The Saboteurs

Men at War, Book 5

By: W. E. B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth IV

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

If coincidence had thrown these men together in any normal military organization, and if, improbably, they had become buddies there, any commanding officer with enough sense would have broken up the gang as threats to "good military order and discipline."

But they weren't in any normal military organization. They were in the Office of Strategic Services.

The Battle of the Atlantic is at its peak. Packs of German U-boats are hunting and sinking U.S. supply ships. Ships are burning at their moorings in U.S. ports, and a series of explosions has afflicted trains and train stations around the country - is it all accidental or is it sabotage?

Meanwhile, Allied forces are secretly preparing to invade first Sicily and then Italy, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done beforehand, some with the most unlikely of helping hands.

As the war heats up, "Wild Bill" Donovan's agents - Dick Canidy, Eric Fulmar, Stan Fine, and the rest of the crew, answerable only to Donovan and the president - suddenly find themselves battling on two fronts at once...and fate is just about to deal them a few surprises.

©2006 William E. Butterworth IV (P)2006 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"Indelicate language peppers the dialogue, and many close calls threaten lives. From the beginning, readers will surmise that the good guys win, but they will want to read all the way through - just to make sure." ( Booklist)
"[David Colacci's] delivery is smooth, natural, and more versatile than one might expect of his rich baritone voice. His pace is just right, too, and he's accomplished at building suspense." ( AudioFile)

Don't buy the "abridged" edition.

I mistakenly clicked on the "abridged" edition offered. BAD idea. Stick with this one. The abridged edition story is distracted by totally unrelated background music. ??? The music does not fit the mood of the narrative and is frankly stupid. I have many of W.E.B. Griffin's series in my library (audio and hardback). The abridgement with music is a disservice.

WEB Griffin one of the best

WEB Griffin is a brilliant writer. The Men at War series is excellent. A must listen

can't belive the askew guy read this book

if you love Griffin and hardly made it through the last one in this series because of the narrators voice don't worry you can't believe it's the sane guy.

Not on par with some, but better than most

I love all of WEB, Griffin books, this one is good and entertaining, but not his best in the series. Undaunted, I continue to the next.

11 hour book with 4 hour new story

Would you try another book from W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth and/or David Colacci?

Yes I would BUT I do skip the clift notes of all the books that lead up to this one

If you’ve listened to books by W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth before, how does this one compare?

It doesn't flow as well as the first ones in the series

What does David Colacci bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

You can close your eyes and feal like your there.

Was The Saboteurs worth the listening time?

yes it was

Well done!

The narrator did a much better job than Scott Brick on the 2 previous books. Good story, but could have used more action. This one was a lot more in depth with the antagonist. Will continue reading this incredible series.

Stv

Enjoyed this book,well written.Story flows through each. Carther. In depth story about J.Hover and has control over the FBI

Great read!

Well written book, enjoyed it thoroughly! The orally read book
makes it completely available when driving or otherwise occupied....

disappointing

I love Griffin's books and the way he writes. I did not enjoy this one and couldn't wait for it to be done. There really wasn't much to it and it appeared he hurried up to finish the ending. Bummer because I really enjoy his work. He could have left this one out of the series.

Rehash of rehash

I begin this by stating I love WEB Griffin's books, the earlier series. The Corps was my first introduction to reading novels for my own enjoyment and I have been hooked on WEB III since. These later episodic adventures written with more and more co-authoring by 'IV' are almost without exception overly drawn into rehashing the prior books. I am currently at the end of The Corps series (first time in audio format) and although there were 8 prior editions there is a clear lack of intention to rehash each and every event which took place to build character understanding. These types of drawn out explanations, to my opinion, serve no real purpose other than to fill space or time (depending on your method of enjoyment), they certainly do not aide in fleshing out the story. If they accomplish anything it is to distract new listeners/readers from the fact there is no real backbone to the story.

There does appear to have been another hand at the quill with the final books in The Corps series, (I am currently 2/3's through book 9) but not for the extended periods of time said hand was allowed to devote to the newer series and certainly not a verbatim recitation of the prior novel so familiar to those frequent readers of WEB IV's work. WEB III spent far more time with character development, and to be honest, he did let some details fall to the wayside from book to book, but not enough to notice if you are not binge listening ;). I truly hope WEB IV continues to mature as a writer and loses the need to retell the entire story with each book, either that or he should consider an opus format allowing the entirety of the story line to play out in one War & Peace format and leave it at that.

The narrator on the other hand does a decent job of portraying the characters however, not memorable enough to make me seek out additional performances as did George Guidall and Eric Dove whose work on other readings were prone to do.