THE MIDDLEMAN

With his newest audio thriller, Olen Steinhauer hits a nerve. In a United States led by a polarizing president, with mistrusted and disrupted (or not) intelligence services, a charismatic leader named Martin Bishop emerges. Is his grassroots movement, The Massive Brigade, a peaceful resistance force, or is that a pose, disguising the coming terrors of a Baader-Meinhof gang, or the charisma-gone-rogue cults of Waco or Jim Jones? Ari Fliakos skillfully delivers this bullet train of a plot in which the scariest part is not knowing whom to trust or root for. Voice and pacing are crucial as FBI agent Rachel Proulx races to unravel a snarl of idealism, cynicism, paranoia, and lies threatening her country and life. Fliakos's deft delivery makes this a riveting listen. B.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2018]