Fifteen Digits

By: Nick Santora

Narrated by: David Collins

A gritty thriller set in the world of powerful New York law firms, from Nick Santora, writer of the hit crime dramas The Sopranos, Law and Order, Prison Break, and Breakout Kings, and the nationally best-selling author of Slip and Fall.

Is it really insider trading if you've been an outsider your entire life?

Five men. Five walks of life. Every day they come together at the white shoe law firm Olmstead & Taft. But they're not lawyers. They're "Printers": blue-collar guys consigned to the dark basement of the firm and charged with copying, collating, and delivering the mountains of paperwork that document millions of dollars of sensitive legal secrets.

Until, that is, the five are approached by an ambitious young attorney who teaches them what they have: insider information. Together they make a plan: take the classified documents that pass through their hands every day and use them to get rich. They create a joint account to deposit the spoils. An account with a safeguard - each one only knows one section of the access code, which means that for all five conspirators, there's no way out. But as too much money piles up to go unnoticed, the Printers will discover there's one thing even worse than being an outsider: being in too deep.

©2012 Nick Santora (P)2012 Hachette

Critic reviews

"The tension is palpable as very bad things begin to happen to the protagonists, and the reader will race through the book to see what horrors the next page brings." ( Booklist)

" Fifteen Digits reads like John Grisham and Martin Scorsese's nasty love child. Brimming with unique, indelible characters, it's a cautionary tale of greed, jealousy and vice." (Shawn Ryan, Creator and Executive Producer of The Shield)

Very Slow

Having trouble getting into this one - finished the 1st half and nothing has really happened. Don't know if I'll listen to the 2nd half of not.

15 Digits Rates 4 Stars Overall

I enjoyed this book. The story kept my interest and I enjoyed getting to know the characters. It's not going to go down as a literary masterpiece but it wasn't meant to be. I typically listen to audiobooks during workouts and while driving and I found that I was always ready to push play and get back into the story.

David Collins did a good job with the narration. Each character had a distinct voice that I recognized immediately. I hold back a couple of stars on the story because I think the book ended a little too easily, a little to abruptly. But overall, if you're looking for a light story to "get away" for a bit I think this one is OK.

15 Digits, 1 Star

f you get past my review, get ready for a cast of stereotypes (many of them racist). There are no surprises here???until the very end ??? and I mean the VERY end (last three paragraphs, maybe), where one of the characters deviates ??? quite unbelievably ??? from what you???ve been led to expect all along.

And when I say ???what you???ve been led to expect,??? I happen to mean that quite literally. Throughout the novel, the author keeps giving the story away (these are not exact quotes, but you will recognize them if you actually choose to listen to this book): ???So-and-So thought he was smart. Little did he know that all of his friends would end up DEAD because of his decision.??? Or, ???He kissed her. And little did he know it was for the last time.??? In fact, these plot ???giveaways??? happen so often that you think that the author is just leading you astray. Surely, something ELSE is about to happen???No such luck. The author has told you what will happen, and that???s what happens. Did he not hear that it???s good to give the reader mere CLUES????

I do have to say that it is hard to evaluate whether the writing was as bad as it seemed, or if the horrible narrator made it much worse. The overly dramatic reading made the mediocre writing that much more obvious:

???He wasn???t too sure (dramatic pause) he would have survived.???

???Dillan (unnecessary pause) pointed to Spade.???

???And that was just icing (dramatic pause) on the cake.???

I can???t say this was the worst book I have ever listened to on audible, because I DID finish it (and there are some I have not finished)???.but it came close.