Red Phoenix

Thomas Caine Thriller Series, Book 2

By: Andrew Warren

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

Betrayed and left for dead by his CIA handler, Thomas Caine suffered captivity and torture. He was hunted for crimes he did not commit. And he was forced to watch his partner die, gunned down before his eyes.

Now, he has found the man responsible for all his pain and suffering. But the cost of revenge may prove too high. His target reveals that Caine's partner had a son, now a young man, named Sean. And Sean is in terrible danger.

To save him, Caine will have to journey through the cities and villages of the most populous country on the planet: The People's Republic of China.

There, he and Sean find themselves tangled in a dangerous conspiracy. To survive, they must fight NSA killers, escape a secret black jail, and struggle against a power-mad triad gangster determined to cement his family's dynasty.

But Caine's most dangerous enemy is a deadly double agent, stalking them from the shadows. Their identity is unknown. Their motives are unclear. And their methods are 100 percent lethal. They are known only by their code name: Red Phoenix.

Can Thomas Caine unravel the identity of this mysterious assassin before they strike their killing blow?

©2016 Andrew Warren (P)2017 Tantor

This series keeps getting better & better!

Wow! This book and narrator really surprised me. This is the third book in this series if you include the prequel. I thought book #1 was good but didn't think the narrator did good. This book has the same narrator but this time Jonathan Davis does an outstanding job.

The book is packed full of nonstop action. I can't add anything to the synopsis without giving anything away. The protagonist, Thomas Caine is very much like other independent agents of this genre. He has his own backstory of course , that of betrayal and loss and revenge. He also has the deadly skills to carry out his plans. In this book the Red Phoenix did shock me when finally exposed. But what was really a surprise was when they joined forces against the multiple antagonists.
All I can say is GET THE BOOK!!
This one has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
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I struggle with rating this novel

Red Phoenix is the second novel the Thomas Caine Thriller series. There is also a short story prequel. I have listened to all three books in the series. I decided to wait some time to consider how to rate and review this novel. The strong points of Red Phoenix are almost continuous action, intense suspense, and an interesting espionage plot that is set in China but pits the US CIA against the US NSA. The weak point is and almost total lack of character development; after listening to all three series books I know almost nothing about the protagonist and the other repeating characters. The issue for me is how to weigh the real strengths of Red Phoenix (the novel, not the female Chinese character in this book with that nickname) against the lack of character development.

The series prequel, titled Devil's Due, was narrated superbly by Bryan L Anderson. Jonathan Davis, who is a far more experienced narrator, narrated Tokyo Black (Book 1) and Red Phoenix. Davis' narration of Tokyo Black was horrid because when dealing with emotional content and dialog he drastically increased the volume of his voice to at least twice a loud as when the content was not emotional. Davis solved that issue with Red Phoenix and did a nice job.

After 30 hours in listening to this series I know far too little about the background of the main characters and what drives them. For comparison consider the Victor the Assassin series by British writer Tom Wood where we do not know even the name of the protagonist. But we do know quite a bit about what drives him, how he operates, and the limits he places on himself. The Victor series is character driven. In the case of the Thomas Caine thriller series author Andrew Warren has substituted continuous action for character development. I find that unfulfilling.

Dragon Father

If you are a fan of the talented reader Jonathan Davis as I am, you buy just about anything he reads! My top fave, Sandra Brown's Mean Streak, which brought him to my attention.
Unfortunately, Mr Davis reads lots of Sci Fi, not my genre, so I get what authors I can.

Both of the reviewers I follow, Shelly and Wayne are spot on about this author. I am not too critical about mysteries as I don't listen to them continuously, so as long as it doesn't have horror and gore, I'm good. This is a fast action mystery that entertains. Author has lots of room for character development in his future books/series. Author gives you a complete mystery in this book and still builds in his next adventure to come. I started with this book as Shelly recommended it. Now I will go back and buy book #1 as I love Mr. Davis reading this author.
If Mr. Davis reads the next one or #3, then I'm in.
I hope my comments helped you?

Great story! Amazing performance!

Again great story! Amazing performance! I just could not stop and when I did... I was replaying in my mind in order to reassure that I did not miss anything. Can't wait to read the next one in this series.

An exciting op through Asia

Having read the previous 2 volumes taking place in Thailand, (Devil's Due) then Tokyo (Tokyo Black), you might think this one is set in Arizona, but no, it's set in China, and the Phoenix mentioned is not the city, but the agent's name.

Caine had to let his enemy go, and now there are new problems. There are people turned traitor because of leverage held by bad guys, but it's hard to tell who they are. It has been a few years since the betrayal (Caines back story) and now Caine has to finally honor his promise to look after his former partner's son.

Caine is awesome as he outruns the CIA, his former handlers, the Chinese triads, the Chinese government special agents, and just regular police! It might not all be believable, but it is exciting and captivating. The ending is good, with interpersonal complications all around. It's all very realistic.

It is dangerous to write about people speaking a language you don't speak. I don't speak Thai or Japanese, so I don't know if there were any problems in those books, but I DO speak Chinese, and there are lots of problems with the language in this one. The author needs to have a native speaker check his dialog; it looks as if he used Google translate, and it fails spectacularly. He uses the word for huge disaster FIRE to mean FIRE the gun, shoot. Nope, doesn't work except in English. There are plenty of others. Authors today cannot assume we readers don't know anything. He did get a lot of the flavor of Chinese cities, trains, food, and life right, and this made the story more of a pleasure to read. Please, Mr. Warren, before you set the next book in Korea, or elsewhere, please get a real speaker of the language to consult!

The narrator does a great job with most of the book. His Chinese accent on English is very good. He also does his best with the Chinese language pronunciations, bless his heart, but no one thought to coach him in reading the Pinyin spelling! He does the only thing he can and falls back on English and Spanish reading of the spellings.

Still, this is an exciting book to listen to, and we eagerly await the next. There are still scores to settle.

Excitable narrator

The author never met a cliche he didn't think was original. Action scenes get the reader al worked up, but he doesn't know which words to emphasize. The plot is convoluted, unnecessarily. It's good enough to keep listening, but regrettable as eating too many donuts.

A fast paced, action packed thriller through to

A fast paced, action packed thriller through to the end. Ocassionally sounding a little over the top this one did keep me interested enough to finish it. Almost a James Bond type of story that didn't quite click with my frame of mind at the time but certainly a page turner. Second tier for me.