Long Way Down

By: Michael Sears

Narrated by: David Chandler

From the author of the acclaimed, award-winning debut novel Black Fridays comes a story of murder, greed, and corruption--and the lengths to which one man will go for his family. He approached me in the street--bone thin, gray bearded, holding out a small envelope. “The man said you’d give me five bucks for it.” Inside was a one-word message: "RUN."

Two years in a federal prison has changed Jason Stafford, is still changing him, but one thing it has taught him as a financial investigator is how to detect a lie. He doesn't think Philip Haley is lying. An engineer on the verge of a biofuel breakthrough, Haley has been indicted for insider trading on his own company, and Stafford believes him when he says he’s been set up. Haley does indeed have enemies. He is not a nice man. Doesn't make him a criminal. It does make him dangerous to be around, though. The deeper Stafford investigates, the more secrets he starts to uncover--secrets for which people would kill. And that’s exactly what happens. Soon it is Stafford himself who is under attack and, worse, his family--his fiance, his young son--and he is a fugitive, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of both the killers and the law.

©2014 Michael Sears (P)2015 Recorded Books

Lesser of the series

Love Jason and the Kid and associated characters, including this one. I do have a few quibbles. I listened to whole sections 2-3 times and still could not understand how Jason came to identity who he thought was the bad guy trying to knock him off. Then later why the dog attacked the other guy instead of Jason. Just good luck? This didn't ruin the story for me but was annoying and kind of sloppy. And there was too much word padding at the end with the lake fight. On and on and on. One of my recurring complaints is when a writer runs out of plot and then draws out a fight-escape-whatever peril long past boredom, especially when the reader already knows who is going to win.

Very Good But....

Fist off... start this Jason Stafford series at the beginning with "Black Fridays". Stafford's an unusual detective in an unusual business... It's worth watching him grow through this, the third in the series.

I liked "Long Way Down" both because of Michael Sears plotting, characterizations, and narrative imagination. And David Chandler's powerfully competent to create both a distinctive ensemble cast while acting out the tensions of both character and plot.

So, why that "But" up there? Because of the torrential tension storm that Sears felt this story needed to bring it to a conclusion. No, not the conclusion itself, but the process started to intrude into the story in the last, oh, 20% of the story. And when I get distracted by the author's contrivances to create tension, I drop out of the moment.

Still, I'll get the next Jason Stafford novel as soon as its written, hoping that maybe he'll become a tad less inexplicably super in his heroism, and consequent'y more believable as the story explodes into an ending.

Yeah, I recommend "Long Way Down" but I wish the ending didn't demand that my disbelief get stretched quite such a long way...

Too much saliva!

Throughout the entire book, the narrator can be heard swallowing his saliva. Really distracting and very annoying. Why this wasn't edited out is beyond me. Sloppy work.

Long Way Down is Right-Sears a LWD as author

If you love liberal demagoguery this book is for you. Just terrible. Story is tiresome, with way too many details (making the book unnecessarily long and very boring) that don’t add up to much. No suspense, no twists, just a waste of time. Do yourself a favor and do not spend 10-plus hours on this. The narrator is also terrible with audible spittle and slobber seeping from his mouth as he reads. Horrible experience again unless you have just eaten or plan to eat and/or want to spend 10-plus hours chocked full with liberal demagoguery and complete nonsense. Keep the ideology out Sears. Won’t be reading any more books by this author.