Jay Tinsiano

Frank Bowen Conspiracy Thriller Series: Books 1-3 by Jay Tinsiano and narrated by Chris MacDonnell is an audible book set I requested and the review is voluntary. These books are very intriguing and exciting with plenty of action and adventure. After the first book I wondered why Frank would even trust his guys to give him another assignment! Book two he ended up in yet another predicament because of them! Ugh! Each book is a few years apart so maybe he forgot but I don't think I would! I don't want to tell you why to spoil it! The third book was kind of payback or karma, lol! I don't normally read or listen to shovels but I am trying to expand my horizons! I truly enjoyed these books.

Book1, False Flag, was a very intense politically thriller about a man set up as a terrorist while in Hong Kong. He was working for for the UK government at the time. The UK government is after him and the Hong Kong government. Soon Lots of governments have his picture. There is a lot of twists and turns, action, adventure, suspense, and a slight touch of romance in here. Fast paced.

Book 2 is Pandora Red and it is just as much a suspenseful thriller as book one. There are secret files that show how the UK is spying on it's people. Everyone wants the file and will do anything to get it. It is the UK version of the Snowden files! Government never admits wrong doing and accuses the whistleblower. But the story here is totally different! Wild and action packed! Our guy must quit trusting his MI6 friend!

Book 3, Ghost Order, deals with transporting an American from point A to B, no airplane, and keep him alive. There are a lot of people wanting him. They don't care how many or who the kill to get him. I liked this one best.

This was a great set and I probably wouldn't have read it if I hadn't made the effort to expand my wings!
The narration was wonderful, just like a British spy novel should sound in my head! Lol!… (más)

My original Pandora Red audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Frank Bowen and his Mi6 team are tasked with tracking down Pandora, the code named data security employee whole stole highly classified information. If the data is released, it could bring down the government and possibly the entire security organizations of the British secret service. Not known to the British agents is that a second team of Russian assassins were also hired to recover the data and kill anyone in the way including Frank and his team.

The action moves quickly as the teams follow tenuous leads to Central America and the Caribbean. Pandora knows how important the data is and has covered her tracks well, but maybe not well enough for the combined resources of the expert spy networks. Gun battles, car chases, and murder move through the novel as the teams get close to each other and Pandora. Who will get there first is a race against time and survival?

Pandora Red is generally fast paced with episodes of internal contemplation and conspiracy revelations as the listener must decide who are the villains and who are the heroes. The discoveries of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden come to mind and give authenticity to the scope and importance to the data breach. The balance of personal freedom and a government’s desire to track terrorists is in play. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The action is enjoyable, but not that much of the story. It is more about Frank’s push from company man to the limits of his loyalty. He has a moral compass and a good judge of character and is not afraid to use them.

The story is performed by Chris MacDonnell who does a generally excellent job. He delivers the action in an understated stiff-upper lip kind of way. The characters are easily discernible, but sometimes the female characters don’t match what might be in the listener's mind. This is very minor and doesn’t detract from a very good performance.

Pandora Red is a thoughtful spy action novel. It may not be as action packed as some listeners might crave, but has enough interesting characters to keep a steady pace. It is an enjoyable listen with a realistic topical subject that should satisfy most enthusiasts of a government conspiracy.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher.… (más)

My original False Flag audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

False Flag was a genre within a genre for me. While I do enjoy thrillers immensely I haven’t actually read (or listened to) a political conspiracy thriller. So I was very excited.

Frank, who just broke up with his girlfriend and has a bit of a dark history, decides to take off on holiday, presumably to discover himself, and lands up in Goa, a beach resort, in India. Here he meets a couple of unsavoury characters who seem thoroughly innocent at first but are actually pawns in the game of Xiangqi. He does what any innocent tourist would do, he gets recommendations from other tourists and locals at each destination and following these leads gets him into a world of trouble.

A bomb goes off, another bomb goes off, a man is dead and he’s on the run. I didn’t enjoy the story up until this point. From here on it got a little exciting and eventful.But it picks up after he gets into Bangkok.

The beginning parts of this book felt like an elaborate background painting with no exciting additions to keep the reader thrilled. While the author hints at a past for Frank his interactions with his friends seems forced and it feels as though it has been dragged a little too much to create a reason for him to be running away from something that isn’t specified. Also, the locales should have been further explored. As someone who has been to Goa often it felt like the author hadn’t exploited the location as well as he could have. Once Jimmy comes into the picture though, it moved quickly and kept on the same way till about half an hour from the end.

After it picks up the author manages to maintain a fast pace, keeping you on your tiptoes and waiting to see how everything unravels. The only gripe I have is that it was rather obvious midway who the culprit was. The point of a mystery thriller is to keep things mysterious and it wasn’t as mysterious as I had hoped it would be. I won’t say who it is, listen for yourself to find out.

Now about the narrator, Chris MacDonnell, whom I did not enjoy. I’m someone who likes the age of the narrator to sound like the age of the main character. The narrator sounds very old and it did not suit this book. It felt like he would do a better job of narrating a book like The English Patient or maybe a non fiction about history. Because of this certain parts felt awkward and uncomfortable.But the audiobook production seemed smooth and was comfortable on the ears.

All in all I would recommend this for someone who is new to thrillers. If you are a seasoned reader you might not enjoy this as much.

Audiobook provided for review by the publisher.… (más)