The Enigma Rising

The Enigma Series, Volume 2

By: Charles V. Breakfield, Roxanne E. Burkey

Narrated by: Derek Shoales

The disappearance of a wealthy Brazilian industrialist’s daughter, Lara, causes Thiago to hire the world's most elite information-gathering unit, the R-Group, to quietly locate and return her.

Is the heiress in trouble and gone forever or merely hiding in plain sight to escape her destiny?

While vacationing in Mexico, Petra and Jacob, R-Group operatives, cross paths with “Bad Boys”, Carlos and Juan, who are cloaking their drug-lord moving business from satellite surveillance. These so-called entrepreneurs force even the most generous observer to question the legality of their business model.

If Carlos and Juan are identified, can they stop running outside the law long enough to do the right thing?

The R-Group members operating from South America, Mexico, and Switzerland are assembling the pieces of these puzzles while avoiding international consequences. Will they discover the culprits?

The award-winning Breakfield and Burkey story draws you into a techno-thriller that focuses on overcoming opportunistic cyber-crime in the high-stakes world of information brokering in today’s 21st century.

“…the story will hold readers’ attention until its unsettling conclusion.” (Kirkus)

©2017 ICABOD Press (P)2023 Enigma Series LLC

Felt like a short stretched to make a full book.

The second book in this tech series felt like a slight misstep in some aspects. It felt like it would have worked better as the initial part of another book, or a short. It has really no antagonist pushing the story forward, and rather just incidental bad guys that are encountered at convenient points in the story. The book seemed to replace any intrigue and thriller aspects in this outing for character drama, and an introduction into new players. I supposed if I went into this not expecting a tech thriller it might not have left a sour taste in my mouth.

The narration by Derek Shoales was fun, varied and paced nicely. I hope the future books in this story move back to more thriller than drama or at least equal parts. I still like lot of the main movers and shakers of the series, but just felt like this outing didn't live up to the potential it could have.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Thoroughly Entertaining Romp!

If you like tech and cyber thrillers... check this out. I love the level of detail in the technology used in the book. You can tell the authors really know their stuff when it comes to tech. They also have a knack of creating characters we care about (or despise whatever the case may be). The whole idea of the R-Group is also intriguing especially considering that the group was formed from the folks who decoded the Nazi Enigma machine playing an integral part in winning World War II. I can't wait to listen to the next book in the series.

The threat expands

The story grows in complexity and risk, connecting well with the first book. The tone is more serious and the threat more tangible. The narrator brings energy and constant tension and maintains a steady pace even in the most technical passages.

Thriller but not technothriller

The R-group is hired this time to find the daughter of a powerful man. Petra and Jacob travel to Mexico and there they meet Carlos and Simone, which rapidly becomes Petra’s friend. But Carlos and his brother Juan are mixed in some dangerous stuff.

I really enjoyed the previous book, so I was looking forward to this one. Even though this is the second book in the series, it is not a continuation of the previous book and could be read standalone. If the previous book was very technology centered, the same does not happen with this one, which is something I missed.

We get to know better Jacob and Petra, but even like that they didn’t feel fully fleshed to me. Petra started a sudden friendship with Simone that felt completely artificial to me. The conversations the girls had did not feel natural at all, so I disliked this part.

It was an entertaining thriller, but for me not at the level of the previous book. It felt slowly paced at some points, and the girls’ conversations were definitely skippable.

This book is narrated by a different narrator than the first book. Derek Shoales does a good job with accents and voices, but the book is so loaded with accents that it becomes a bit tiresome after a while. Not Shoales fault, he did very good a differentiating characters and keep things consistent.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the producer in exchange for an honest review.

Fascinating book

I also love the narrators who can place emphasis where it needs to be.  One of my pet peeves is a monotone, dull narrator that drives me nuts. Shoales does a good enough job to grab your attention and bring you into the story. Shoales grabs your attention enough to follow the story and invest in each character. His pacing and emphasis added to the depth of the characters.