Mona Lisa's Secret

By: Phil Philips

Narrated by: Scott O'Dell

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Joey is the great-grandson of Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole the original Mona Lisa in 1911. Along with his girlfriend, Marie, an art connoisseur, he stumbles across his father's secret room, and finds himself staring at what he thinks is a replica of da Vinci's most famous masterpiece.

But it is no fake....

The Louvre has kept this secret for over 100 years, waiting for the original to come to light, and now they want it back at any cost. With Marie held hostage and the Louvre curator and his men hot on his trail, Joey is left to run for his life in an unfamiliar city, with the priceless Mona Lisa his only bargaining chip. While formulating a plan to get Marie back with the help from an unexpected quarter, Joey discovers hidden secrets within the painting, secrets which, if made public, could change the world forever.

In this elaborately plotted, fast-paced thriller, Phil Philips takes you on a roller-coaster ride through the streets of Paris and to the Jura mountains of Switzerland, to uncover a secret hidden for thousands of years.

©2016 Phil Philips (P)2017 Phil Philips

Too fake

This is my first review but I really felt like I needed to get my frustration out. We only pay $15 for these tapes and it's worth it.

That said, the storyline builds you up and then nothing? The big secret that everybody is being killed to protect ends up being again, no big deal.

Narrator; if any French listeners are offended, they should be. This guys voice box must be made of steel! He makes every French character sound like they have a speech impediment and can't string more than two words together at a time. It is totally pathetic.

Unrealistic: for example, Joey gets the snot beat out of him by a trained comando many times only to be fine immediately after when he should be near dead.

Many things happen that are way too coincidentalor or just plain stupid. The bad guy head comando, gets a free helicopter ride from France to London. Half way there he figures out that he has been duped yet again. So instead of just saying "take me Back to France" he instead pulls a gun on the guy and makes him jump out? And later after getting hit with 50 arrows in the neck and chest, he still fights on and on.....with Joey who finds one of the arrows stuck in bad guys chest that is close to the guys heart. So Joey pushes the arrow in 3-4 inches through the guys heart! But this doesn't stop him either, are you kidding me!

All in all, I was still entertained in a comical way as long as I listened at 1.35 speed. So it's worth $15 but not $16

Narration

Listening to the narrator's attempt to sound like a French person speaking English was extremely grating. It was so awful, I almost abandoned the book so I could read it instead. The plot was fascinating though!

A fast and entertaining read/listen

A clever take on a handful of conspiracy theories set across an international backdrop and the pace of a thriller. A compelling plot and interesting characters. It made for a fast and entertaining read/listen.

Difficult to Get Through

The premise and storyline were good. The narration was terrible and I can’t believe they allowed that to go to production. The French accents were slow and forced like the characters were constipated and had to think about every single word, even at 1.6x speed. The accent for the female character made her sound like she was a whining teenager with everything she said. The characters kept getting captured, so every time it seemed like they had an upper hand I already knew they were going to blow it.

Fantastic Story and Audible book!

Gripping Story, and Narration! I loved this book.The narrator really acted out every character with heart. I lived in Paris for 2 years, the historical research was perfect. I've been to all these places! Thrilling to hear this book, nice,velvet sounding voice! I hope we get a sequel. Phil Phillips is a fun author!

poor reading

the reader made this book not worth it. I had to listen at speed 1.5 to make it sound decent.

OK book, narrator was terrible

the story was fair, but the narrator should find other work. The guy can't do a french accent, and shouldn't try. I can't believe that anyone thought this was good enough to release. Someone really dropped the ball on this one.

Painful "foreign accents"

I managed to wade to the other side of the audio book but almost drowned in places where the narrator tried to mimic the French and Italian characters. Not only was the accent wrong, but the voice was like a grinder and the speech, staccato. The story was ridiculous, to say the least.

Narrator completely ruins the experience

Ridiculous voices take you out of the story. Bizarre attempt at accents that are so unbelievable. How did this pass quality control?

Overall: excellent!

I was a bit skeptical about this book because I’m one of the few people who disliked “The DaVinci Code!” That being said , the only thing similar, is that DaVinci’s Mona Lisa hides a mystery. The action kept me riveted and I had a hard time turning off the audiobook. Some of the historical information was interesting and very enjoyable. (I looked some of the information up to verify was it true or poetic license.). I like the soothing tones of Scott O’Dell’s narration. If you love contemporary characters trying to discover the answers to historical mysteries, then this is a book you should get!!