The End Game

Burn Notice #2

by Tod Goldberg

Ex-covert op Michael Westen has a new client. Paolo Fornelli is Helmsman for a yacht in the Hurricane Cup-a winner-take-all race financed by the super-rich and preceded by a week of highstakes gambling, high-risk business, and high-class attitude. Paolo's family has been taken hostage. If Paolo ever wants to see them again, he must make it to the final race-and lose.

To find the kidnappers, Michael will have to infiltrate high society and enter a deadly game against deadlier opponents in a world where money isn't the only thing worth killing for...

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Ebooks, Espionage, Thriller, Tv, Media Tie In

278 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 30, 2009

About the author

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books of fiction, notably the acclaimed Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize; Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, a Southwest Book of the Year; and Gangsters Don’t Die, an Amazon Best Book of 2023 as well as a Southwest Book of the Year. Other works include The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His short fiction and essays have been anthologized widely, including in Best American Mystery & Suspense and Best American Essays, and appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta. Tod Goldberg is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where founded and directs the Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. His next novel, Only Way Out, will be released this fall from Thomas & Mercer.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because Burn Notice is one of those rare shows that successfully walks the line between thriller and comedy, writing a Burn Notice novel seems like a difficult undertaking. So I give Goldberg credit for doing as well as he did. He's definitely very creative and knows his spycraft. But he's not much of a humorist, and the constant weak attempts to imitate the show's sarcastic tone and comedic irony get old fast, though he does do a great job of mimicking the characters' conversation styles. Goldberg also tries to be a little too hip for the story's own good, and his need to make lots of pop culture references only serves to further weaken the plot. If the book had been written as a straightforward spy novel, it would have been a lot better, but still flawed due to an ending that is both incredibly anti-climatic and confusing. Disappointing, but still good enough to make me want to read another one.

[Derek Bush · Rating 3 out of 5]

Burn Notice: The End Game is enjoyable entry into the burn notice cannon but it's nothing special. If you liked the TV show or the first book and want more of the same it's worth reading.

My main complaint with the first book was that it didn't really feel like it was part of the overall Micheal Weston story. It mentioned the titular burn notice once or twice but didn't show any of the ramifications. End Game has a few moments where Micheal feels burned but they don't quite work. The vague threats feel more like nagging than something with actual consequences.

In terms of characters the book nails the TV show characters most of the time. There were a few moments early in the book where characters did or said things that didn't really work with their characters. Also because the book takes place in the early seasons of the show a few characters, especially Madeline, haven't been fully established and come off as unnecessarily annoying.

The main plot of the book is similar to the early, episodic episodes of the show. There isn't any real tension and the ending feels rushed. The main villain and the client are both forgettable. One of the side characters had the potential to be interesting and an actual threat but he doesn't get the page time and ends up feeling like a missed opportunity.

In the end if you want more Burn Notice Eng Game will give you more just don't expect anything surprising or special in terms of plot.

[Tedero · Rating 2 out of 5]

The End Game was not what I would call a great book. It paled in comparison to Todd's first Burn Notice novel, The Fix. In "The End Game" there were some great scenes that had a that "Oh! Just like in a Burn Notice episode!" but overall I felt bogged down in the exposition. Sure, Michael Weston goes into some great DIY spycraft but overall it just fell flat. The ending was the worse IMHO. It just sort of ends. I'm not even quite sure why the badguys do what they did. I felt like a situation was setup and just sort of ended without a sense of accomplishment. The Mikey and his mother epilogue was through in to make up for the lackluster plot conclusion. Overall I give it a Blah.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fair addition to the Burn Notice series, but I'll have to admit I didn't like it as much as Goldberg's first Burn Notice novel, The Fix. For me, it just felt as if there was way too much reliance on the internal narrative. I got to the point, after a while, where if I read the sentence "When you're a spy..." one more time, I was going to give up. I'd much rather see the characters actually interacting, and see the plot grow out of their actions, rather than out of all the exposition. But maybe that's just me...

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that I'm very on the fence about this book. As a stand-alone story, it is well-written (though I do feel that the supporting characters are slightly shallow). As a novel companion to the TV show, however, I don't feel that this did it justice. Though I tried to imagine Michael voicing the text, there were multiple times where the sarcastic humor and the things that make Michael Michael just...weren't there. I do commend Goldberg for attempting to capture such a dynamic character in a spin-off novel, but i have to say that I wasn't as "wowed" as I had hoped to be.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a tie-in to the TV show Burn Notice, which is about ex-spy Michael Westen who gets “burned” and confined to his hometown of Miami. In the show, Michael helps people solve problems using his tradecraft with the help of colleagues Fiona and Sam, all while dealing with his mother and brother. This book is like an episode of the show. An Italian yacht race captain with ties to the mob and wealth seeks help because his wife and daughter’s lives are threatened unless he loses an upcoming race.

This book was enjoyable for the most part. The story is told in first person from Michael’s perspective, though Sam and Fiona get their own third-person excerpts without Michael being present. The author did a good job capturing the tone of the show and the way the characters speak. I felt like there were a few too many monologues about spycraft rather than sticking to the story. The ending also felt incomplete, which is ironic for a book called “End Game.”

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I downloaded the first 2 Burn Notice books back in 2010 and 2011 respectively, I didn't know that the books were based on a TV series. All I knew about Tod Goldberg was that he was the son of Jan Curran, who wrote Active Senior Living, and his brother Lee Goldberg who wrote the Monk books.

I have finally read the first two books, and I really don't know what took me so long to read them, considering his pedigree. I love the characters and the humor.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but not quite so much as the first. Maybe it was the subject matter (a rigged sailing race? Really?). Maybe it was the re-use of plot devices from the first novel.

...but probably it was Goldberg's continued trouble with homophones. "A might excessive" is not a thing, and neither does "Al Qaeda" have a "u".

[Brennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad.
You have to be a fan of the tv show to appreciate the book.
Although, it is hard to place this book chronologically within the tv series, you just have to pretend it fits somewhere. The author is just using the characters, not trying to add to the Tv storyline.

[Randy Grossman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took about 150 pages before Goldberg ruined my reading fantasy with words that NEVER would have been on the TV series. I'm a bit disappointed in Matt Nix for accepting this as well...I guess Goldberg HAS to R Rate his stories. Most of the book was typical Michael Westen dialogue, and was interesting for about 7/8 of the story, but I thought the conclusion was muddled and difficult to follow. Well, my family bought me the series for a present, so eventually I will read the other two. But, unlikely I will look for any other novels be TOD Goldberg...his brother Lee does a MUCH BETTER JOB with the Monk series.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know spies... bunch of bitchy little girls.

In this second installment of the novelization of Burn Notice, Sam gets Michael involved in an incredibly confusing situation involving a mafia family fixing some yacht racing, and the wife and daughter of said yacht racer being in mortal peril. Unfortunately, the relationships between the three players involved (the racer, the fixer, and the, um... hostage "taker") are convoluted and the plot felt forced. The ending was also kind of anti-climatic, and I didn't feel like the resolution was particularly clear.

For fun, there are some hilarious references to Sam being "... essentially Jimmy Buffet with a license to kill" and Nate being a Star Trek red-shirt.

There are also fewer bits of backstory regarding Michael's burn notice in this book (see my review of The Fix here), but again I'd still only recommend it for die hard fans of the show.

Based on the inclusion of Virgil, and a mystery woman hassling Michael on the phone (who is probably Carla), I'd slot this book in somewhere around mid season two.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The End Game is the second novel about Burn Notice. This case is a bit more complex than those seen on tv and the plot requires you to pay attention. Otherwise, you may miss some clues and the explanations may not make sense or you may not notice how Michel solves the case. This doesn’t mean that the plot is difficult to follow; only that half reading and half watching tv is probably not the best idea.

Although there is a bit of information about the characters, it is better to be familiar with the tv show. It is possible to read this book and understand what happens before watching the series, as we’re told some basic things about Michael and his friends. You’ll enjoy it more if you have watched at least a few episodes, though.

The characterization is spot-on. Tod Goldberg nails the dialogues of Michael, Fiona and Sam. You can almost hear them talk.

The author successfully writes a serious and funny story. The spy advice and Michael’s sarcastic thoughts had me grinning most of the time.

All in all, a great book for all the fans of Burn Notice.

[Brian Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to know what to say about this book. While Tod Goldberg had the characters down dead and the TV format very well done, that's about all it had going for it. The End Game was nothing more than a TV episode. It was a reasonably well done TV episode, but nothing beyond. I'm sorry, but when I read a book, I want more than just something I can sit down and watch in 42 minutes. I wouldn't read a movie adaptation and expect nothing more than a film script, I want much more than you get on screen, lots of information that they couldn't make into the actual movie or TV episode. This simply does not deliver. It's slow, much of it is little more than talking heads and the action, what little there is of it, comes only in the last chapter. I don't feel that I got anything more from reading the book than I would have gotten sitting down to an episode of Burn Notice, it just took much longer to digest for no more payoff.

[Sharkparty]

Another decent entry in the series. The first book did a good job of establishing that the book characters are nicely in line with the TV characters. This book basically seems to introduce Miami... all the yachting and super luxury woven into the story is the stand-in for all of the sunshine and beach transitions that provide the noticeable atmosphere for the TV show. This book also brings in more of the James Bond vibe that comes and goes in the show by having Michael infiltrate a HIGH STAKES GAME OF LUXURY bla bla bla. They also handled Nate pretty well, which is weird since the show doesn't even handle Nate all that well.

[Martin White · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better than the first book, The Fix, which is good, because I read this one first one a trip across the country with my wife. It wasn't a good book, but there was enough that was done right that I gave the next book (actually #1 in the series) a try. In the end though, there just isn't the right tone and humor from then characters that was in the series. Fiona constantly plays like a caricature of her TV self, which sort of kills a big reason to read and enjoy the books. If you enjoyed the TV show, I'd give this book 2 stars, in that it's worth a lazy summer day read to remember a TV show you thought fondly of. It was OK.

[Mark Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael is hired to find a kidnapped wife and daughter of the man who will be piloting the family yacht during a race. If he thought that was easy, however, he discovers he's in way over his head as he starts digging deeper. A great entry that captures the characters and pace of the series. There were a couple leaps that I had to fully think about to get, but that could just be me.

Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.

[Merek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book, bit confusing at places (I could figure it out at the end who was betraying who, but it took awhile). What made me want to read this book, and probably the others, is that there is more of the story than in a 1hr episode on TV.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one better than the first one- it seemed like Tod Goldberg had a better grasp of the characters, and the story was more interesting than the first.
Still, I do like the show better than the novels.

[Chris Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found todd's set of books to be a great extension to the series on television I already like/enjoy. The internal monologue of the main character is very different, more hard-edged, than you see in the television show.

A great addition, if you already enjoy the show.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like watching burn notice on TV, but reading the books is good too. I liked how in the book it talked about how things blow up. I think the books are different than the TV show but it goes along the same base line which is a good thing.

[Muriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, quick read! I really like how the author does a really good job with the characters, the books feel like an extension of the show.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the tv series, and the book reads much like the show. This one wasn't as good as "The Fix", but still an enjoyable read.

[Jessie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, fluffy read!

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, feels like a long Burn Notice episode. Big fan!

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tod Goldberg nails the voice of Michael Westen, the BURN NOTICE protagonist, perfectly. If you're into the show, you'll want to see how he plays right up against the edges of the canonical storyline.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still love the show, but the book was disappointing.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good addition to the series!

[Hazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. A good tie in to the show.

[Martijn Engler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book if you like the tv show.

[Sio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun and fast Burn Notice novel. The author does a very good job at capturing all the characters' voices.