Audiobook Review – Travel by Bullet (The Dispatcher, Book 3) by John Scalzi, Narrated by Zachary Quinto (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 3 hours and 43 minutes
Publisher:‎ Audible Originals
Release Date: September 01, 2022
ASIN: B0B8394JQS
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in The Dispatcher series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“The world has changed. Now, when someone is murdered, they almost always come back to life—and there are professionals, called “dispatchers”, who kill in order to save lives, to give those near the end a second chance. Tony Valdez is a dispatcher, and he has never been busier.

But for as much as the world has changed, some things have stayed the same. Greed, corruption, and avarice are still in full swing. When Tony is called to a Chicago emergency room by an old friend and fellow dispatcher, he is suddenly and unwillingly thrown into a whirlpool of schemes and plots involving billions of dollars, with vast caches of wealth ranging from real estate to cryptocurrency up for grabs.

All Tony wants to do is keep his friend safe. But it’s hard to do when friends keep secrets, enemies offer seductive deals, and nothing is ever what it seems. The world has changed…but the stakes are still life and death.”

Series Info/Source: This is the third book in The Dispatcher series. I borrowed this from Audible on audiobook.

Thoughts: As with all the books in this series, I continue to struggle a bit with the premise here. However, I do really enjoy the characters, the mystery, and the ironic tone to the story. I thought it was intriguing the way the dispatchers’ jobs took an odd turn because of the pandemic in this book.

Tony is working as a dispatcher at a hospital, and (because of the new laws put in place because of Covid) his job has never been more frustrating. Then suddenly he finds himself in the ER dispatching a fellow dispatcher and old friend. This ends up with Tony being drawn into a whole series of plots and schemes involving both real estate and cryptocurrency.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was decently done. No issues with the narration quality. As mentioned above, I still struggle a bit with how dispatching and the whole dead vs permanently dead system works. I try not to think about it too hard. To be fair, it’s been a really really long time since I read the first book in this series where this was all explained.

I thought this was a fun mystery and enjoyed the characters in here. This is a quick and entertaining read. This book has a cryptocurrency theme to it, which was okay. I have never fully understood how cryptocurrency works so some of this may have been lost on me. Basically, it’s rich people killing each other for money and that I do understand. It seems like this series is probably done for now, but if another book comes out in this, I will probably read it because I enjoy the characters and the premise is intriguing.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this but didn’t love it; which is how I’ve felt about all of the books in this series. This is an intriguing (but confusing if you think about it too much) premise. I enjoy Tony as a character and some of the mysteries and conspiracies he gets drawn in to. I listened to this for free on Audible, so I plan to continue with the series if more books are released. They are quick and entertaining listens.