Saint Justice

Christopher Wren Thrillers, Book 1

By: Mike Grist, Michael John Grist

Narrated by: Nick Cracknell

Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Like Rapp, Ryan, Reacher, or Bourne? Meet Wren.

Christopher Wren is a legendary figure feared the world over. Whispers call him a ghost, shredding evil organizations and putting their leaders in the ground. But he's not just a legend.

Born into a murderous family, Wren had to master the dark skill of human manipulation just to survive. It made him the perfect weapon against terror - until he broke with the CIA in the midst of personal tragedy and fled into the wilderness of Utah.

There, Wren stumbles on something truly shocking. Hundreds of human cages hidden in a desert warehouse, emptied only hours earlier. A woman's name scrawled in blood on a Chicago store receipt.

The trail of suffering leads east, and Wren has no choice but to follow - plunging into a fight for his life against a swirling conspiracy of wild-eyed extremists.

Old secrets are stirring. Dark figures from the past return seeking vengeance. Christopher Wren stands ready to greet them with a headbutt in the face.

The acclaimed Christopher Wren novels are each a complete action adventure, and can be listened to in any order.

"Addictive, intelligent, edge-of-your seat writing - as urgent and gripping as it gets!" (Oliver Harris, best-selling thriller author)

Get started on this fast-paced action thriller now. 

©2018 Mike Grist (P)2020 Mike Grist

Violent and action packed thriller

This one took a few days for me to digest because of the level of violence and the cruelness that can easily be inflicted by humans. What Wren comes face-to-face with can be easily expected in today's world, where racism is abundant and human trafficking is a given, most people not batting an eye with regards to missing people not directly in their circle of family/friends. Wren is not a particularly likable person, having been through his own horrors and tragedies, violence is second nature to him, but his attention is firmly on the bad guys. Yes, you would want a guy like Wren on your side, but be very afraid if your paths cross: there is very little he will stop at between the truth and his perception of justice.

I wasn't too impressed with the narrator. His lilt in the narration was a little too 'reading off the page' and not telling a story, so that I annoyed me a bit. There is a point in the book that you get used to it though, especially as the narration of speech was pretty decent and there were some special effects thrown in.

*NB: I received a free copy for an honest review

What a complete waste of time. Don't bother...

Wow, I wanted so bad to like this story. The author has promise but this is by far the most ludicrous plot I have ever heard. Not one single character in the book is either likable or even appealing. Another troubled super spy/assassin with a tortured past. Apparently Christopher Wren sees himself as the lone arbiter of good and evil. And why not since his is apparently the smartest guy in the world. Certainly smarter than the combined might of all of the intelligence forces the country has to offer. Fact of the matter the guy is nothing but a thug that seems to get off on controlling other peoples lives. Lucky for him he can put out calls on the "dark web" and instantly summon the forces of hell on his enemies at a moment's notice. Even taking all of this nonsense at face value ( a very large ask) we are still left with the ridiculous one dimensional "enemy" that Mr Wren is single handedly fighting. I guess it is good that the woke crowd finally have a thriller to warn about the simplistic right wing crazies. I suspect the author may want to give a little more thought to what made other books in this genre successful. He also might want to think about learning something about how the world works and at least learn to describe a believable fight scene. But given the "plot" of an unseen army of kidnapped homeless people fighting for the new whites only society I strongly suspect he is simply trying to trade his mediocre story telling ability for a few sales to the left side of the country. At the very least, maybe he can come up with a main character that's not a complete ass to everyone he meets. Tortured hero? More like complete psychopath with a god complex. Total trash sorry to say. The narrator was good so there is that...

painful!

painfully struggled to finish. numerous repetitions. boring narration. confusing intricate self dialogue from main character.

Who recorded this in their garage?

No fault of the narrator, but it sounds like he is speaking with his head inside a metal trash can or inside a locker. Makes the entire book, less enjoyable.

Could be better.

The author has potential, but liberal cliches are peppered throughout. He needs to take a look at the characters of Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, and Alex Cross.

Decent story, TERRIBLE narration - Not Orphan X

The story is pretty decent, but the narration is so bad I can't concentrate on the story.

The narrator's tone rises at the end of each sentence. It sounds like a high school kid reading a report to the class. I tried to get through it but I finally gave up.
.
I'm returning the Audible and downloading the kindle

if you're looking for a great, similar Audible story and narration check out the Orphan X series.

boring

could not take the misery of listening to a boring story. I tried. made it a few chapters hoping it would get better. story line cringe worthy

Lousy audio

The presentation is awful. This book is something I would not recommend to anyone. It starts slow and you never know where it’s going. Why is it now a days everything is about white supremacy does the Auther think it would sell more copies.

What a great start to a series

This the first Mike Grist book I have read. Christopher Wren is an intense and wonderful character. This story is gripping and excitingly unpredictable. I feel like anything I can say is a spoiler for this novel. If you like action, and conflict on more than on front this is a book for you. I am eager to continue the series. Nick Cracknell did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life and his narration brought the emotional angst of this novel to the forefront.

Action Packed Adventure!

An action packed complex novel with a compelling storyline, unrealistic plot, and not likeable characters. This book was enjoyable with lots of violence, plenty of suspense, and a well developed main character. The narrative in the audio was very well done. A highly recommended novel and audio for those that can get around all the violence.

An enjoyable thriller

Saint Justice is the first in author Mike Grist's Christopher Wren series. I already had a copy on my kindle but was happy to take up the offer of a free Audible download code. The book would probably have gathered dust on the device otherwise, whereas I had the commute to and from work and a few solitary hours each day in my workplace to blast through it. It was an ideal companion in that respect.

More thrillerish in tone and pace and content than my usual reading, I quite liked it without ever feeling stunned or amazed. There's a requirement for some suspension of disbelief going in, but nothing totally outlandish or ridiculous.

We have the main character Christopher Wren trying to prevent an all out race war in the US. Wren is a conflicted character. As we get some of his back story through the book, we learn he himself heads a cult, he previously escaped from a cult and he has some severed links and acrimonious history with some alphabet soup intelligence agencies. He's ex-military, I think and has worked undercover in a variety of hostile overseas environments, aided by his darker than white skin tone.

In a nutshell, Wren has to take down a biker gang in order to get closer to the man pulling the strings and trying to manufacture a racial civil war in the states. Part of our villain's masterplan involves abducting homeless citizens en masse from the streets and re-educating/brainwashing them with his white suprecamist dogma before lighting the spark. Wren with law enforcement on his back, tries to utilise his own network to foil the plot.

Quite gung-ho and violent, decent pace and a fairly topical plot line in respect of the increasing radicalisation of people fostering Alt-Right sentiments in both Europe and the US and our hero's efforts to thwart them.

Cults, bikers, beatings, a race war, intelligence agencies, law enforcement, the dark web, a fugitive, the homeless, PTSD, abduction, brain washing, friendship, loyalty, trust, a coin system, suspicion, beatings, murder, executions, past histories - personal and political, a hunt, sacrifice, fire, death, etc etc... more of the same - then an outcome.

I wasn't totally blown away by the book and it might have been prudent to have had a few large pinches of salt close to my earphones on occasions, but overall I was entertained and the time spent immersed in the book flew by. Lots of excitement throughout and there was some elements of humour sown into the dialogue and interactions with Wren and both friend and foe. Definitely there was a lot more to like than take issue with. The book succeeded in it's purpose of entertaining.

I'd be curious to see what mischief Wren gets up to in the second installment of Grist's series - Monsters.

Overall 3.5 from 5

Read - (listened to) April, 2020
Published - 2019
Page count - 480 (8 hrs 26 mins)
Source - Audible download code received from the author
Format - Audible

https://col2910.blogspot.com/2020/05/mike-grist-saint-justice-2019.html

great plot

Interesting characters and a good read. I am looking forwards to what Wren gets up to next.

It's on you to make better choices

Reformed cu!t leader and ex CIA operative, Christopher Wren, still needs to satisfy his addictive nature by punishing himself, and a beating in a biker bar leads him into unexpected danger and a conspiracy which threatens the entire USA. This is a refreshingly different thriller, full of action and unexpected twists, even if the amount of punishment inflicted seemed too great to be humanly sustainable. The lead character is certainly a weird one.

Saint Justice certainly held this reader's attention from The introductory chapter through to the very last sentence. And that is all down to the intriguing g story and, of course, the excellent narration of Nick Cracknell, who reads with understated emotion, clearly, with good inflection and pacing, as well as giving each protagonist, make or female, an appropriate and distinctive voice. A fine performance.

I was fortunate in being freely gifted with a complimentary copy of Saint Justice, at my request, by the rights holder via Audiobook Boom. Thank you. It was an enjoyable read with some very concerning undertones and I certainly recommend it to all who like action filled thrillers with slightly unconventional heroes.