The Sokova Convention

By: David Wind

Narrated by: Tim Welch

Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

An action, suspense, and espionage, spy thriller

For almost a half century, the KGB kept secret the most devastating political plot the Soviets have ever evolved. It began in a French farmhouse in 1947, and lay dormant until the Cold War ended. Then in an election year, a Russian sleeper agent initiates the Sokova Convention to take control of the United States.

In a safe house in France, in 1947, a Russian KGB Agent enters and kills a master OSS agent and his wife during childbirth and kidnaps their infant son. The infant is rescued moments before the KGB agent can leave France. Every trace of this horrendous act is destroyed and no record of the kidnapping exist.

Decades later, a KGB sleeper-agent discovers a super-secret file detailing a decades old plot to control the White House and is determined to reveal his discovery - the CIA sleeper agent, embedded in the KGB, is killed before he can complete the delivery to his CIA handler. The sleeper-agent lives long enough to warn CIA agent Kevin Chapin about a powerful mole in the American Government and how the mole's role in the upcoming presidential elections are the key, and unless he can expose the dark secret, the ruthless enemies of our country will stop at nothing to seize control of the United States.....

©2016 David Wind (P)2017 David Wind

The Manchurian Candidate Redeaux?

I really enjoyed this listen. Although I did wonder if the story would be able to hold my interest for 14-hours, it turned out that the book seemed to fly by. Interesting premise and intrigue as espionage at its highest possible levels is unfolded throughout the story. Set in pretty much present day, it has it's roots in years after WWII and wreaks of the Cold War us versus them mentality between the CIA and KGB.

The characters are well formed with plenty of backstory on the key players. As the plot unfolds the interrelations of the characters is what makes the story really work. Politics, friendships, killing, love, and betrayal are intermingled throughout. The action and intrigue kept my attention and even with all the double agents and globetrotting that takes place, I could not recall and significant instances where the story-line wasn't neatly tied off; the listener is left with no loose ends. Even towards the final quarter of the book, when one gets a pretty good idea of what the ending is going to look like, the final conclusion is in doubt up until the closing minutes. Seriously, the ending could have gone is several different directions, but enough said about that.

I found the narration to be well done; complete with European and Russian accents used appropriately. Even in some of the most frantic scenes the narrator's voice remained cool, calm and collect as a top espionage agent would have to behave in order to survive in his line of field work.

I would highly recommend this listen to anyone that is into international espionage stories as it is well worth the price of a credit and the time required for the listen. A review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in return for this unbiased review. My hope is that this review helps in your decision to obtain this book.

Very Intriguing..

Great chapter development continues in this book. A great read that flows through the story in a way that will keep the book in your hands until it's finished.. The author tells a story that takes some interesting twists along the way, throws in some misdirection and keeps you guessing most of the way through the story.
"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Suspense at it's best!

Would you listen to The Sokova Convention again? Why?

Yes, you can connect the dots better and understand the characters roles better.

What did you like best about this story?

A great concept and a story of intrigue.

Have you listened to any of Tim Welch’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No but his cadence and knowledge of the characters brought them to life.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Politics is a game of chess.

Any additional comments?

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review”.

Boring

BOOK REVIEW........
i found this story to be boring. Even what action there is in it just wasn't exciting to me at all. I think I like watching this type of stories better then reading them.

NARRATOR REVIEW......
The narrator was just okay. Maybe if he would have sounded more intense. Put more feeling behind it. I don't know it was just lacking something

L

Fascinating!

The narration made it ease to follow the story. The words were clearly enunciated. Similar to another review, I did not have to rewind and have a sentence repeated. I liked that the narrator spoke with a passion which kept my attention. It was a fascinating plot and I thought the narrator was able to bring it to life.
At first, it was a little difficult to distinguish between which characters were talking because they had the same voice. After the first few chapters, I was in the swing of it and didn't have a problem anymore.
Overall, a great listen!

It was OK.

The narrator was a little flat. Seemed to have only one emotion. And read pretty quickly. I like the story and plot and the fleshed out characters but some parts really dragged on as things were explained like it was being read right from a boring textbook or something. A little less explanation of things would've been appreciated, let the reader/listener do some of the lifting too. Over all my bad, not great but not bad.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Great Listen!!!

What a thrilling book! I loved the storyline! This book was very interesting to me. I've been intrigued with history, espionage, politics and travel from my early teens. In fact, I've even met some real spy's that were in World War II. The narration on this book was good, but not awesome. I had some trouble distinguishing some of the various characters. I also thought that the narrator did not put enough emotion and accents into his performance. (I listen to audiobooks daily, so I am picky regarding the performance of the narrator.) My review is not a synopsis of the book, but rather my opinion of it. The author of this book was new to me, while I had heard the narrator before. I would look for more books by both in the future. I will listen to this book again when I am in the mood for an action adventure listen. I was voluntarily provided with this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher, and/or narrator.

Thriller

For almost a half century, the KGB kept secret the most devastating political plot the Soviets have ever evolved. Decades later, a KGB sleeper-agent discovers a super-secret file detailing a decades old plot to control the White House and is determined to reveal his discovery. The Sokova Convention is the most interesting spy novel I've read. I could not stop listening as when I thought I had it figured out I found that I did not. The action,suspense and espionage make this audio book a must listen.
"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

What is McCarthy was right?

What did you like best about The Sokova Convention? What did you like least?

The best part about The Sokova Convention was the mystery behind the story. David Wind does a great job of keeping you guessing on exactly what is going on. You are pretty sure you know the main plot of the story but the details and some misdirection keep you guessing exactly who is involved and what the entire end goal is.

The worst part about the book is the McCarthyism feel to the entire book. There seems to be a lot of focus on the fact that is the communist who are trying to take over America so much so that it is distracting at times.

Any additional comments?

After reading the book I am left with the impression that David Wind knows how to write an enticing action packed tale, but he also needs some more editing. The story premise is interesting, there are plenty of action sequences and though the plot is pretty obvious its twist and turns are still intriguing. The problem comes from the fact that some pieces are just too easy for the characters to find out (the truck driver's false background) when no one else had even though people would have been trying and the seemingly one track focus Mr. Wind has on Russians taking over. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

3.5 Good Book

The story and plot were really good. There was Action, Suspense, and espionage, spy thriller which made for a good listen. But for me there were some issues.
The narrator was a little flat. Seemed to have only one emotion. And read pretty quickly. I found myself back tracking because I missed a bit of the story. As I said like the story and plot and the fleshed out characters but some parts really dragged on as things were explained like it was being taught in a classroom.

I received a free copy of this book for an honest and unbiased review.

Overall a good book which could have been a great book.