Book Review: Drive by John Nuckel (Audiobook Version)

Today I’m pleased to bring you an audio book review by The AudioBook Guy. It’s one I think I’m going to have to track down in *real* book form, so be sure to check it out. Enjoy!

About the Book
In the late 1800s, a secret society was formed by a captain from Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders with the support of the nation’s leading industrialists and bankers. Over a century later, the tradition continues in the same saloons and boardrooms of New York City, where it all began.

In this crime thriller, where history and current events unite, Woodbury Kane, Jacob Riis, and Roosevelt himself fight the tyranny of Tammany Hall in the first mission of the volunteers during the turn of the last century.

In today’s New York, the descendants of the volunteers recruit Annie Falcone, a New York police officer, who takes the oath: et omnia recta. She is to provide protection to one man, America’s top technological mind, from his longtime adversary Sheng, China’s most brutal hacker.

Annie is unaware that she’s merely a decoy to draw Sheng out for the hit squad that was sent ahead of her. Her instincts alone will be the force behind the success or failure of the mission. Like so many other volunteers before her, Annie’s survival depends upon her courage, skill, and drive.

The Review
This was a very fun book and I would definitely like to continue with the series.

I don’t listen to a lot of books that go back-and-forth in history the way this one did. I was a little worried it would make it hard to listen to, switching like that. But the date and time shifts were easy to follow. The characters had great backstory – both the real historical figures and the made up ones. I liked the way real people like Teddy Roosevelt were built into the story, combining facts with fictional story and action.

You’ll have to judge the narrator for yourself. I thought he was fine, with a nice voice, but it seemed like he was getting inflection wrong – but consistently. Which made me think he did it on purpose, even though it felt wrong. It was a little weird and distracting for me.

And the overall tone felt a little more like Young Adult than an adult title. Not so much in the subject matter, as in the way things were handled. It wasn’t a problem, just felt more light-hearted and lighter in tone than the stuff I usually listen to (think Jack Reacher, Lincoln Rhyme, etc.), which surprised me.

About the Author
A lifelong New Yorker, author John Nuckel harnessed his own drive to rise from the impoverished circumstances of his childhood to become a successful stockbroker and family man. His second career, as a novelist, allows him to marry his love of New York City history with his talent for telling a grand tale in the tradition of his Irish ancestors. His Rector Street series includes the novels The Vig, GRIT, and Blind Trust.

Thanks to the author and Author Marketing Experts for our obligation-free review copy.