Out of Time

May 11, 2020
This entertaining if predictable thriller from YA author Klass (Losers Take All) pits FBI data analyst Tom Smith against Green Man, an eco-terrorist (or heroic environmental activist, depending on one’s perspective) who has targeted industries and sites that are hastening humankind’s seemingly unstoppable march toward extinction. After the destruction of a dam on Idaho’s Snake River, which had been stopping wild salmon runs, Smith, whose estranged father is a retired FBI agent, is put on the Green Man Task Force. His instincts, like his father’s, are uncannily accurate, and soon he begins closing in on the elusive bomber, whose mission is to create a sustainable earth where the next generation has hope for the future. The topic is timely, the pacing is pedal-to-the-metal, and Klass does a solid job of creating three-dimensional characters out of Smith and Green Man—but the conclusion is far too obvious. Hopefully, the author will include some big plot twists or revelations in his next outing. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary.

This thought-provoking novel for our time will have listeners torn between siding with the hero or the villain. Edoardo Ballerini plays his narrator role straight down the middle as he portrays an ecoterrorist who believes he is saving the planet and a young FBI agent who is using his genius to stop him. Ballerini's pitch-perfect performance is intense, making this audiobook difficult to turn off. The Green Man exhibits brilliance as he plans and executes schemes to destroy massive dams, fracking stations, and oil fields to stop humans' destruction of the planet's fragile ecosystem. Tom Smith wants only to honor his late father, an FBI agent, and to prove himself professionally by stopping the Green Man. But even Smith knows deep down that the Green Man is right. M.S. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine