Rating: 
Summary: Meltzer - The Millionaires
Review: Having read and enjoyed The First Counsel, I eagerly awaited the paperback release of Millionaires. Critically, Meltzer is not the world's greatest writer but he does have a knack for coming up with intriguing and entertaining stories that keep readers turning pages. Millionaires is just that - entertainment. It's a quick read despite its length. The characters are well developed given the category of fiction this falls into (thrillers typically don't excel in character development), dialogue is swift and realistic and there exists a great sense of humor and playfulness about the novel.Overall, Millionaires is a good, quick and entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I discovered Brad Meltzer after buying his first book while away on vacation. I loved it. I waited patiently for his second and third books to be released. I loved them too. Definite page-turners! I was thrilled to see his most recent book at the bookstore and couldn't wait to dive into it. It was disappointing. Meltzer should stick to books about the field of law. He knows it so well that the background information he offers just flows. In "The Millionaires" it is as though he is giving information about the world of banking as a teacher would.
Rating:
Summary: A good story, but it has its flaws
Review: My overall impression of the book, "The Millionaires" by Brad Meltzer was that it had a really good set-up, with a pretty good storyline, but it's flawed in its characters and the style in which the book was written. At first, the way the story is written seems very awkward. It is written in the first-person present tense, told from the point of view of the main character, Oliver Caruso. Then, just when you get used to that, the story changes to third-person past tense, and the story switches back and forth from the two perspectives throughout. Also, the character Charlie Caruso is extremely annoying. You almost find youself asking, "If this character dies, would I actually care?" I did think that "The Millionaires" had a good plot and it was suspenseful. It had a lot of plot twists and it was unpredictable. Overall, the book was good, but not great.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting performance.
Review: I listened to the Audio CD version of this book, which I thought was very enjoyable. Having read several of the other reviews on the book version, I think the Audio CD can be likened to a action thriller. It was abridged, so I cannot complain as some reviewers have of the length of the book. Oliver and Charlie, the two brothers, were very likeable. I found myself rooting for them as they tried to figure out the mystery of the story. Admittedly, many parts of the story were somewhat unbelievable. For example, Oliver and Charlie make it past several high-security areas of different locales through deception as well as surviving against two veteran Secret Service agents who are after them. Meltzer explains the technical jargon of banking, surveillence equipment, and computers as they showed up in the story well I think without taking away from the flow of the story. Basically, I tried to listen to every word of the performance (on the Audio CD) because I felt each part provided a clue for later in the story. Some of the reviews called this book a fast and easy read, which I think would be true. It was entertaining. You rooted for the good guys as they tried to escape the bad guys, you tried to figure out the mystery along the way, and the ending was decent and "fair."
Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag of fun and boredom
Review: I had high hopes that I had discovered another good lawyer/author in Brad Meltzer, but was a little disappointed with this book. On the plus side, the revelation of the bad guy was stunning, and some of the Florida action was pretty good. On the minus side, the dialog between the brothers became very annoying, the financial transactions were confusing, and the Disney scene drug out too long. Check out Steve Martini or Phillip Margolin for better legal thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: A fast, easy read
Review: This was definitely a thriller. The writing was very simple, very easy to read. The plot is unbelievable at times, but it is a page turner. It was entertaining, but definitely not near the top of my list.
Rating:
Summary: Action and Suspense
Review: The Millionaires is my first Brad Meltzer novel. The dialogue between both brothers was boring at first, but soon the plot, dialogue and characters sprung to life. The plot itself has many twists and turns which kept me interested. The ending though realistic, was not what I had hoped for. I felt both brothers deserved more for their effort.
Rating:
Summary: Likeable Characters & Intellegent People
Review: I have several criteria I have for a book to bee good. The first is likable main characters or if they are bad you care enough to want to see how they get their comeuppance. Brad Meltzer has this one down pretty good in all his books and "The Millionaires" is no exception. He gets you to care what happens to the main characters. Second is intellegance. You don't want the characters doing dumb things that if they didn't do them there wouldn't be a story. Brad Meltzer is usually pretty good with this one as well. "The Millionaires" is great in this reguard. All the characters are smart almost to the point that you wonder what great idea they will come up with next. This is true for the good guys and the bad guys. The third item is more a style preference that I call the car chase. Ever since the old movie "The French Connection" every movie and book has to end with the goood guy and the bad guy chasing after each other and trying to kill each other. For me it adds nothing to the plot expecially when the book is written more like a battle of wits between the good guy and the bad guy. This one takes place at Disney World and feels like a made for TV piece of the book. Hence the lost star. He does revive the book in the end.
If you want a synopsis of the plot you can read many of the other reviews. I hope this helps with deciding if this is the kind of book you would like to read.
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Summary: Meltzer takes a cue from his characters ¿
Review: Oliver and Charlie are two brothers who plot to steal million[s] from their employer, an exclusive private client bank that caters to the ultra-wealthy. After their illicit transaction, they discover that their theft was more than 100 times the initial amount. How they stole so much involves an unlikely scheme to create millions out of nothing. And that is precisely what Brad Meltzer has done for himself. While The Millionaires is not a horrible book, it can become tedious at over 500 pages. Was it really necessary to have Miami as a locale? Couldn't Meltzer have had the characters go straight to Orlando and save us 100 pages? A tighter story could have increased the tension. I have learned that Meltzer does meticulous research about the various geographies in his books. While the landmarks, street and highway names are richly on-target, the characters inhabiting those locations seem to lack the same local color. In the end, Meltzer has created a serviceable beach novel with a preposterous plot that his editor should have trimmed to make slightly more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: What Would You do if You Thought You Wouldn't Get Caught?
Review: I enjoyed this fast-paced tale by Brad Melzer. Brothers Oliver and Charlie are regular guys in dead end jobs with a stack of life-sucking medical bills to pay and an overworked mother they both adore. They discover the opportunity to commit what they think is the perfect crime; they'll steal three million dollars from a dead man's abandoned account. It's the classic criminal seduction -- no one is going to get hurt, no one is going to get caught, and everyone is going to end up on easy street with all thier problems solved. Predictably, as soon as the deed is done, circumstances spin out of control and the brothers are reminded in one painful way after another that all actions have consequences. A fun and quick read, good for a long rainy day or a boring airplane ride. The writing is tight, the action is non-stop, the characters compelling and the plot interesting.
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