Das Starling Projekt

Harold Middleton #3

by Jeffery Deaver, Wolfgang Wagner (Narrator), Norman Matt (Narrator)

Jeffery Deavers weltumspannendes Polit-Thriller-Hörspiel - "Das Starling Projekt"

Wie ein Zugvogel zieht er von Land zu Land, jede Grenze überwindend. Nationalstaaten sind seine Brutstätten. Er ist die unsichtbare Verbindung zwischen international operierenden Geldwäschern, Diktatoren und Waffenhändlern. Wo er landet, brechen Chaos und Terror aus. Wer ist der Starling?

Im mexikanischen Dschungel läuft eine Razzia völlig aus dem Ruder, ein Banküberfall in Washington scheint nur ein Täuschungsmanöver zu sein und ein inhaftierter afrikanischer Diktator plant seinen Ausbruch. Zwischen den Ereignissen gibt es eine Verbindung: den "Starling". Gemeinsam mit seinem Team verfolgt Harry Middleton, Ermittler des internationalen Gerichtshofs in London, das Phantom in einer gnadenlosen Jagd quer durch die ganze Welt. Denn der "Starling" scheint etwas Schreckliches zu planen - und die Uhr tickt.

Nur als Hörspiel und nur bei Audible: Jeffery Deavers exklusiv für Audible verfasster Polit-Thriller ist atemlos spannendes Hörspiel-Kino in Blockbuster-Inszenierung. Trauen Sie Ihren Ohren nicht während der explosiven Suche nach dem "Starling"!

Genres: Audiobook, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Crime, Mystery Thriller

Audible Audio

First published November 18, 2014

About the author

#1 international bestselling author of over thirty novels and three collections of short stories. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

After two novels created by a collaboration within the International Thriller Writers, Jeffrey Deaver has decided to continue the series with a creation all his own. In an Audible exclusive, this full-cast dramatisation pulls the reader back into the middle of the action and adventures of Harold Middleton. As leader of the Volunteers—a loose enforcement branch of the International Tribunal for Justice—Harold Middleton finds himself in rural Mexico. With his full team of Volunteers and some UN Peacekeepers, Middleton attempts to serve a search warrant on a known criminal kingpin, though things take a violent turn. Fleeing the region, Middleton has two massive hard drives and word that a Starling Project might be in the works. While teaching a course at Georgetown, Middleton is called to the scene of an odd bank robbery, where he and the Volunteers are trying to free a number of hostages. Things do not go as planned, but a few more Starling leads come to fruition. Discovering the project is actually a single person’s plot to manipulate massive sums of money, Middleton will have to act quickly if he wants to prevent massive disruptions and the possibility of future acts of violence. Working in the world of finance and accounting, Middleton and his Volunteers are out of their comfort zone, but spurred along by the need to protect millions—even billions—of innocent lives. Deaver does well in this interesting piece, which mixes the excitement of the Middleton series with an interesting dramatic effort. Recommended for those who loved The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two novels in this series, listening to them in their original audiobook format. It was only when I chose to re-read the first book for my reading challenge that I discovered that Deaver penned a third novel in this series, or at least an audio equivalent. Harold Middleton played a central role again, which keeps the reader attentive to pick up any scraps about his character. Rather than adding to his actual backstory, Deaver delves deeper into exploring the International Tribunal for Justice and how it works, including Middleton’s role. It is an intricate organisation and Middleton plays a major role in its forward momentum. Readers familiar with the protagonist and his ‘second job’ will enjoy learning a little more. Other characters emerge to play key roles in the story, though I could not find any repeat characters from the past two novels. Still, the banter and development of many sub-plots was stronger with this collection of characters. The story proves to be a unique experience for those not used to ‘full dramatisations’. Quite honestly, it was as though I were watching a movie with my eyes closed, with different voices for each character and no narration. I saw some people did not like this approach, but I found it interesting, even if it were a little confusing at times. Deaver does well putting together this story and delivers it in such a way that the reader cannot help but feel right there. I know it has been years since Deaver published any Middleton work, but I would gladly keep reading if he, or the ITW returned for another round of thrills and chills.

Kudos, Mr. Deaver, for this interesting approach to the Middleton series. There is so much going on here and I did feel an active part of the story.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[✨Susan✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think to become engaged in this absolutely fast moving, Jeffery Deaver short story, you must find audio dramatization enjoyable. This was more like the old radio shows, where as it moves very quickly from one scene to another and the listener has to fill in some of the blanks.

An engaging, fast action thriller with a mystery base. All the sounds effects may be distracting or off putting for some, but like I said earlier, it's makes it more like a radio show. I like Jeffery Deaver and liked this throw back, gritty international Audiodrama.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is re the Audible version. I didn't mind the audio drama aspect of it but some of the narrators sounded as if their accents were poorly executed. Also, the music. THE MUSIC! Please lord stop the incessant, overly dramatic, inescapable minutes of music. I don't hate all music, just this music, and I've never had so much of it in anything I listened to. Really offputting and distracting from this mediocre novel. Boo hiss.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audio book is a bit like watching a movie. It's a thriller involving murder, robbery, and plots within plots. The characters are nicely diverse. It's a fun ride and a nice audio work.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overall story line was good and interesting but some of the voices were not that good or convincing. Too bad, it would have made the story better.

[Wibke von Stürmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit like watching a movie. Very fast moving, entertaining plot (I really like the storylines by Jeffrey Deaver in general, so this one was entertaining too). Only I think - at least in the German version - there was a bit much grunting, moan and such stuff. Besides that, very enjoyable thriller.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me - melodramatic, over-acted... I tried this four times, have it a good run this last time, but now I’m DNF’ing it.

[Ralph · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5
More of a dramatic radio drama than an audiobook, The Starling Project is not as strong as the previous two Harold Middleton stories Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet, which were chain novels written Mr. Deaver and a group of other authors.

It was an enjoyable enough diversion with lots of action and twists, but suffered from superficial character development and a weak story line in some places. The whole production seemed put together as a series of action scenes designed to showcase the sound production with the scenes separated by music and sound effects.

[Marty Fried · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I had read this as a print book or ebook, I think I may have liked it more, but in this audiobook performance, I found it hard to follow. It was presented as a performance like a radio show, with lots of special effect sounds and music. And by "lots", I mean too much. In my opinion, it was distracting, and that made it even harder to follow.

There was no narration to describe any of the characters or scenes, so I found it hard to remember who each character was. They just appear without context, making it hard for me to get any feeling about them until well into the story, when it's a bit too late, since it's hard to go back with an audiobook to search for characters.

And, after all the work to get through the performance, it appears to be part of a series that is designed to continue on because the the bad guy is never caught or revealed, just thwarted for this one scheme.

[Donna Taormina · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I get that this was sort of an experimental audiobook, and expensive one no doubt if all the voice actors and the production are any indication, but ultimately this effort could have done better with less. The "funny" banter and asides replete with annoying chuckling, was grating. The booming music should have been used less. The wet kissing sounds - yuk. Some of the voice actors were too over the top - I'm looking at you, Reg, who sounded like a caricature of an English accent. Alfred Molina was superb of course. And the story was a bit thin, almost like the plot was a backdrop for the effects.

[Cynthia Corral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun "read" on Audible, but it was much more of a performance than a book. When I listen to an Audiobook I still feel like I have read a book, but this felt more like I just watched a movie. It wasn't the best story either, but I can't deny it was great fun and I enjoyed it. I would love to listen to more performances like this.
It is only four hours but there are a lot of characters. I listened to it in two chunks of time, and I would recommend listening in as few chunks as possible to avoid confusion.

[Rene Schlegel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be seen as an experiment since directly written for audio rather than a dramatisation or scripting of existing material. The drama is rather complex and it is incredible that the team behind this production could pull it off without a narrator to link the stories´ many elements and characters. I thought it is both thrilling and entertaining and results in "a movie in your head". To write and produce directly (!) for this format could have a great future.

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Starling Project by Jeffrey Deaver is an Audible Studio's audio-drama. War crimes investigator Harold Middleton leads his volunteers in the search for a master criminal known as The Starling. I enjoyed this presentation very much. The story is typical of Jeffery Deaver where nothing is what it seems with lots of twists to the story. The cast did a superb job in bringing the various characters to life. The presentation was fast paced and exciting.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was pretty interesting that Jeffrey Deaver released this project only on Audible. It's a fun listen and I liked the first part with the bank heist, but as it kept going I got a little bored and had a bit of trouble keeping the characters straight. Like listening to an two-part episode of Sherlock or CSI.

[A · Rating 2 out of 5]

This audio book felt more like a TV show. I recognize the point was to give a performance, but I thought there would be more imagery like you would find in a book. Instead, it was almost all dialogue, and I found it hard to keep the characters straight. There was even music separating the scenes, like in a crime tv show.

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very confusing. Too many twists and turns. Not a satisfactory ending. You get some answers but not all. I did enjoy the first part of the book, about the bank heist. After that, I felt the story was too convoluted and went on for entirely too long.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up because it won an Audie Award for best audio drama. All dialogue audio book. It was a good story - production was great, but it did not end with the last disc. And i'm not that interested in following the story any further!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically an audio version of an action movie. Not life-changing but certainly entertaining.

[Reese · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for the performance but 2 stars for the actual story. I just am not into these types of stories but the production kept me amused enough to finish it. And even more difficult was how incredibly unlikeable Middleton was to me - he really came off as this kind of pompous know it all and it was rather insufferable. But again these story lines just aren’t really my thing so it may just be that. Still overall it’s short enough... and the full cast with all the sounds was fun.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crime novel- audio is a vast cast, suspenseful music. Harold Middleton is called upon to discover the identity of "The Starling." Is it a person? Is it a heist? What exactly is the Starling? The quick-paced story goes from Washington D.C. to London to Paris to Prague and places in between. Your skin would tingle as the suspense builds with the music and the quick dialogue with various voices and characters.
It is an enjoyable experience.

[Mike Kennedy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book. There is no sugar coating it, it was awful. I think they were going for old time radio show feel. They missed the boat. This short story was full of music and awful corny jokes. Don’t waste your time on this.

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

An overproduced audio book. I really didn't need the music and sound effects and even so many cast.

THe story was fine although run of the mill. I enjoyed it but was frustrated by the over production.

[Bruce Humbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a bit more than most because I love old radio dramas I guess

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really well performed with a lot of tension to keep you on the edge of your seat.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 for making me giggle at the overly dramatic music. Very predictable story written like a summer blockbuster movie.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting audio book. More like a stage play with a considerable cast. Unfortunately it was short, confusing, with a lack of interesting intrigue.

[Camille Stern · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this on audible. Decent story.... lots of characters.....

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

gets a 4 for the excitement of the audible production, story good too!!! lol, but would have liked it to be longer, enjoyed it better than the copper bracelet!

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked a lot, the audio book had sounds effects.

[Jennifer VanderMeer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible