Book Review: The Troubleshooters series -- novellas by Suzanne Brockmann

The Troubleshooters series
by Suzanne Brockmann (see hotlinks for each individual story)

Four short stories and a novella from the Troubleshooters series By Suzanne Brockmann.

 

Only download the following Hoopla and Libby audio books if you are a fan of the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann. These five stories are novellas and shorts that are hilarious, scary, thoughtful, and poignant. They catch you up with some of our favorite characters, giving you more insight into the lives of Adam, Izzy, Gilman, Jules, Robin, and others beyond what we’ve read in the full-length novels. The narrators, Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank, are perfect as they portray our characters.

 

Book #12.1 “When Tony Met Adam” 2hrs/10min, story timeline Dec 2007-Feb 2008.

Main characters: Navy SEAL Tony Vlachic, actor Adam Wyndham.

This story starts at the end of book #12, “All Through the Night” (the night before Jules and Robin’s wedding), when Adam has been escorted out of Jules and Robin’s home after the stalker has been captured. If you remember, as he’s walking down the street to the corner, Tony is one of the SEALs guarding the house and recognizes Adam as his favorite actor, runs up to him and writes his phone number on Adam’s palm, then they go their separate ways. “When Tony Met Adam” picks up their story over the course of the next several months. By the end we understand Adam much better, he’s pulled his life together, and he becomes one of our likeable characters.

 

Book #18.1 “Free Fall” 1hr/29min, story timeline early Jan 2010.

Main characters: SEAL Team 16.

This take places after novel #18, “Do or Die,” with our favorite SEAL team doing a High Altitude training jump when Tony’s equipment fails. Izzy to the rescue with an innovative plan which will either work, injure one or both of them, or kill one or both.

 

Book #18.2 “Home Fire Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn!)” 1hr/29min, story timeline Jan 2010, just a couple of weeks after 18.1 “Free Fall.”

Main characters: Navy SEAL Team 16 including new guy Hubert Bickles (HoBoMoFo), Eden Zanella, Jenn Gillman, Brianna Bickles, Brianna’s 5th grade teacher Carol Redmond, and Adam Wyndham.

SEAL Team 16 is at the airport Mission Ready for an overseas job – meaning they are set to leave at any moment for location unknown for reason unknown for mission-length unknown with no communication with anyone outside of the team. Then Jenn goes into labor a month early while stranded in the California desert, unable to contact anyone. Jenkins, recovering from a knee injury in the previous story, fills-in for HoBoMoFo for his daughter’s Career Day at school and sets his eye on the teacher.

 

Book #18.3 “Ready to Roll” 6hr/8min, story timeline four weeks after #18.2 (late Feb 2010).

Main Characters: SEALS Izzy, Gillman, Jenkins, and Tony, Eden and her brother Ben, with cameos by Kelly, Sam, Alyssa, and Robin, and we meet Lt. ‘Grunge’ Green (who gets his own story in novel #19 “Some Kind of Hero”).

 

Three stories going on with this one. Eden’s 16-year-old brother Ben is dealing with a homophobic classmate, but things may not be as they appear. Izzy is an instructor, along with Lt Grunge, at BUD/S SEALs training during Hell Week where we meet the most interesting crew – Boat Squad John. And Dan and Jenn’s new baby cries constantly, what in the world is wrong?

 

19.1 “Beginnings and Ends” 1hr/12m, story timeline June 2012. This takes place five years after Jules and Robin’s 2007 wedding in book #12 (and two years after the final novel, #19, “Some Kind of Hero”).

Main characters: FBI Agent Jules Cassidy, actor Robin Chadwick Cassidy.

Robin has been starring in an award-winning TV series but is ready to leave the show. What will the future bring? This story pretty well ends the series and it’s a perfect ending – unless Brockmann writes further in-between shorts.

 

( official Troubleshooters page on the official Suzanne Brockmann web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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