My original Veil of Civility audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Declan McIver is a former member of the IRA who is now living in the US, happily married and running his own real estate business. But when he witnesses the killing of a friend and former employer, he becomes a target for those who carried out the assassination and is set up to be the fall guy. Together with his wife, he finds himself on the run having to reconnect with his past which he thought was buried.

Veil of Civility is an intricate conspiracy thriller dealing with an organized terrorist attack by Chechen Islamists in America. It is a well-crafted mix of politics, religion, history and international terrorism. Because of these topics, it is not the type of book that I would usually choose to read. Therefore, it speaks highly of the author's skill that I was fully engaged with the story from the first minute of listening, and I totally surprised myself when the author didn't lose me once throughout the nearly 16 hours of listening. The plot flows extremely well and there is just the right balance between descriptive passages, background information and character dialogue and action.

Apparently, this is Ian Graham's first full-length novel, which is pretty amazing. Listening to this, it becomes evident that an enormous amount of research must have gone into this book. Mr. Graham did a very good job of mixing fiction with historical events and actual locations, and thus manages to create plausibility. Veil of Civility is an action-filled thriller that takes the listener from the US to Wales, Scotland, and Ireland as well as Russia and the Mexican/US border.

I prefer some plot twists and a bit of humor in my reading, there isn't much of that here. But it is extremely well written and very exciting, with a protagonist who comes off as quite a balanced individual despite his past. Declan McIver becomes pretty likable as the man on the run who takes on a corrupt system, and while many of these good-guy-saves-the-world type of stories are over the top and far-fetched, Mr. Graham succeeded in creating a story that was scarily believable.

The narration was fantastic. Being an international thriller, Steve Marvel certainly had his work cut out with the sheer amount of different accents he had to do. Declan's very heavy drawl was a tad over the top, but Mr. Marvel kept all the characters distinct and clear, so dialogues were always easy to follow. There were no issues with the production.

For any listeners interested in political conspiracies or anybody looking for a gripping but plausible international thriller based on sound research, this should be on your list.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author. ( )