Friday, November 14, 2008

183 - The Gate House; Nelson Demille

This review of The Gate House is based on the unabridged audio book by Nelson DeMille and read by Christian Rummel. This is a sequel to the earlier bestseller, The Gold Coast, which was written some 10 years earlier.

This story is set in a world still coming to terms with the effects of 9/11. It continues the story of John Sutter and his ex-wife, Susan. Susan, rich and heir to a fortune, had an affair with a mafia don, whom she later shot and killed. The Narrator, Christian Rummel does a great job with the main character, John Sutter by using a mix of sarcasm and dry humor. The narrator also does a great job with the other voices involved in the story.

In The Gate House, John Sutter moves back from England to the Gold Coast and starts to put together the shattered pieces of his relationship and all that this entails. Throw into the mix more mafia involvement, this time Anthony Bellarosa, the son of the dead don, who has a grudge and a score to settle, and the plot starts to get a little interesting, but that is short-lived.

I had such high hopes for this book; I could not wait to get my hands on it, having enjoyed The Gold Coast, and many other DeMille books so much.

This book was almost 700 pages, or in my case 19 discs and 22 hours of listening time. The reader was great, the story started out good, but soon became long and drawn out, with no plot twists -- just a bunch of sarcasm, sex scenes and jokes along the way. I skipped discs 17 and 18 to get to the end, and honestly don't think I missed a thing. Even the ending was disappointing.

If you are looking for an exciting thriller --this may not be the book for you, but if you like lots of sarcasm, repetition, and ethnic jokes, give this one a try.

RATING - 2.5/5 - COMPLETED - 11/13/08

2 comments:

  1. I just started my first DeMille (Plum Island), also on audio. I'm totally hooked!

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  2. Beth...Plum Island starts the John Corey series, which was my favorite DeMille series. Not sure if you are into audio books, but if you like Plum Island and plan to continue, try an audio. very engaging & funny too.

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