Tag: Joshua Hood

Catch-Up Quick Takes: The Treadstone Exile, Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors, In a Sunburned Country, Pray for Silence

The point of these quick takes posts is to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness. Here are some recent-ish audiobooks.


The Treadstone Exile

by Joshua Hood, Ron Butler (Narrator)
Series: Treadstone, #2
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., 1 min.
Penguin Audio, 2021
Read: September 2-3, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
I thought the first novel in the series was a heckuva thrill ride, but a little thin on character and believability. Still, the follow-up sounded fun.

Wow, was I wrong. The characters were just as thin (maybe thinner), I didn’t ever get invested in—or even mildly curious about—the plot. The action scenes were great, though.

Still, I think I’m done with the series.
2 Stars

Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors

Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors

by Annette Marie, Rob Jacobson, Iggy Toma (Narrator)
Series: Guild Codex: Warped, #1
Unabridged Audiobook, 6 hrs., 34 min.
Tantor Audio, 2020
Read: August 26, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
This book (and series, I guess) kicks off in the aftermath of Three Mages and a Margarita—and I love the idea of multiple series that are interwoven yet independent. It’s going to get difficult to track at some point, I bet, but that’s on me.

When the officials sweep in to clean up after 3 Mages one of the mages arrested is a low-powered psychic, Kit Morris. Really, the MPD is more interested in who Kit can lead them to than him—and they’re playing hardball with him to get to his higher-powered pals.

What ensues is Kit trying to play the Agent who’s trying to get him to flip and looking for a chance to escape (and neither working too well). A strange alliance forms between them.

I had a lot of fun with this one, maybe more than I did with its predecessor. Iggy Toma sold me on the characters, too, I really enjoyed the narration. I’m looking forward to spending more time in this world.
3 Stars

In a Sunburned Country

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson
Unabridged Audiobook, 11 hrs., 54 min.
Random House, 2000
Read: August 24-25, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
I remember reading Bryson’s The Mother Tongue back in the ’90s and have often thought about trying him again—but anytime the thought occurred to me, I couldn’t find one of his books available. So when I saw this as available from the library I jumped on it. Not the best move.

This is a travelogue of a trip or two that Bryson took around Australia. It’s fairly amusing, mildly interesting, and not a complete waste of time. That’s about all I can say for it—the few pages/minutes he spends on Cricket were laugh-out-loud funny. The rest of the book barely maintained my interest.

Your results may vary, but this just didn’t do it for me.
2 Stars

Pray for Silence

Pray for Silence

by Linda Castillo, Kathleen McInerney (Narrator)
Series: Kate Burkholder, #2
Unabridged Audiobook, 11 hrs., 27 min.
Macmillan Audio, 2010
Read: August 16-17, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
At the rate these books are going, by the time this book reaches book 14 (expected next year), I don’t see how anyone is going to be left alive in Painters Mill. A small town like this just can’t take a lot of mass murders, can it?

But for now, Book 2 still has a nice, bustling community full of people. In fact, an Amish family moved to town about a year ago. But when we meet them, they’re the victims of murder. Chief Kate Burkholder comes across one of the most disturbing crime scenes I’ve seen in fiction—and that’s saying something. But as Kate digs into the family’s past trying to find a motive for the butchery, it seems that the gruesome murders weren’t the worse expression of evil in the novel.

Gripping story, solid narration by Kathleen McInerney, but I could use a little more growth in Kate. Still, I’m going to be back for more pretty soon.
3 Stars

2021 Library Love Challenge 2021 Audiobook Challenge

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The Treadstone Resurrection by Joshua Hood: A Fast Popcorn Thriller Delivers the Action

The Treadstone Resurrection

The Treadstone Resurrection

by Joshua Hood
Series: Treadstone, #1

Hardcover, 375 pg.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2020

Read: March 9, 2021

The bullet wound to his shoulder ached like someone was hammering nails through his skin.

Hayes had been here before, wounded, alone, and on the run. Wanting to quit, but unable to, thanks to the mind job the Treadstone docs had done on him. Survival: It was the only thing that mattered.

And revenge the voice reminded him.

What’s The Treadstone Resurrection About?

Not too long ago, Adam Hayes left the black-ops program, Treadstone, and invented a new life for himself as a contractor in Washington. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, but for several reasons, it was the thing he had to do.

But out of the blue, an old friend and colleague sends him an email containing four pictures. The subject line of the email reads “By the time you get this I’ll be dead.” Which, you’ve got to admit, will get your attention. Not only has his friend been killed, but a group of men have tried to kill Hayes twice (and almost succeeded both times).

It turns out that the men who killed his friend found the email and traveled from Venezuala to Washington to keep Hayes from doing anything with the information. It’s safe to say that they underestimated who they were going up against. It’s not every day that operatives find themselves trying to take out someone like a Treadstone assassin.

A combination of training, reflexes, and good friends make survival something he can accomplish. But revenge will take allies old and new; a trip to South America and back; and embracing everything he fought so hard to leave behind.

So, what did I think about The Treadstone Resurrection?

Okay, it takes very little time to have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen in this book—you know that Hayes is going to get his revenge and stop whatever plot his pal told him about. The questions are: how many and which of his allies will survive, how many bad guys will Hayes take out, and which one will be the hardest to kill?* It’s all about execution at this point.

* I was surprised by the answers to 1 and 3, by the way.

And Hood’s execution was pretty good. Without realizing it, I raced through this book in about half the time I’d scheduled for it (and I honestly didn’t realize how quickly I was reading). There’s not a wasted word, the prose is smooth, the action is fast, the pacing is tight, the ammo is plentiful—you just find the pages melting away.

The characterization is pretty thin—but it’s enough. You get enough of an idea about who Adam Hayes is and what makes him tick to work, but not much more. Ditto for the main bad guys. But that’s not what this book is about—it’s about escapist thrills. And it delivers that.

Suspend your disbelief (might be easier to just lock your disbelief in a small room somewhere), sit back, and enjoy.


3 Stars

2021 Library Love Challenge

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