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    The Unwilling: A Novel
    The Unwilling: A Novel
    The Unwilling: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Unwilling: A Novel

    Written by John Hart

    Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    "The tension in Hart’s story never lets up, and you’ll find yourself unable to break away — disc after disc (or page after page) — long past your bedtime." -- NJ.com

    This program includes a letter read by the author

    “We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful.” —Unknown Soldier

    Set in the South at the height of the Vietnam War, The Unwilling combines crime, suspense and searing glimpses into the human mind and soul in New York Times bestselling author John Hart's singular style.

    Gibby's older brothers have already been to war. One died there. The other came back misunderstood and hard, a decorated killer now freshly released from a three-year stint in prison.

    Jason won't speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn't known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake: long hours of sunshine and whisky and older women.

    But the day turns ugly when the four encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. Beautiful but drunk, one of the women taunts the prisoners, leading to a riot on the bus. The woman finds it funny in the moment, but is savagely murdered soon after.

    Given his violent history, suspicion turns first to Jason; but when the second woman is kidnapped, the police suspect Gibby, too. Determined to prove Jason innocent, Gibby must avoid the cops and dive deep into his brother's hidden life, a dark world of heroin, guns and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

    What he discovers there is a truth more disturbing than he could have imagined: not just the identity of the killer and the reasons for Tyra's murder, but the forces that shaped his brother in Vietnam, the reason he was framed, and why the most dangerous man alive wants him back in prison.

    This is crime fiction at its most raw, an exploration of family and the past, of prison and war and the indelible marks they leave.

    A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

    “Another scorcher from Hart ... [he] keeps us engaged ... subtly folding quiet, character-driven moments into the story while still powering the narrative toward an all-stops-out ending—and a chilling coda.” -- Booklist, starred review

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateFeb 2, 2021
    ISBN9781250752208
    Author

    John Hart

    John Hart is the New York Times bestselling author of The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child, Iron House, Redemption Road, and The Hush. The only author in history to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel consecutively, John has also won the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Bookseller’s Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into thirty languages and can be found in more than seventy countries.

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    Reviews for The Unwilling

    4.5/5

    31 ratings4 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      One of the best books I have read. Will look for other books by the author.
    • 5/5
      The mix of good, evil and the choices that all of us must face as we grow up and must deal with our fears and the reality of life ! Great Book !!
    • 4/5
      The author did a phenomenal job on the characters. I was invested in knowing how the French family ended up. The twists and turns were suspenseful. I didn’t give it five stars because of the violence, but that’s just me. I listened to this and read the book at times. I think the narrator was okay.
    • 5/5
      What a lovely storyteller John Hart is. I was drawn to this book by the time period, the synopsis of the plot, and by John Hart himself. And I wasn't disappointed - even though parts of the plot felt a little implausible, the majority of it felt completely grounded in the reality of the time. My heart broke for Jason, the son and brother whose life was irrevocably changed by his time and events in Vietnam. And for Gibby, his brother who is on the verge of graduating from high school but has already had to deal with far too many life upheavals, although he certainly has more to come as the book progresses. And my heart broke too for their father - trying to protect his broken wife, his younger son and his older one whom he's afraid may be beyond protection, or redemption. This is a story about family and love and how hard it can be to "do the right thing" when it's hard to see what the right thing may actually be. It's also a murder mystery. And while I found the villain to be over the top - upon reflection I wondered if he might be a bit of a personification of the government forces that wrecked Jason's life. Whether he was or not, I thought this was an excellent book. I listened to the audiobook, and the skilled narration definitely added to the book.
      My thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.