Rogue

By: Mark Sullivan

Narrated by: Jeff Gurner

Mark Sullivan has created a propulsive, compelling new thriller. Rogue, is one part Bourne Identity and one part Mission: Impossible, but listeners will also love the nod to Hitchcock’s It Takes a Thief. Two years ago, Robin Monarch was a top level CIA operative—perhaps the best they had when it came to black bag operations. Then one day, in the middle of an operation, with his team around him in the field, Monarch walked away, leaving his old life and friends behind without a word of explanation. Now this ex-soldier, ex-operative, and orphan with a murky past is a thief, stealing from the super-rich and has surfaced in St. Tropez. But when a complicated, high profile jewel heist goes wrong, Monarch is led into a carefully woven trap designed to force him to complete the very same mission he walked away from years ago. It will take all of his skills (as well as those of the team he burned) and all of his cunning, if Monarch is to thwart the violent and deadly goals of the very powerful cabal who will do whatever it takes to bring the very dangerous "Green Fields" technology under their control.

©2012 Mark Sullivan (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A true juggernaut of a thriller, pure adrenaline in print. With the creation of Robin Monarch, Sullivan has crafted a Jason Bourne for the new millennium." (James Rollins)

Unique protagonist

Being a fan of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor genres, I found this book to be a nice but subtle change. Robin Monarch a man who lives by a specific code can do amazing things on his own but on a team he shines. A thief then Military Special Ops then CIA and then back to a thief...he is very unique. I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next installment.

Good action story & characters

Good story line and development for those who like action packed special forces characters. Narrator above average for diverse voices and accents.

Meh

Way too unbelievable. If you had billions of dollars you might be able to do half of the things the character does. The story has a decent message but I would have liked it more if it had been more realistic.

good listen

story line was good. sometimes, with spy thrillers there are too many characters to keep track of especially if it is international but not here. I thought the different accents were done very well.
would I get another book following these characters? maybe but I'll probably not rush.

Good story

Some of it seemed a little off....like a spy using his real name when the CIA is looking for him but maybe I just read too many spy stories.

Great series!

Listened to every book in the series and they all have excitement and are hard to stop listening to. Great!

American James Bond living as Jack Bauer!

Where does Rogue rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was an E-Ticket ride! A top listen. It's the kind of story if I were turning pages, I wouldn't be able to put down. (And I didn't.)

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rogue?

It seemed the tale was concluding successfully to a finish, then POW! we got carried off with another twist of the plot.

What about Jeff Gurner’s performance did you like?

The narrator had great language skills and accents making the listen most believable.

If you could take any character from Rogue out to dinner, who would it be and why?

The Sister. What a compassionate strong person!

Any additional comments?

I'm just downloading #2, Outlaw.

Better Narator For Star Wars

What did you like best about Rogue? What did you like least?

The story has a very likable and empathic main character. Unfortunately all his current problems seem far less relatable then his past and the listener does not empathize with his predicament.

What was most disappointing about Mark Sullivan’s story?

the idea that the CIA would need the skills of someone like the main character to track down such a common-place doomsday item and then have to trick him in to stealing it, is really a huge stretch. Ive seen this before in stories with great charachter developement. The author has a great character but nothing for him to do so he throws something together. Let him infiltrate ISIS like other spy so far this year.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeff Gurner?

Jack Webber

Was Rogue worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

The Narator was very good in Star Wars with sound effects and no foreign accents. He should stick to stories like Dark Lord Rising

Rogue Story

We listened to Beneath A Scarlet Sky, knowing it was a true story, so well put together and narrated, that we thought Rogue would be in the same class; it was not.
We felt the storyline was far fetched and fragmented; timelines were too unrealistic and virtually impossible, yet the author wanted the listener (and reader) to believe the impossible.
Definitely not his best work.

Found a new series.

A fast paced story. Next in series has better reviews than this one. I'm looking forward to it. It's in my wish list.