No Country for Old Men braids the lives of three men along a dark path of theft and murder in southwest Texas in 1980, near the Mexican border.
The first man is Llewelyn Moss. Out hunting antelope, he discovers the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, leaving but one survivor begging for water and a satchel filled with $2.4 million. He takes the money and returns with water, only discover the man has since been killed, and he must now go on the run.
Among those he is running from is Anton Chigurh, a hit man who often decides the life and death fate of those he meets with the flip of a coin. With no conscience, Chigurh will stop at nothing to retrieve the lost money, and will let no one get in this way.
Caught in the middle is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, a man whose decoration for valor in World War II hides a haunted past. He has worked for many years to make up for his troubled history, and in solving this case and helping the Moss family, he sees his chance at redemption. But is he any match for the sociopathic Chigurh and the drug cartel that wants Moss dead?
Author Cormac McCarthy, in a review posted in the Houston Chronicle in 2005, has been called "our greatest living writer." His book "The Road" won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006, and the film adaptation of "No Country for Old Men" won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Born in Rhode Island, McCarthy's first novel was published in 1965, and his works have been widely acclaimed ever since. He now lives in Santa Fe with his third wife, Jennifer, and his son John.
"The narrator on this audiobook is fantastic and does a range of voices well with appropriate accents given the story context. The story, however, was messy and relied far too much on enormous chunks of rambling, action-less dialogue followed by sudden explosions in action. None of the characters except for the main villain were interesting or felt worth investing in. Can't recommend this one."
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FD (5 out of 5 stars)