Red, White, Blue

A novel

By: Lea Carpenter

Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom, Cady McClain

A dark, powerful, and subtly crafted novel that traces the intertwined fates of a CIA case officer and a young woman who is forced to confront her dead father's secret past--at once a gripping, immersive tale of duplicity and espionage, and a moving story of love and loyalty.

Anna is the beloved only child of the charismatic Noel, a New York City banker--and a mother who abandoned her. When Noel dies in a mysterious skiing accident in Switzerland the day before his daughter's wedding, Anna, consumed by grief, grows increasingly distant from her prominent music-producing husband, who begins running for office. One day, while on her honeymoon in the south of France, Anna meets an enigmatic stranger who will cause perhaps even greater upheaval in her life. It will soon become clear that this meeting was no chance encounter: this man once worked with Anna's father and has information about parts of Noel's life that Anna never knew. When she arrives back in New York, she receives a parcel that contains a series of cryptic recordings and videos showing Noel at the center of a brutal interrogation. Soon, everything Anna knows about her father's life--and his death--is called into question, launching her into a desperate search for the truth.

Smart, fast-moving, and suspenseful, Red, White, Blue plunges us into the inner workings of the CIA, a China Ops gone wrong, and the consequences of a collision between one's deepest personal ties and the most exacting and fateful professional commitment.

Some of the best narration on any audiobook

You have to pay attention to the storyline in this novel. The story is told from two and sometimes three different points of view. The author does we’ve the storylines together but you have to pay attention and I will admit that sometimes the storyline drags because of the jumping back-and-forth from different characters. Once you piece it together in your mind it flows a lot better. The performances by the narrators is fantastic! That can certainly make or break an audiobook and these narrators did a fabulous job.

In the end the book is worth listening too and probably better than reading it. The ending of the book is a little bit of a disappointment. I wanted and expected more of a “big bang“ at the end to resolve all of the issues left hanging. I didn’t get it and neither will you but The book is still a good read and/or listen.