The Island

A Thriller (A Dewey Andreas Novel, Book 9)

By: Ben Coes

Narrated by: Ari Fliakos

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

CIA operative Dewey Andreas is America's last line of defense when terrorists take over Manhattan, targeting the UN and the president himself in the latest in this New York Times best-selling series by Ben Coes.

America is about to face the deadliest terrorist attack on its soil since 9/11. Iran has been planning a revenge attack for years, with three goals in mind. Bring America to its knees. Assassinate the popular US President J. P. Dellenbaugh. And neutralize their most successful agent, Dewey Andreas. 

The first preemptive attack against Dewey Andreas fails, but it worries the head of the CIA enough that he sends Dewey out of town and off the grid. But as intelligence analysts work as fast as they can to unravel the chatter on terrorist networks, Muhammed el-Shakib, head of Iran's military and intelligence agency, launches a bold strike. When the president arrives in New York to address the UN, embedded terrorist assets blow up the bridges and tunnels that connect Manhattan to the mainland. Taking control of the island with its hidden forces, they race to the UN in search of Dellenbaugh and to launch an even deadlier attack that will wreak unimaginable destruction on the country itself. 

While a shocked country struggles to mount a counter-attack, a hopeless, outmanned, and outgunned Dewey Andreas sneaks onto the island of Manhattan to fight a seemingly impossible battle. 

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

©2021 Ben Coes (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Worth waiting for!

It has been three years since author Ben Coes released a novel in the Dewey Andreas series. The Island is worth the wait. The publisher's summary tells much more than many people want to know before listening to a novel. So if you are one of those who prefer to know little about the plot before reading a novel it's best to skip the publisher's summary. But don't skip this outstanding political thriller. Ari Fliakos narrates superbly.

This is a must listen political/espionage thriller by one of the best.

Did someone other than Ben Coes actually write this?

The long-awaited return of Dewey Andreas was quite disappointing. There were multiple issues that popped up that directly opposed what happened in previous books. The author states Dewey hated the water, but in the first book, Dewey swims from the sea floor of the Capitana to kill the terrorists. The author describes Dewey’s first wife killing herself because of the grief from losing her child, but we found out Charles Bruner ordered her killed when he was trying to recruit Dewey. The author pushed that there was no Vice President, but in the last short story, Dewey and Rob saved the child of the new Vice President. There are other issues involving Jenna that were pushed aside as well. Because of the minute by minute, real-time nature of the story, the writing and storyline felt like a poor season of 24 when they needed to use a few hours to round out the 24 episodes.

Meh

Maybe I’m just tired of the genre, but this one was hard to keep listening.
I have a few criticisms as well. First the author states that a character would “pump the trigger” and switch their weapon to “manual “. I realize I’m arguing the minutia but these are trained operators so they would squeeze the trigger or even press it not pump it. Also if the weapon is equipped with a dual stage trigger you would switch between semi auto or full auto or even 3 round burst not manual. I mean as long as you’re physically operating the weapon you’re doing it manually.
Lastly at one point in the story Andreas “rained steel down” on his adversary. Again I realize this is semantics but the projectiles fired from handguns or rifles are not made of steel, they may be steel jacketed but that wouldn’t be what’s actually being fired at the enemy. I’m confident the author knows this but it escapes me why he would word it in this fashion. I’ve become accustomed to former operators that have become authors and present these particular things using the correct vernacular.
The story really gets exciting during the last third. The preamble leading to the conclusion is blah. I preordered this book but feel like I should have tried to find a new title or series. I was excited for the continuation of Dewey’s storyline. I’m still a fan but not of this particular book.

Love Ben Coes

I literally finished this book in 2 days and absolutely loved it. Great story line, great plot set up and of course the likes of Rob and Dewey saving the day once again, with a somewhat happy ending and the end of it. Great job once again Coes. I’ve listened to all your books on Audible by the way.

DON'T STOP WRITING THIS SERIES!!!

Ben Coes just wrote the BEST ACTION PACKED & SUSPENSEFUL BOOK in the Dewey Andreas series to date. I beg him to continue the series. His books rise to the level of Brad Thor's Scott Harvath series along with the other top authors of this genre!!! KEEP WRITING BEN

Second-Rate Garbage.

Read: I’m a fan of Coes’ earlier Dewey novels.
An intelligent, well read person would not write a positive review for The Island, yet alone give it a 5-star rating. The writing is pitiful. The plot is more cliché than describing an unimaginative plot as cliché. The dialogue is unforgivably cringeworthy. And the narrator’s reading is either monotone or overly melodramatic, particularly when he attempts to use British, Russian, and Iranian accents (very badly done).
I do not recommend listening to this book. In fact, I’m returning it.

Possibly the best yet!

I *never* go back and re-listen to books. But I have a feeling I will with this one. Exceptional story. Epic!

Ari Fliakos is a very good narrator. Unfortunately, he really needs a director on stories like this, since he is unable to catch some of his own most obvious errors...inconsistent pronunciations. Is it HEZ-bul-ah, or HEZ-uh-bul-ah? That was kind of important here. And he just mispronounces quite a few terms...as if he just isn't that media literate, or he would have heard them pronounced correctly before. And...didn't take time to look them up. These aren't hard terms. And...even if he doesn't know them...what's the director's job?

Still, a super-enjoyable story. And overall, very well narrated.

Did Ben Coes really write this?

I’m not trying to be funny but I really have to wonder if the same person wrote this as the previous books in the series. It’s almost like it was written by someone who is passingly familiar with the characters and past plot lines. There are so many inconsistencies that it’s hard to keep track. For example: first wife suicide/ first wife murdered; new Vice President sworn in/ no Vice President chosen; past enemy dead/ past enemy still alive, etc

But worse than the change in concrete facts is a change in the tone of the book that is hard to describe. Beyond obvious character changes like having Dewey suddenly hate/ fear water when he previously had many experiences that showed he didn’t; his actions and dialogue just aren’t consistent with his established persona.

I don’t know whether there were big changes in the editing team, the author, or what, but this book just did not meet the standard set in the earlier ones. I finished it, but for the first time have to say I didn’t enjoy a Dewey Andreas book.

What a disappointment

Like a many readers I have been waiting for a new Dewey Andreas book as I have always enjoyed the past novels. The Island was a huge disappointment! Too many characters, far too much description of settings that seemed totally unnecessary and a plot that jumped around making it difficult to follow. And, many of my favorite characters from past books were either not included or hardly had a role. I feel like I wasted my time and my Audible credit listening to it!

Impossible to stop listening

The island is a superb audiobook! Best selling author Ben Coes has delivered his most entertaining action thriller yet. It was impossible for me to stop listening. The events in this story are really scary and I think that I am not the only one who thinks that they should never come to fruition.

Ari Fliakos returns as the narrator of choice for this amazing series and he wants again does a fantastic job with the narration and with bringing all the characters to life. He switches seamlessly between voices and accents and he manages to keep the listener hyped for the entire duration of the audiobook.
Fans of Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum should definitely keep an eye on this gripping action thriller!