High Stakes

A Knight and Devlin Thriller, Book 6

By: John F Dobbyn

Narrated by: Bill Nevitt

Perfect for fans of Daniel Silva and Steve Berry

An authentic Stradivarius violin turns up in Romania. A Stradivarius is rare enough, but this one is even more special. It is thought to hold the code disclosing the location of a treasure hidden in the 15th century. The violin is steeped in haunting mystique: It is believed to have been hidden by Vlad Dracula, whose historic tyranny led to the fabrication of the myth of vampirism. Russian, Chinese, and Romanian gangs centered in Boston want the code and all of them are hot on the trail.

Violence is their language - brutality, their technique. And who is hired to see that the treasure lands in the rightful place? None other than Michael Knight with a little help from his senior law partner Lex Devlin and his crony, Billy Coyne, Boston’s deputy district attorney.

Michael uses the thin leverage of his knowledge about the violin to keep each of the three gang leaders at bay, while he follows the chain of historic clues from a violin shop in the Carpathian Mountains to a gangster-infested nightclub in Bucharest, to a university in Istanbul, and back to the gang headquarters of the three competing criminal organizations. Secrets from the past and present collide along the perilous shuttle between Boston and Romania. In the end, what is the righteous solution?

©2019 John F Dobbyn (P)2019 John F Dobbyn

A modern thriller

High Stakes. .
An excellent example of the modern fiction thriller. And suitable for all, with no bad language or graphic violence and no sexual content. It relies on the well written storyline and concept.
Bill Nevitt s style of narration is excellent and makes easy listening.
A 5 star thriller.
I received a free copy of this audio book at my own request and voluntarily leave this honest review. .

Great plot but narration was a little off

Plot
The plot was exciting and fast paced with lots of unexpected twists . At first, I thought the plot was moving too fast, but as things went on I realized it was just the precursor to a much larger story.

Narration
The range for the characters was pretty good considering that the majority of other characters are either Russian or Chinese with heavy accents. However, my biggest issue was that the voice for the MC is lacking seriousness. Despite there being a high amount of quick paced dramatic scenes, they’re all performed in the in the same calm tone as the narrator. This made the characters tone not match up well with what he was expressing and made him come across as too calm during times of distress.
One of my other issues with the book was that the MC’s wife was hardly given any lines and any interaction between the MC and wife was glossed over. Their interaction isn’t important to the plot of the book, but because a large part of the MC’s motivation in the book is to keep her safe I felt that interaction between the two of them have been an easy point to interject emotions for the MC and make you feel better connected to his goals. This combined with the lack of emotion from the MC left me feeling like the narration was just a bit off for most of the story.

Recommendation
All that begin said, Bill Nevitt was still a good fit for the voice of the MC, and did a great job with all the other characters and narration of the book. However, he could have done a better job giving the MC some more emotion. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys mysteries and thrillers.

Disclaimer - Per my request I received a copy of this audio book for free and have voluntarily left this unbiased review

He Makes it so Exciting!

John Dobbyn is wonderful writer in the crime suspense genre. I was not disappointed one bit with the story again another exciting story with characters around the world in this one. Bill Nevitt gave a great performance reading and bring the characters to life. Another A++++

This book hits the high notes

I enjoyed this book. A lot was going on so the hours flew by while listening to this book. What I liked was the way Michael out smarted the different bosses and the way he used them against each other. The book was well written and the historical elements surrounding the treasure add to plot. With plenty of action and guns it is a full throttle thrill ride.
Michael is taking his wife on a much needed holiday he just has to stop at a shop and pick up a package for a client. Michael not knowing what he is collecting agrees because a free holiday is still a free holiday. He should have know better, if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is. By agreeing he ends caught in the middle of three gangs trying to get there hands on a long lost treasure. The item is Stradivarius violin, which is key to leading who ever holds it to a treasure hidden by Dracula. With Russian, Chinese and Romanians all of the secret Michael must use all the tricks he has up his sleeve to work out who the rightful owner of the violin is and more importantly who should get there hands on the treasure. But with all gangs, they are dangerous for a reason and don't play fair. Michael and his friends find there lives threatened and the stakes might just be too high this time when all the guns come out.
I liked the narrator and think he does an excellent job with all the voices in this book bring the characters to life.
I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

absolutely the best audiobook ever?

wow! everything about this book was perfect. the narrator was amazing and what a great storyline!!! lots of intrigue and suspense. kudos to this author and narrator for offering such a great gift. note..... I requested this free copy and am freely offering my unbiased review.

Fast Paced Story with Great Narration

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

I enjoyed listening to this story, and look forward to listening to other books in the series. It was packed with action, and was unique in a way that I found intriguing. Good character development and a clear storyline to follow.

Narration was strong, I quite enjoyed the accents.

Complicated story with mystery and suspense

A good amount of suspense, a complicated and intriguing storyline and a good narrator. Not the most interesting mystery for me but it was a good listen. As always, Bill Nevitt did a fantastic job narrating. I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

This beats Indiana jones by far

Loved it, was enthralling and exciting for one man in the story to come up with such a plan and man the narrator is good

International intrigue

Treasure hunting is a dangerous endeavor.

Bill Nevitt does a good job of narrating.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Suspense!

action-adventure, thriller, lawyers, the-mob, suspense, international-crime-and-mystery

A real high tension action thriller involving Boston lawyers, the Russian mob, the Chinese mob, and a Stradivarius violin. Fast paced and intense, there's plenty to keep the mind busy. I like the way that Bill Nevitt keeps the suspense up and yet doesn't let it get bogged down in the historical asides.