Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Mr. Whisper by Andrew Mayne Narrator: Susannah Jones, Will Damron, Jennifer O'Donnell, James Anderson Foster
Series: The Specialists #1
Published by Brilliance Audio on March 1, 2025
Genres: Mystery
Length: 12 hours, 43 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
Investigator Sloan McPherson finds a frightened vagrant suffering from amnesia living in a Florida swamp—then learns he disappeared from Oregon when he was a teenager. To find out how he ended up three thousand miles from home thirty years later, Sloan enlists the help of two brilliant colleagues.
FBI agent Jessica Blackwood and scientist Theo Cray have already made an alarming connection. A female classmate of the Everglades drifter disappeared at the same time, and their high school journals reveal ties to an enigmatic figure they both called Mr. Whisper. Under his influence they did as they were told. The case is also attracting the attention of corporate security expert Brad Trasker, whose trail is leading to the dark heart of a master manipulator.
Jessica, Theo, Sloan, and Brad must now bring their unique skills to the table to take down a diabolical adversary. Unless Mr. Whisper’s decades-long control of the vulnerable is too powerful and far-reaching to stop.
I love the Underwater Investigation Unit series, so I was thrilled to have this series with more of Sloan and her team. It didn’t quite work out that way. The Specialists is the combination of 3 series, the UIU series, the Theo Cray & Jessica Blackwood series, which is preceded by a Jessica Blackwood series, and the Trasker series. The chronology seems to be the Jessica Blackwood series, then the Theo Cray & Jessica Blackwood series, then the UIU, and newest Trasker, and now The Specialists. Since I have only read UIU and now The Specialists, I don’t know if the characters have interacted previously to now.
So if it’s not clear from all those series, I would not recommend this series without some reading at least one of the previous series. I wish I’d read all of them previously. I felt a bit disjointed at times, particularly with Brad Trasker who just sort of sat out in left field until he jumped in at the end. I think I might have kept it together better if I was reading the ebook or alternating.
It also felt odd to me not having Sloan as the main character consistently. The rest of her team was mostly absent, only mentioned. Jessica & Theo were much more in the front of the story and I liked them very well.
Sloan finds a man who has limited memories of his past living in a Florida swamp. It turns out he is a missing teen who was thought to be a runaway in Oregon. She connects with Jessica & Theo to help research his past and they link him to another missing girl from the same town. And then they find others who are similar cases but not the same.
In the early cases, the teens talked to a state psychiatrist or graduate students who weren’t involved with the investigation when they disappeared. They follow the trail and learn of other teens and other methods. The science and controlling of these teens is horrifying.
Things get dangerous for the team as they track the elusive scientist. The action is suspenseful and intense. I want to know if this “team” will now be a team after working on this case.
Now to go back and read the series I haven’t. I love this author’s work and characters so it’s a pleasure. I just want to do it before the next book in October, Imposter Syndrome.
Narration:
I enjoyed the different narrators that are the usual ones for the three series being combined here. Susannah Jones is a talented narrator and the one I know from the UIU series. I appreciated having the different narrators as I went from different chapters to distinguish the point of view. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Andrew Mayne
Andrew is the founder of Interdimensional, an artificial intelligence service consultancy that helps companies deploy AI solutions. Prior to founding Interdimensional, Andrew was the Science Communicator for OpenAI and their first prompt engineer. At OpenAI he worked on GPT-4, ChatGPT and GPT-3, creating many of the original prompts and examples used today.
Alongside his AI contributions, Andrew writes mystery-thriller novels. His works have been nominated for the Edgar and Thriller Awards, with series featuring characters including Theo Cray, Sloan McPherson, Jessica Blackwood, and Trasker.
Andrew was also featured in the Discovery Channel Shark Week special Andrew Mayne: Ghost Diver where he used AI and stealth technology to swim next to great white sharks in the Isle of Jaws.
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I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 25-Audio
- 25-COYER
This was not even on my radar! I have read the whole Theo Cray series (and I was sad that he stopped writing it) and I think one Jessica Blackwood book. So I’m behind too. I may put this off until I can read the rest, but I do like the idea of gathering all these different characters together.
I really enjoy this author and look forward to going back to pick up the rest. I need to before the next book because I’ll understand more. Glad to hear you enjoy this author too.
Thank you for clarifying the series reading order! I’m manic about that so I’ll follow that guidance. Great review, Anne💜
Thank you Jonetta. I also like to go in order which I though I was but I was missing 3 other sub-series. Now I need to read those before the next one.
Interesting how the three series converge. Wow, Mr. Whisper doing that to those teens creeps me out.
yes it’s evil. And hard to fathom.
That’s a lot of stuff going into this one book! I’m not always a big fan of a book where different series converge but I like the sound of this one.
It’s a good book but I would enjoy it much more if I had read the other series.
I will make sure to begin at the beginning if I wade in. It looks like a good series!
So so good. I just finished the first Jessica Blackwood book and I loved it.
omigosh I am so far behind on commenting!!!!
I was thinking this sounded maybe like one my mom would like, so it’s good to know she would probably want to read the other series first. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it, sounds like you enjoyed it!
yes thank you. I am just really becoming a big fan of Andrew Mayne.