Fifth Avenue

By: Christopher Smith

Narrated by: George Kuch

Look beneath all the power and all the wealth that represents New York City's Fifth Avenue, and you'll find greed, blood, revenge.

In the thriller Fifth Avenue, each intermingles within a revered society that is unprepared for what's in store for it when one man finally strikes in an effort to destroy another man for murdering his wife thirty-one years ago.

Louis Ryan is that man. George Redman, his wife, two daughters and their close friends are his targets. Both men are self-made billionaires who came from nothing to stake their claim to Fifth Avenue. But when Louis Ryan hires an international assassin to literally rip the Redman family apart, a series of events that can't be stopped catapults them all through a fast-paced, hard-edged thriller in which nobody is safe.

Secrets are revealed. The Mafia get involved. And George's two daughters, Celina and Leana Redman, come to the forefront. More than anyone, it's they who are caught in the throes of their father's past as Louis Ryan's blind desire to kill them all takes surprising turns in his all-out effort to see them dead.

©2010 Christopher Smith (P)2012 Christopher Smith

Why is he whispering?

OMG the narrator whispered through the entire reading. I had to have the volume all the way up. It made it harder to get through. However, the story was good; a little drug out in some places but not enough to give up on it. One pet peeve: saying "draw" instead of "drawer".

Worst narrator I have heard. I had to quit listening to it!

Awful narration! I had to stop listening to it. Get a different narrator and it may be a good book.

Just dull

What disappointed you about Fifth Avenue?

The story was just dull. The characters were privileged, rich, unhappy schemers. Too many characters with as much interest as paper dolls. Very slow to develop. Bad guys and good guys given away in the first 10% of the story.

Has Fifth Avenue turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Whispering, wheezing, struggling for air, like a dying man trying desperately to tell me something unimportant at great length.

Any additional comments?

I didn't finish. I restarted the book at a couple of different times to see if I might develop an interest in it, but it didn't catch on with me. It was just too tedious.

Good story but horrible reading

If you could sum up Fifth Avenue in three words, what would they be?

Thrilling entertainment ( the book version)

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I was reading the book and bought the audio version too for not have to stop, while having the hands occupied, but : what a horrible whispering... destroying all the joy of listening. Unfortunately I have not listen to the track before buying it!
I recommend to do that first!
Now I'm reading the second book "Running of the bulls", but the audio version is also narrated by George Kuch! Bad luck!
In my opinion Scott Brick would have been the better - if not the best- option for a good thriller like this.

Fast and entertaining

Although the plots and all of the characters were hard to keep up with, we still enjoyed the book and happy to see Christopher Smith wrote more. Anxious to see what book two is all about.