Title:The Separatists
Author:Lis Wiehl
Series:Newsmakers, #3
Narrator:Devon O’Day
Published:June 2017, Thomas Nelson
Length:9 hours 10 minutes
Source:Publisher
Journalist and newscaster Erica Sparks is planning only to report
on an explosive story – until she gets caught in the middle of it.
After
getting the green light from her network to launch an investigative
news show, Erica flies to Bismarck, North Dakota, to investigate Take
Back Our Homeland, the largest secessionist group. What she finds is
profoundly disturbing – a growing threat to the future of our union.Back
home, her husband, Greg, is drinking more and talking less – and taking
an unusual interest in the glamorous author Leslie Burke Wilson.
Erica’s teenage daughter has also begun acting out in troubling ways.Then
she discovers a potential informant murdered in her Bismarck hotel.
Take Back Our Homeland might be even more dangerous than she had thought
– and she’s unwittingly become one of the key players in the story. Her
fear and anxiety escalate – for her marriage, her daughter, and her own
life.Best-selling novelist and former legal analyst for Fox
News Lis Wiehl takes us behind the anchor’s desk in this gripping look
at high-stakes reporting in a country torn apart.
My thoughts:This is the third, and final, book in Lis Wiehl’s Newsmaker’s series and what a crazy ride it has been. I have really enjoyed these books – I don’t typically read political thrillers, but these have been fun and quite intriguing!
One of my favorite aspects of this series has been watching as Erica has continued to keep reaching for more and more in her career. She is definitely not one to settle, that’s for sure! She’s just been given the go ahead to launch a new investigative news show and has decided on quite an interesting topic for her first show – she wants to begin the series with a feature on a secessionist movement growing in North Dakota.Unfortunately this is only the tip of the iceberg.
As things become frighteningly out of hand with the secessionist group, and Erica finds herself having to take more and more trips back to North Dakota than she originally intended, things at home with her husband and her daughter take a turn for the worse. He is having a career crisis of his own and she has found herself befriended by the wrong crowd. Will Erica be able to juggle all these balls without turning to her old demons or will she end up putting herself in danger one time too many with no good conclusion to be found?
This is the latest, and final, of what has been a great, thrilling series. It was filled with non-stop action and lots of suspense. This particular book takes a frightening look at the harm that could come from what a group of extremists could possibly do if they so desired. Scary thought! Erica Sparks has been a great character to follow along with in this series – she is full of courage, spark and determination!!! I’m really bummed that this series is over, but I am so glad that I picked it up to begin with! I will definitely be checking out what else Lis Wiehl writes, as I really enjoy her stories.
Audio thoughts:Once again Devon O’Day shines in this narration – she really did a fantastic job with the voices of this audio book! I love the way she brought Erica and all the characters to life, giving them each their own unique personalities. She was very consistent with the voices from book to book for those characters that were in all three books and I loved that, as there were quite a few of of the same characters in all three. To me, that’s important, especially for the main character – and believe me, Erica sounded just the same in each audio book. I also loved the way Devon added just the right amount of tension to her voice as the scenes called for – she really understood the script she was reading. This was such a great series to listen to and I’m glad I decided to go the audio route for it!
Books in this series:
- The Newsmakers
- The Candidate
- The Separatists
The series is a new one for me. Thank you for the review.