and found this one which is read by one of my favorite narrator's--Judy Kaye. Ms. Kaye has done a lot of work for Audible, and is the voice of Kinsey Milhone from the Sue Grafton alphabet series.

Although normally I like mysteries that have a little more depth, I admit this story definitely held my interest from the start. It is a solid mystery about an ex FBI agent who is pulled back into helping out with the last case she worked on before leaving the agency. It kept me guessing almost until the end.

I would put this in the "light" detective mystery area, similar to novels by John Grisham, or Sue Grafton and Nevada Barr as another reviewer mentioned. These novels are good, while not being overwhelming with graphic violence/ language/ sex, etc. I listen to these type of books while doing housework, gardening or painting.

I could see this becoming a series, and I would probably listen to the next book if there is one.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Mystery and love story for adults

Any additional comments?

This was a terrific listen! Crime story interesting but not too gory. Story revolves around three female FBI agents, two of whom you really get to know and appreciate, especially with their flaws on display as well as their strengths. The other one is dead unfortunately. As 60+ reader I was moved by sharing some of the same historical memories as the protagonist. But what really distinguished this book for me was the depiction of the later in life marriage of the senior agent which did not overshadow the crime story but gave it a bittersweet resonance. Bring on the sequels!

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

I look forward to more in this new series!

I really enjoyed this book, even though I didn’t understand Brigid’s decisions some of the times, I really liked her and will definitely read the second book in this series. I was impressed to see this was this author’s first book and think she has a good career in front of her.

From the moment we meet retired FBI Agent Brigid Quinn we know she is no shrinking violet ready to buy a walker and toddle on into retirement, oh no Brigid Quinn is a badass no matter what her age is. There are times though that I was wondering about her decisions, there is actually many of them that make you go hmmm, however, I needed to know what happened next, I also needed to know why she made the decisions she did, there had to be a reason behind it. The more I learned about Brigid and why she does the things she does made me like her more and more as the book went on.

All the secondary characters are fully fleshed out and I really hope that certain people will be back, okay that was ambiguous I know, but there are characters you need to worry about to enjoy this book and I don’t want to spoil it for you.

This book is a thrill ride from beginning to end, it is a hard book to put down I didn’t ever want to stop listening. It starts out with a bang and doesn’t let up to the crazy conclusion. It kept me guessing all the way through I never had an inkling who the serial killer was and the reveal was edge of your seat screaming at Brigid get out of there, get back up, Ahhhh look out!


Judy Kaye’s narration was fabulous all of the characters and accents were very well done. She did a few different accents which felt authentic especially since the main accents were male characters it was very impressive. She brought Brigid to life flawlessly and I hope that she will continue to narrate this series because I will keep listening, I see she narrates Sue Grafton’s series and I have been meaning to re-read those so may have to start them on audio.

If you haven’t already surmised I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to this series continuing. This would be a full 5 stars but there are times you have to suspend a little belief (which stems from Brigid’s decisions) but this is a solid 4 ½ Stars.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

More, More!

I love Brigid Quinn! And Judy Kaye does a masterful job of making her real. This is a story of a retired FBI agent, a "woman of a certain age", recently married and trying to keep it all together after a, shall we say, unfortunate mishap. It's also a great who-dunnit. Ms. Masterman gives us action, suspense, and all the other goodies in all the right places. I can't wait for more from this duo.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Brigid - the new Angie Dickinson

Awesome older, female lead.
I listen to plenty of erotica and romance, but it was still so great to listen to a story primarily about middle-age or older folk. And these folk were more than capable mentally, emotionally & physically. An additional plus is that there were no millionaires & billionaires in the story easily effecting the tale and tapping into listeners'/readers' preference for all things rich. I also enjoyed getting brief glimpses of the early days of a marriage of an older couple.
The book flowed, made sense, didn't use coincidence and manufactured conflict to move the story. Plus, there were no super heroics. And I didn't know who the culprit was until Bridgett was figuring it out.
I didn't like an instance of gun-love, even though it was done by a retired female FBI agent. And I hated, hated the author referring to undocumented immigrants as "Mexican alien" and "illegals."

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great story with strong OLDER WOMAN as lead

I always rate books but only post reviews on the ones that grab me. This story grabbed and held on tight! As an "older woman" (how did that happen so fast?) I really enjoyed the strong and very capable 59-year-old lead character.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An easy winner

With a debut novel winning mystery genre awards -it is easy to vote this a darn good book. I liked the Arizona setting, retired (really?) FBI agent, her peripherals - spouse, pugs, friends. The reader adds final appeal with her rich deep voice. A lovely slice of life in Tucson with no high tech surprises and little gore.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Kept me listening, but has logical flaws in story

I enjoyed the book but several times during the story I was distracted by logic flaws in the storyline. This may not bother everyone, but it reduced my enjoyment of the book. Still, it held my interest and I appreciated the main character being an older woman with FBI training and skills. Hopefully the author will polish her writing skills a bit for the next book in the series.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful