The Enigma Rising

By: Charles V. Breakfield, Roxanne E. Burkey

Narrated by: Derek Shoales

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

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)2017 Enigma Series LLC

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.

2 people found this helpful

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.

1 person found this helpful

Great series!

I'm really enjoying this series so far. It has a complex storyline and spans several genres. I really got to know the characters a lot better in this book. I also enjoyed the fact that multiple concurrent plots simultaneously came together in the end, and provided a little relief from the constant action.

1 person found this helpful

Good second book in the series

Wasn’t sure if books had to be read in sequence after book one or not. Good story, very different adventure, did not have my interest as much as book one as the story plot was much different. However, had to keep listening, just when I was about to say ok got it, a new twist would happen.

Narrator over acts some roles imho but many characters and one voice.

1 person found this helpful

A well conceived combination of plot and players.

This being my first book in The Enigma Series to read, I found the main characters, their talents and dynamic relationships to be superbly established very early on. The frequent contrast of friends, family, combined with a seemingly common moral compass operating in very high-performing and clandestine professional associations and situations made for a very exciting book. Very often so many sub-plots would be unfolding simultaneously in multiple global locations I would find myself constantly assessing the personal relationships of the players and assembling their professional interrelations as the multiple opposing objectives continued to develop and ultimately coalesce into a grand climax. Before re-reading this book, I felt compelled to read the first book in this Enigma Series, Enigma Factor, to better understand how the cyber-crime fighting organization itself came into being in the first place. I was not disappointed. This is but one great book from a great series.

1 person found this helpful

Lots of fun!

I really enjoy this book and look forward to next one! The search for certian people was very realistic to me. I loved all the tech too, but I dont want to spoil anything for future readers!

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

1 person found this helpful

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.

1 person found this helpful

An education in smuggling

I love, love, love this series and am learning so much.
They have taken smuggling to a whole nuther' level
Pour little Laura I am pulling for her, when she leaves her fathers umbrella of protection to pursue a modeling/acting career she finds out how grimey the real world can be.
Kept me on the edge of my seat.

1 person found this helpful

Interesting, complex, funny and worth your time

First off this is a long listen, Narrations are decent and you know what character is speaking. The storyline is a mix between soap opera / kardashian / real life.... involving major drug dealers figuring out how to make more money by being smarter and more efficient at the same time living their daily lives. You hear first hand how the characters use banking and secure communications planes etc.. to make it in the world (yes - offshore) at the same time still being funny throughout the book. Some areas had me laughing for awhile (still laughing). This isn’t a book for the little ones to hear, there are some parts that had me cringing. It is a complicated story and you can get lost in areas, more than once I had to back up and listen again, But that’s ok, it’s that good of a story. I think this will become a movie one day, the storyline is that good.
Overall...a good long listen, intriguing, funny and worth your time.

1 person found this helpful

Fabulous narration

For a techno thriller, there wasn’t much tech and, IMO, the thrills were few and far between. The story lacked flow with all the different storylines and seemed forced in places, especially the dialogue between characters. I had a hard time staying with it and, if not for the narration, I don’t think I would’ve finished the book. Derek Shoales did a FABULOUS job with all the different character voices and accents. I hope to hear more of his narrations in the future. I received a review copy at my request and voluntarily reviewed.

1 person found this helpful

Not What I Expected

After reading the first book, I was interested to continue Jacob and Petra's story, especially since I loved all of the technology present in The Enigma Factor.

And while this book is good, I was slightly surprised that it didn't seem to be a continuation of the first, nor did it have the same amount of technology present. It seemed to be a side story. But don't let that make you think that the story wasn't good, it really was, it just wasn't what I expected.

I have a lot of the same comments with this book as I did with the last one regarding how forced the romance felt, however I did notice an improvement on character development with some of the background characters. A lot of the scenes carried more detailed descriptions which really improved the realisticness of the story; however the sex scenes (also present in the first book) also increased, which I certainly didn't care for.

So overall, I like the premise of the The Enigma series and so far I like the characters, but I'm not in love with it. The sex scenes present also repel me for enjoying it like I would've had they been left out. Because there are still 6 (almost 400 pages...) books left in the series, I'll likely not be finishing the entire series.

I received this audiobook from the author via AudioBookWorm for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

This is a LiteratureApproved (.com) Review.

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Any additional comments?

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

I really enjoyed this book, and I much prefer this book to #1 in the series. It looked deeper into Jacob, Petra and Otto, as well as looking into the other members of the R-Group. As in book 1, my favourite part of the novel is the character development and the character interactions, which was excellent.

I did struggle with the plot a bit, because there was a lot of moving parts that I struggled to link together. It reminded me a bit of the Jack Reacher novels with all the moving parts of the plot. The tech aspects did again feel overdone, but not as bad as the previous novel.

An amazing techno-thriller

The amount of knowledge on display by the authors in terms of technology makes me wonder what these guys can do. That's not to say that this is a boring book that just talks about how things work. No. It's a thrill ride that you want to strap yourself in for. Amazing storytelling throughout from the descriptions of the situations and environment to the crafting of characters that you are on the side of and love to those that you really love to hate.
It's also packed with twists and turns, although not so many that your head is spinning - they all make sense in retrospect. It's got some great ideas in here but also it's easy to listen too. Which in itself is an amazing skill.
If you like an action novel with cyber crime, mystery elements giving you plot twists which is also really easy to get into then the solution is simple. Read this book!

Also the narration of the characters and the story is great. For me it drew me in from the start and really added to the atmosphere of the book.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

So cute when they become animated

The information gatbering R group searches for a missing heiress and also investigates the disappearing drugs lords and their accumulated assets. Along the way, it uncovers financial and identity laundering, pornography and fashion, friendship, sex and romance together with a host of colourful characters and a blurring of distinction between criminal activity and Bad Boy rogues. A slow action thriller which would benefit from reduction in length, densely filled as it is with meticulous conversation which is often unnecessary and sometimes feels stilted and, frankly, silly. This is, presumably, to reinforce character identity and authenticity but which for this reader became tedious. It is also somewhat patronising towards the female protagonists.

Narrator Derek Shoeles has a pleasant to hear voice and he reads well, with good pace and clear delivery. There is not much differentiation between voices, other than through myriad assorted accents, some sounding rather spurious, but this in no way diminishes the performance overall.

A good story is buried beneath the over-verbiage, however. A stand alone story, second in the series, which first introduced the Group and it''s cyber expertise as well some of the characters in book one. My thanks to the rights holder of The Enigma Rising for gifting me a complimentary copy, via Audiobook Boom at my request and without expectation of any return. This review is entirely my own.

fantastic reading!

I thought t h e narration was really good, applying accents and pitch to segment the characters.

being in IT, I thought the technical aspects were spot on. the level of detail was enough to carry the motion, but would not overwhelm a non-tech.

this being only my second in the series, I'm looking forward to the next!!

give it a go, it's enjoyable reading (listening), for sure!!