Title: Hush
Author: Tal Bauer
Narrator: Joel Leslie
Publisher: Self-Published
Run Time: 19 hours and 22 minutes
Category: Contemporary, Suspense/Thriller
At a Glance: Joel Leslie adds layers to the words Tal Bauer has written and makes them spring to life. Some books that are much shorter feel like they will never end. Here, for almost twenty hours, Leslie and Bauer combine to make something special.
Reviewed By: Mike
Blurb: Federal Judge Tom Brewer is finally putting the pieces of his life back together. In the closet for 25 long years, he’s climbing out slowly, and, with the hope of finding a special relationship with the stunning Mike Lucciano, US Marshal assigned to his DC courthouse. He wants to be out and proud, but he can’t erase his own past, and the lessons he learned long ago.
A devastating terrorist attack in the heart of Washington, DC, and the capture and arrest of the terrorist lead to a trial that threatens to expose the dark underbelly of America’s national security. The Russian president is gravely injured and fixated on revenge, while a gay Russian dissident is arrested and put on trial in Judge Tom Brewer’s courtroom. As Russia beats the drums of war and the United States struggles to contain the trial before it races out of control, secrets and lies, past and present, collide in his courtroom, before his bench.
With the world’s attention fixed on Tom and this case, secrets from his past explode during the course of the trial, which place him at the very center of the case and make him the only man who can try to stop the world’s slide into war.
Review: Tom Brewer is a Federal Judge living in the closet, a closet carefully constructed at the beginning of the AIDS crisis at the hands of a professor who became the ghoul of Tom’s dreams and nightmares.
Mike Lucciano is a US Marshall who is out, proud, and the owner of the worst series of relationships you’ve ever heard of. He’s assigned to the courthouse protection detail, and one of the judges he protects, and sees regularly, is Judge Tom Brewer. With his latest relationship in tatters, Mike decides it’s time to leave the boys behind and look for something long-term with a mature man. He just never expected that mature man to be the judge he’s sworn to protect.
This is a long book. Three cheers for the author, who decided to tell a whole story rather than chunk it into pieces and force it into a series, and three more cheers to Joel Leslie for never wavering in the almost twenty hours of this book. There are three distinct parts to Hush, each section building on the last until the tension finally explodes near the end. There are dozens of characters here, and Leslie gives each one of them their own voice. Even the judge’s dog becomes a full character as Leslie gives her paragraphs the same attention he gives to the dialogue of the human characters. This is a great performance that does not get bogged down in unnecessary accents or overt dramatics.
As judge and marshal begin a tentative dating dance, a terror attack blows up in their laps, and quick series of events puts Tom in charge of trailing the terrorist. As the tension rachets up, Leslie lends his considerable talents to drawing the listener into the flow of the book. Each new development puts Tom and Mike on a collision course with just about everything in their worlds. They are becoming happy and content lovers, but the terrorist’s trial is putting them both in danger. There’s also a possible government coverup, and, finally, the need to retreat to a place outside of Washington, DC, all starts to tangle together to push them together and to pull them apart. Through it all Joel Leslie adds layers to the words Tal Bauer has written and makes them spring to life. Some books that are much shorter feel like they will never end. Here, for almost twenty hours, Leslie and Bauer combine to make something special.
Buy this book. It’s a good story, it’s a great narration, and it’s a complete story with a realistic ending. If there is a sequel, it will not be because there was anything left to tell about this one. You will not be sorry you spent the money on Hush.
You can buy Hush here:
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