2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #2 discussion

Jules, Max and Grady orchestrate a plan to rescue Gina and Molly and escape from Indonesia, all on their own in the middle of a US terrorist crisis. Were you able to keep up with the action? Did you understand what the motivation was for the kidnapping and attempt to get Grady Morant?

I understood the motivation (Nunsantra wanted Grady dead because he had information on his criminal activities via his mistress).
That said, nothing else worked. Some of the many plot holes:
1) Why bother telling Molly and Gina that his "wife" was killed?
2) Why decide to release them?
3) Why agree to go with Jules?
4) What happened to crowbar guy, the woman and the child?
5) What was the purpose of the clueless commander?

Don't even get me started on the totally nonsensical faking of Jones' death and killing of the sadistic colonel.

Moreover, portraying the Indonesian people as either vicious killers, corrupt politicians, stupid underlings or helpless victims just reeks of paternalism.

As you can tell, I have serious issues with the plot of this book!

I understood what was going on. It was a good plan. It was a little sad that Grady didn't have a problem being used as the decoy. He still blamed himself for the situation they were in.

I didn't take away from the story the same things as Lauren. I didn't take it as a negative comment on the Indonesian people. This book was written in 2006 when there was high crime, corruption, and drug trafficking in Indonesia.

I looked at Nunsantra as a gang leader who controlled his part of the world. It is the same as the Aryan Brotherhood, Hell's Angels, Latin Kings, or one of the many other gangs running roughshod over neighborhoods in the US. It doesn't mean everyone in the country is corrupt, just those who can be intimidated by the gangs.

Their plan was thin and as it turned out they just didn't have any luck at all. The action moved really fast. I understand why Grady was willing to sacrifice himself to free Molly and Gina. Nunsantra wanted him because he had information that would derail his political aspirations.

Emilio was a seasoned kidnapper. It’s what he was known for. He told Gina and Molly that story about his wife to gain their trust. Molly bought it; Gina remained wary. Crowbar guy took off with Emilio’s wife and child when it became clear that Grady was outside. He led Jules away to not only kill him but prevent him from calling in reinforcements. It was all about the money for Emilio who was apparently hated by those in that town.

It was hard to keep up as the motivation and forces were a bit convoluted. I had to go back and piece it together. This wasn’t Brockmann’s finest but in the end I made some sense of it.

That is a good explanation, Jonetta.

That said, this requires the reader to fill in a lot of information that is not made sufficiently clear in the book itself.

Also, why did Emilio then try to kill Jules after the car crash? He had already stopped him from getting reinforcements.

Lauren, I agree this required too much work. I had to go back and sift through lots of dialogue to piece this together.

Jules figured out it was always Emilio’s plan to kill him. That’s why he crashed the car.

It was a lot of work, especially when I didn't have an ecopy of the book. I only had audio. I replayed sections or went back to find what I was looking for by speeding up the audio.

I had both, Sharon. Had to use the ebook to figure out the areas I was confused.

I gave up on listening to this book due to the constant time period shifts. I never would have caught the Emilio character problems if I was listening.

I can only imagine how much more difficult it was to follow the events on audio.

It was impossible on audio. That’s why it took me so long to create the discussion questions. I literally had to pour through details.

When I listen to an audio book, I'm always doing something else, cleaning, cooking, running errands, exercising. I only listen with half my brain, and I've decided that Romance and Historical-Romance work best for listening. Anything I need to really listen to and concentrate on details just doesn't work for me in the audio format.

When I’m listening, I’m doing something mindless like washing dishes or dusting. I also listen while taking a bath. I’m rarely distracted from my audiobook and when I find I am, I pause. But this book? It was a challenge.