This is a really good story. At first you may think the authors voice it not perky enough, but hang on. For this story I find his voice suitable and appropriate for the story. The plot, charecters, and all are well done and believable. Sounds like there will be more to the story, and for me, I can't wait. Kudos to the author.

With the credentials of the author, I was really looking forward to this audiobook. A spy novel written by an actual CIA veteran who knows what he's talking about. Within minutes of starting it I realized the first problem, Mr Pattee needed to get a good narrator. You get used to his choppy halting pace and his Canadian-ish pronunciation, but it is still a bit distracting. From there it is a mixed bag, and left me dissappointed. The overall premise is good, Al-Qaida is plotting to cause mayhem by forcing the hydroelectric dams accross the US to open, and when the story sticks to this it moves alright. The good guys have it a bit too easy figuring things out early on, but the story has to keep moving, so that is a forgivable flaw. Where the story goes horribly afoul is the romantic angle, both for the young characters and for the older characters remembering their early years. The depth of this element is less than the old Clint Eastwood movies where characters would meet and hop into bed immediately without even speaking, and it is read to you by the above mentioned halting elderly gentleman's voice of the author. Talk about uncomfortable. Also about a third of the way into the story you begin to notice that all of the dialog is written the same regardless of who is speaking: American, Russian, Al-Qaida operative, or whomever, they all say expressions like "That's for sure" REPEATEDLY. Mr Pattee could have used the services of a co-writer to help with these elements to make the story more believeable. Better yet, much could have been trimmed out of the non-essential elements to tighten the whole thing up. The story suffers from being overly long and it can get tedious at times. Then it gets back to the meat of the spy story that it is supposed to be and it becomes somewhat enjoyable again. All I will say about the ending is that I found it very unsatisfying, but I suspect that may have been the point. Even so, it could have been crafted better to accomplish that point. At its best, the plot reminds me of some of Tom Clancy's novels, albeit less polished. At its worst, well... I think this story could be polished up into a good one, but it would take a lot of revision and some solid coaching.

I liked it