Liars & Thieves

Tommy Carmellini, Book 1

By: Stephen Coonts

Narrated by: Guerin Barry

Tommy Carmellini - who dazzled thriller fans in Stephen Coonts' Cubaand Liberty - is the CIA's top man for jobs that require extreme stealth, breaking-and-entering skills, and split-second, sometimes lethal, decisions.

In Liars & Thieves, he's sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in Virginia's remote Blue Ridge Mountains, where top government operatives are debriefing a star defector: the ultimate KGB insider, a man with records on every operation and every dirty trick the shadowy intelligence agency has ever run, from Lenin to Putin.

Carmellini arrives to find the guards shot dead, and a ruthless team of commandos - American commandos - slaughtering everyone in sight, then setting the house on fire. He escapes a hail of bullets and a deadly mountain car chase with what seems to be the sole survivor, a beautiful and mysterious translator who steals his car and leaves him for dead at the first chance.

What secrets did the defector know? Who would have killed to prevent him from talking? And how could a hit team act so fast, so efficiently, and so murderously without intimate, inside knowledge of the debriefing?

Smart money says someone in the U.S. government is behind the massacre and is now after Carmellini. And that begs the biggest question of all: in a world where nothing is as it seems and no one is who he pretends to be, who can Carmellini trust?

Finding out will be terrifying. The answer may be deadly.

©2004 Stephen Coonts (P)2004 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"Tommy is smart, brave, skilled and possessed of enough self-deprecating, wisecracking wit to endear him to readers. Jake Grafton makes an appearance to help save the day, but Tommy proves himself more than capable of saving the world on his own." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Barry is adept at accents and offbeat characters, and the story gives him a lot to work with." ( AudioFile)

Johnny Dollar

What did you like best about Liars & Thieves? What did you like least?

To me it's a modern day radio

Any additional comments?

Very easy to predic where it was going. Reminded me of XM radio old time radio shows with a modern twist, I will keep reading but to rate it with Vince Flynn Mitch Rapp is a insult.

Was a good book for the start of a series

What made the experience of listening to Liars & Thieves the most enjoyable?

The Voice actor was really good, and fit the character well. The story was very catchy and made me want to listen more to see what happened next.

Would you recommend Liars & Thieves to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend Liars & Thieves. Its a really good book to cut your teeth on if it's your first good in the Genre.

Which character – as performed by Guerin Barry – was your favorite?

The Main Char. by far.

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

There were too many good points to pick just one.

Any additional comments?

I really like this book, and would have loved it if they used the same voice actor for the second book as well.

Good Listen

At first, the book 'reads' as a typical noir detective genre, but then you remember it's Tommy Carmellini (I recommend going through the Jake Grafton series first, so you get a basic understanding of Tommy's style - the book develops his character more deeply). It's a spinoff, but a well done one. I kept finding myself having Alexa read 'just 1 more chapter'. I look forward to the rest of the series. I would like to see Coonts spinoff at least 1 'Sarah Hudson' story.

Better editing would greatly improve the storyline.

Overall I enjoyed this story. However I struggled several times to figure out where I was because the story goes from first person to third person with no warning. Usually between unannounced chapter changes but sometimes in the same paragraph. I find this most annoying.

Good Book!

Good characters, some good plot twists, overall very entertaining. It makes you wonder if this could happen or if it has happened in real life.

Well Done

The narrator did an excellent job, I always knew which characters were talking. Perfectly read sarcasm!

Great story! I was always wanting more!

Great first…

As with most Clancy material I enjoyed it. Carmella I will be a good spinoff to continue reading.

Real good book.

1st time listening to this author. I bought the book on sale. was pleasantly surprised. can't wait to listen to the next one.

Great Thriller . . . Who are the Bad Guys???

Kept me guessing . . . this is the kind of book that keeps you listening until the very end . . . government spies . . . KGB . . . CIA . . . who can you trust??? Stephen Coonts is an excellent writer, the narration is great . . . and you thought the cold war was over??? Think again . . .

Good story, mediocre narration

I liked the whole Grafton series and I like the new lead in Tommy. The story was exciting and kept you guessing who was the good guy and bad guy until almost the end - and some of them you love to hate.

Tommy, the accidental hero, works for Grafton and Grafton still has it too, even at his advancing age. It's quite fun.

The narration is OK, but there's much better out there. Since much of the book is in the first person, when there's little or no change when looking at other characters points of view it can sometimes be a bit confusing and I had to rewind a number of times to understand where the story was. But don't let that keep you from listening, because this sets the tone for Tommy's future stories and is worth the time.