Excellent Jerico Quinn thriller!

What I like most about author Marc Cameron is his development of his characters. After six novels we get to know and understand special agent Jerico Quinn, but also his agent girlfriend, his ex-wife, his young daughter, his boss, his one-eyed ex-Marine fellow agent Jacques Tibodeux, their Japanese female trainer, rand really bad guy Lee McKeon. We had met Tibodeux's wife earlier in the series but we learned much more about her in Brute Force. What I like least about Cameron is that his novels are not consistently superb; most are but two have been mediocre. Brute Force is a superb action thriller.

Tim Weiner does a credible job of narration but some of the accents he attempts, especially of the Chinese female character, is simply outside his voice range. I do love his voice for Tibodeux.

14 people found this helpful

Brute Force

Any additional comments?

All in audiobook format, this review references 6 books in the Jericho Quinn series. Most are narrated by Tom Weiner, State of Emergency by Luke Daniels. All are between 10-11 hours of listening, so in total, all represent approximately 65 hours of the Jericho Quinn adventures.

Jericho Quinn is a Mitch Rapp (Vince Flynn), Jason Bourne (Robert Ludlum), Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy) … well, you get the idea. He’s the self deprecating good-guy-tough-guy, who loves motorcycles, that the world turns to in the event of an apocalyptic threat. Jericho and a few secondary heroes/heroine are the go-to characters for the Director of National Intelligence. Quinn’s code name is the ‘hammer’ … which should give you an idea regarding collective mission objectives.

The bad guys are middle eastern, the weapons that of mass destruction. Think bio weapons, nuclear warheads, dirty bombs, and the feverous attempts to quell what initially seems inevitable.

The Jericho Quinn stories are complex and a myriad of unrelated events are intermingled into a satisfactory conclusion. Each novel can stand-alone, but characters move through each book to the next. Some have a very distinct cliff-hanging ending prompting the reader to move forward to the next book to get any closure. Pay attention, moments are sometimes hard to follow without re-wind. Although these stories usually bring together seemingly disparate events, Cameron goes overboard a bit, in my opinion. There are many scenes that seem to add little, if anything, to the plots, and could easily have been removed. But, that’s just me, and you may come to a different conclusion. Basically, in my opinion, the books are good, but could have been shorter and less confusing.

Narration is fine. I take no issue with either reader. Luke Daniels has a unique take on the bad guy’s voice, however … a bit grating. But, he’s the bad guy, you’re not supposed to like him :-). You’ll have no trouble discerning who-says-what-to-who with either narrator.

Many of the well known authors of this genre, like those previously mentioned, are dead, and with them their wonderful characters. In my humble opinion, with this series Marc Cameron is making a credible effort to fill the void with Jericho Quinn.

If you like the genre, you’ll like these stories … and Jericho Quinn. Enjoy!

3 people found this helpful

Very Scary, and (Hopefully!) Improbable Warning

Creative writing instructors say, “Write what you know.” Well, author Marc Cameron does just that with his Jericho Quinn series. Cameron knows guns, martial arts, and motorcycles — and legitimately so, having worked in law enforcement for thirty years before he began writing thrillers for us. His entire Jericho Quinn series shows his confidence not only with his knowledge of combat hardware and techniques, but also the places, languages, politics, and characters that he brings to his tales. Oh … and he also writes well. If you love thrillers, then you will probably like the Jericho Quinn series. I am just hoping that this ongoing story really is pure fiction; because — although providing us with improbably (hopefully) far-fetched entertainment — it does send us a cautionary warning wake-up call. I really do doubt that Islamic terrorists could organize the kind of Manchurian-Candidate-esque plot hatched in this series; but the devolution of a democracy into a police state, as illustrated in “Brute Force,” could happen — and, indeed, has happened in other countries, in other times — without vigilance on the part of that democracy’s citizens. (That’s us, folks.) At the end of “Brute Force,” you will find yourself breathing a sigh of relief, and thinking, “Whew! Quinn saved the world … again!” You should listen to these novels in sequence, if you can, beginning with “National Security”; although the Islamic terrorist conspiracy that culminates with “Brute Force” actually begins with the second entry in the series, “Act of Terror.” I think that you will enjoy meeting Quinn’s tough-as-nails-but-likable side-kicks — especially fellow commandos Jacques Thibodaux and Veronica Garcia. Women will appreciate Cameron’s feminist approach to his female characters and the series’ blessed lack of gratuitous sex. (You will find plenty of gratuitous violence, however!) Motorcycle aficionados will probably appreciate the Jericho Quinn series more than the rest of us, but even motorcycle ingenues, like me, can still get a kick out of the relentless action. Narrator Tom Weiner does a mostly credible job distinguishing the characters from one another, especially with his repertoire of voices, although less so with the accents. In summary: I am looking forward to the upcoming entry in the Jericho Quinn series, “Field of Fire.”

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Solid Read

After read the majority of the series I found this book to fall line with the rest of the books. if you liked them you'll like this one. It's a solid read.

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Wanted to Like This Book

I wanted to like this book. Love the Jericho Quinn character and liked the earlier books. But I finally gave up 4 hours into listening.

Brute Force, the 6th of the series, was boring to me and too disconnected from the previous story line. I didn't know if Marc Cameron was trying to force a story or just ran out of inspiration. The first 4 Jericho Quinn books were awesome. The 5th took a while to get going but eventually I liked it. This one was painful to listen to.

I can't remember a book I had to put down or delete from my audible library without finishing. But this one was a huge disappointment to me. The story failed to draw me in and keep my interest. The characters while familiar from previous books (Quinn, Garcia, Tibedo) had no intriguing story lines and even the action wasn't up to par with the early Jericho Quinn books.

My recommendation: skip this book.

1 person found this helpful

Suspense Filled

What made the experience of listening to Brute Force the most enjoyable?

Excitement through to the very end.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Brute Force?

Ran and the Vice Presidents actions!!!

What about Tom Weiner’s performance did you like?

Very entertaining.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Camille and Joey had their encounter.

Any additional comments?

I wonder if this is the last we have seen of Jericho Quinn???

1 person found this helpful

Lousy Accents

An audio book narrator who is lousy at accents should not even try. It’s all I can do to finish the books in this series.

My Favorite Thus Far

In the Jericho Quinn series I enjoyed this story the most. Lots of twists and turns, friendship and fellowship. Action a plenty!

Slower story but cliffhanger ending

This story didn't start off as the others, fast with a lot of initial action. I thought for a moment that I started the wrong book. But it picked up and the ending, oh the ending is like WHAT, WOW. I just wonder if the other books spread the characters out this well . I can't wait to download and listen to the nexr.

Great series

Love the Jericho Quinn series. Another great installment. Looking forward to the next book in the series.