The Enigma Rising

The Enigma Series, Volume 2

By: Charles V. Breakfield, Roxanne E. Burkey

Narrated by: Derek Shoales

The disappearance of a wealthy Brazilian industrialist’s daughter, Lara, causes Thiago to hire the world's most elite information-gathering unit, the R-Group, to quietly locate and return her.

Is the heiress in trouble and gone forever or merely hiding in plain sight to escape her destiny?

While vacationing in Mexico, Petra and Jacob, R-Group operatives, cross paths with “Bad Boys”, Carlos and Juan, who are cloaking their drug-lord moving business from satellite surveillance. These so-called entrepreneurs force even the most generous observer to question the legality of their business model.

If Carlos and Juan are identified, can they stop running outside the law long enough to do the right thing?

The R-Group members operating from South America, Mexico, and Switzerland are assembling the pieces of these puzzles while avoiding international consequences. Will they discover the culprits?

The award-winning Breakfield and Burkey story draws you into a techno-thriller that focuses on overcoming opportunistic cyber-crime in the high-stakes world of information brokering in today’s 21st century.

“…the story will hold readers’ attention until its unsettling conclusion.” (Kirkus)

©2017 ICABOD Press (P)2023 Enigma Series LLC

Felt like a short stretched to make a full book.

The second book in this tech series felt like a slight misstep in some aspects. It felt like it would have worked better as the initial part of another book, or a short. It has really no antagonist pushing the story forward, and rather just incidental bad guys that are encountered at convenient points in the story. The book seemed to replace any intrigue and thriller aspects in this outing for character drama, and an introduction into new players. I supposed if I went into this not expecting a tech thriller it might not have left a sour taste in my mouth.

The narration by Derek Shoales was fun, varied and paced nicely. I hope the future books in this story move back to more thriller than drama or at least equal parts. I still like lot of the main movers and shakers of the series, but just felt like this outing didn't live up to the potential it could have.

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

A Thoroughly Entertaining Romp!

If you like tech and cyber thrillers... check this out. I love the level of detail in the technology used in the book. You can tell the authors really know their stuff when it comes to tech. They also have a knack of creating characters we care about (or despise whatever the case may be). The whole idea of the R-Group is also intriguing especially considering that the group was formed from the folks who decoded the Nazi Enigma machine playing an integral part in winning World War II. I can't wait to listen to the next book in the series.

Interesting, complex, funny and worth your time

First off this is a long listen, Narrations are decent and you know what character is speaking. The storyline is a mix between soap opera / kardashian / real life.... involving major drug dealers figuring out how to make more money by being smarter and more efficient at the same time living their daily lives. You hear first hand how the characters use banking and secure communications planes etc.. to make it in the world (yes - offshore) at the same time still being funny throughout the book. Some areas had me laughing for awhile (still laughing). This isn’t a book for the little ones to hear, there are some parts that had me cringing. It is a complicated story and you can get lost in areas, more than once I had to back up and listen again, But that’s ok, it’s that good of a story. I think this will become a movie one day, the storyline is that good.
Overall...a good long listen, intriguing, funny and worth your time.

A well conceived combination of plot and players.

This being my first book in The Enigma Series to read, I found the main characters, their talents and dynamic relationships to be superbly established very early on. The frequent contrast of friends, family, combined with a seemingly common moral compass operating in very high-performing and clandestine professional associations and situations made for a very exciting book. Very often so many sub-plots would be unfolding simultaneously in multiple global locations I would find myself constantly assessing the personal relationships of the players and assembling their professional interrelations as the multiple opposing objectives continued to develop and ultimately coalesce into a grand climax. Before re-reading this book, I felt compelled to read the first book in this Enigma Series, Enigma Factor, to better understand how the cyber-crime fighting organization itself came into being in the first place. I was not disappointed. This is but one great book from a great series.

Thriller but not technothriller

The R-group is hired this time to find the daughter of a powerful man. Petra and Jacob travel to Mexico and there they meet Carlos and Simone, which rapidly becomes Petra’s friend. But Carlos and his brother Juan are mixed in some dangerous stuff.

I really enjoyed the previous book, so I was looking forward to this one. Even though this is the second book in the series, it is not a continuation of the previous book and could be read standalone. If the previous book was very technology centered, the same does not happen with this one, which is something I missed.

We get to know better Jacob and Petra, but even like that they didn’t feel fully fleshed to me. Petra started a sudden friendship with Simone that felt completely artificial to me. The conversations the girls had did not feel natural at all, so I disliked this part.

It was an entertaining thriller, but for me not at the level of the previous book. It felt slowly paced at some points, and the girls’ conversations were definitely skippable.

This book is narrated by a different narrator than the first book. Derek Shoales does a good job with accents and voices, but the book is so loaded with accents that it becomes a bit tiresome after a while. Not Shoales fault, he did very good a differentiating characters and keep things consistent.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the producer in exchange for an honest review.

Fascinating book

I also love the narrators who can place emphasis where it needs to be.  One of my pet peeves is a monotone, dull narrator that drives me nuts. Shoales does a good enough job to grab your attention and bring you into the story. Shoales grabs your attention enough to follow the story and invest in each character. His pacing and emphasis added to the depth of the characters.

Lacked aspects from the first book

“The Enigma Rising” is the second book in the “Enigma” series of books co-written by Charles V. Breakfield and Roxanne E. Burkey. The Audible narration is performed by Derek Shoales; who is a different narrator from the first book’s narration. Although this book is categorized as a technothriller, I would not place it is that genre. The first book seemed to excessively use technology where this book seems to go to the other extreme by lacked as cohesive blending of technology and thrill. Instead, I would put the book in the mystery and suspense category with some technology aspects thrown in for good measure. If you enjoy rater dark stories of drug runners, back stabbing, and deception, you may find that you enjoy this book. Even though I enjoy solidly written technical thrillers, I found this book departs too far from what I would have expected to fully enjoy it.

I thought the premise laid out in the author’s summary section was compelling, but I felt compared to the first book, this one missed the mark. I wanted to know more about the R-Group and understand the technology they utilized in more detail. For me, understanding exciting new technology and how it functions makes for a good technothriller, yet technology did not seem to be central to this book. Sure, there was suspense, mystery, and a little scheming, but I found the lack of focus on the technology made the book feel a little deflated for me.

I often found the book to be more confusing and overly complicated than the first book in the series. Apart from some electronic banking, satellite hacking, and some penetration testing, this story was less technology centric as it was character and event focused. I felt this story did not flow as smoothly as the first, and I would have liked to have had a bit more of a prequel section bringing the listener up to speed on the previous book’s events. Throughout the book, bits and pieces seemed to fill in some of the story gaps, but it just never reached that point where I felt a part of the story.

The book is vast and takes place over a number of location, some of them quite exotic, yet I did not get the feeling I was there. I did not feel the writing was overly descript, as I would have liked to have had some portions (mostly the technical ones) be more descript than they were. I want to learn something new and exciting about a technology I have not seen or heard of, but I found this never materialized for me even thought there were places I thought it would have fit perfectly.

I found the narration by Derek Shoales to be well done as there were many accents and a fair number of characters needing to be voiced. I found the audio levels to be consistent and the pacing of the book’s narration to be at an average speed. I do not recall any noticeable audio artifacts such as swallows, page turns or other background noise while listening.

For parents or potential younger readers, it should be noted that this book is not intended for younger readers as the language is quite vulgar along with direct and descriptive scenes of sex, many references to sexual innuendos, and a focus on the pornography industry. There is also a fair amount of quite graphic violence that would not be suitable for younger readers. Along with the above, there is a fair number of adult topics such as drug use, alcohol use, along with others. I would only recommend this book to mature audiences who are not offended by the above subject matter.

In summary, the book is really an action suspense story with a technology veneer. If you are a fan of technology thrillers, you may found yourself disappointed with the level of detail and actual technology used. Instead, if you like action and mystery books with some technology thrown in, you may enjoy this series.

Another Great Story in the Enigma Series!

This book had several different stories to follow. Each separate story would have been exciting on its own, but the way they are woven together is quite ingenious and becomes a story well told. The story line involves cyber activity, smuggling, drug lords and quite a few action packed sequences among many other things.

The narrator does a great job with the character nuances through different accents and inflections. There are quite a few challenges for the narrator with different parts of the world involved, but Derek Shoales is believable in the many characters.

I would love to see this series made into a movie. Charles Breakfield and Roxanne Burkey really do a great job with believable technology dialog as well as exciting scenes that draw you on to the next chapter. The characters are so real, that you want to meet them in real life.

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

An awesome series that I cannot wait for

ABR Reviewer's Choice Award Winner

The R-Group finds themselves immersed in major cyber activity in Mexico and the Caribbean along with tracking down the daughter of rich and powerful Brazilian industrialist.  The trail for the missing daughter becomes enmeshed with the father’s worse nightmare - drug lords, drug money and pornography.  Will the R-Group find and reunite the daughter with her father?  Will they be able to find and fix everything they need to without starting an international incident?

Jacob and Petra’s return with Otto is fast, fun and exciting.  Charles Breakfield and Roxanne Burkey provides a deeper look into these characters as well as introducing us to more of the R-Group.  While the R-Group still seems somewhat of a mystery, we are given more in-depth character development than before.  The introduction of other R-Group members and potential ones is both satisfying and enlightening.

Breakfield and Burkey give their listeners a lot of moving parts that somehow come together throughout the book in a logical and realistic manner.   The dialog is well-developed and the action is non-stop.

Be prepared to set aside all 10 hours in one sitting, because you will NOT be able to turn this one off.  There are several “aha” moments and many “oh no!” ones as well.  The breadth and skill level of the R-Group is overwhelming and scary.

I enjoy thrillers but this is much more … thrills, action, the edge of your seat suspense with a touch of romance and humanity.  An awesome series that I cannot wait to see where it goes next!

The narrator, Derek Shoales, owns not only the characters but the entire book as well.  His performance was solid and enthralling.  His accents and female voices were top-notch.

The authors and narrator together will captivate the listener until the end.

There were no issues with quality or production of this audiobook.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Fabulous narration

For a techno thriller, there wasn’t much tech and, IMO, the thrills were few and far between. The story lacked flow with all the different storylines and seemed forced in places, especially the dialogue between characters. I had a hard time staying with it and, if not for the narration, I don’t think I would’ve finished the book. Derek Shoales did a FABULOUS job with all the different character voices and accents. I hope to hear more of his narrations in the future. I received a review copy at my request and voluntarily reviewed.