The Good Lie audiobook

Highly entertaining and enjoyable read. I found myself reading late into the night trying to unravel the mystery that Rosenstiel’s “fixers” were coming to grips with. Page after page you get detail after detail so that you feel like you are the proverbial fly on the wall and you are capturing everything there is to see. Despite such detail Rosenstiel does a good job of keeping the complete picture hidden until the very end.

Finding the truth behind a smokescreen of lies in Washington DC isn’t just a challenge for crack investigator Peter Rena. It’s downright dangerous. But when the President of the United States asks you to take on a job, you don’t say no, no matter what your misgivings. And this time those misgivings rise quickly to the surface. Islamic terrorists have attacked and overrun a US outpost in North Africa, killing an American general. No one admits to knowing he had been there, or why—including the president and his national security advisor—and those who do know aren’t telling. In the midst of rushed investigations undertaken by the Department of Defense, the CIA, the FBI, the “Washington Tribune,” and Congress, the firm of Brooks, Rena & Toppin must somehow get to the truth before anyone else. The stakes couldn’t be higher in this Washington political thriller.THE BACKSTORYPeter Rena is the protagonist of what are to date four novels in a series of political thrillers by veteran Washington journalist Tom Rosenstiel. Rena had served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a military policeman in the Special Forces. His brilliant military career came to a sudden end when he attempted to investigate a sexual assault charge against a powerful three-star general. Back in Washington, a prominent US Senator from Michigan took him under his wing and put him to work on his staff.After a time, the senator connected him with a pair of other Washington investigators and helped them launch a firm of their own. Now, Rena leads Brooks, Rena & Toppin with his partner, Randi Brooks. Almost uniquely in the capital among consultants to the political class, they operate across party lines. Rena is a moderate Republican, Brooks an outspoken liberal Democrat. Their stellar reputation has led the incumbent Democratic president, James Nash, to hire them to take on their most explosive assignment to date in The Good Lie.A DAUNTING CHALLENGE FRAUGHT WITH DANGERThe challenge Rena and Brooks have taken up is intimidating. President Nash seems not to trust anyone involved in national security except Diane Howell, his National Security Advisor. Neither of them has an inkling of what went wrong in Oosay in the North African Republic of Morat, where Brigadier General Brian Roderick died. Someone among the other principals must know what took place. But he or they aren’t telling James Nash. Not the president’s Chief of Staff, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence, or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Someone, maybe several of them, are stonewalling him.Somehow, Rena and Brooks and their resourceful team must work around the edges of the national security establishment to ferret out the facts that someone is taking great pains to hide. Their investigation will take them into the most deeply hidden recesses of the nation’s intelligence community. We know, of course, that they’ll eventually succeed (since this is a novel, after all), but along the way they will face great danger. And, in the midst of the action, Rena attempts to navigate a cross-continental relationship with Victoria Madison, daughter of the Supreme Court Justice Rena and Brooks had helped steer through his confirmation in a previous novel.INSIGHT INTO TODAY’S FRAUGHT NATIONAL POLITICAL SCENETom Rosenstiel is one of the most incisive observers of politics inside the Beltway, but his long life there has jaded him. From a passionately nonpartisan perspective, he casts blame equally on both parties, whereas one so clearly bears most of the responsibility. Here, for instance, he analyzes the scene in the words of his character, President James Nash. “Our politics has become cannibalistic. We are so divided as a country, each party now engages in tactics that are slowly dismantling the system of government in which they serve.“Once a party has power in Congress, it throws out the old rules to get what it wants because the other side won’t cooperate and the parties won’t compromise to get them to do so. When power changes hands again, there is no peace, only revenge, more rules tossed out. Once all the rules are gone, there will be nothing left to stop the devil. We are destroying our government from within.”I don’t share that jaundiced perspective. But I do agree with another that Rosenstiel offers up in the words of his character, James Nash. “People today seem to think they will find freedom in their own selfishness and own separateness. We have a whole new digital economy built on it. They’re wrong. We find freedom in tolerance and common purpose. that’s what is at stake here.”ABOUT THE AUTHORTom Rosenstiel has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, spending extended periods at the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek and later as executive director of the American Press Institute. He is the cofounder of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. He’s a graduate of Oberlin College and the Columbia School of Journalism. To date, he has written four books in the Peter Rena series.

I received this book from the author (and likely the fine folks at Bookfunnel.com) in return for an honest review. As I have pontificated on easily over a hundred plus books in the last few years, your email gets on a few email lists and you get notifications of new books and authors (some solicited and some very much unsolicited). Sometimes the selection of new authors to read is very much "racoon principle" (pooh, pretty cover, shiny)....lol.That said, I am honestly ecstatic that I chose Tom Rosenstiel's "The Good Lie",as I found the book to be a page-turning political thriller that would be enjoyed by those afficiendo of behind-the-scenes political action novels.The story starts off in the country of Morat, where a "populist" uprising takes place outside an American diplomatic outpost which results in the death of an American general and the majority of his security team. This action results in a joint investigation by members of the US Senate and House of Representatives. An investigation is also launched by Peter Rena at al, as they are brought in on behalf of the President of the United States' independent counsel, as both parties race against time and the media to find the truth (and maybe score political favour on behalf of select members of the former for the upcoming presidential elections).As far as reviews go, I would give this book a solid five stars out of five. As with all my reviews, this is just my five cents worth.

At first I thought this would be just another action thriller, almost put it down. But once through all the setups and introductions, it began to transform into a well-planned and executed political intrigue. It unfortunately echoed too much of the dysfunction going on in our government today, but with a twist, as our political detective-heroes follow their investigation, and find surprising facts. The mystery centers upon the attack of an official American compound in a small African country, and what really did or did not happen. But the hysterical political posturing and blame tossed about by government officials is also an integral part of the tale, which became more engrossing as I read on.

*3.5 Stars. This book would make a great movie, but one of the things that would make it a better movie is all the characters. In a movie version of this story, you would have a room full of people and just have to know that the people are just political officials, but when you write this scene in a book, you have to say the names of all the people and describe the room and everything. This made the book seem to drag in places. I'm not really sure how to correct this, but it just made it less interesting at those moments. I also think this was just too plot focused for me, but I enjoyed the overall storyline and the twists were nice.

Great follow up to Shining City. This one delves into the intelligence world via an assignment given to Rena and Brooks by POTUS. Again, first rate writing thoroughly researched. Why can’t more authors write like Rosenstiel?

Great read! Rosenstiel really takes you inside the beltway and gives you a sense of what people in Washington are thinking. And the scenes with the reporters are so interesting---Rosenstiel's experience as a reporter definitely comes through.

If you like Washington intrigue, don't miss this author. Veiled look at politicians and current events.

Good plot with lots of intrigue !

I enjoyed the book. Mystery about terror attack at a US base in Africa. A US general who was there on a secret mission is killed and everyone is trying to uncover the true story.

Not bad, kept me interested, even though it got slow in the middle.

Great writing once again from Tom Rosenstiel. Captivating plotline, great character development, very good reading.

Good work, Tom!

The second in the series. This book is extremely well written and an enjoyable read if you like political gamesmanship.