Trouble in Rio: A Family Business Novel

Trouble in Rio: A Family Business Novel by Carl Weber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finally, the youngest Duncan gets the spotlight. Rio travels out of town to get away from the overwhelming burden of being a Duncan. So off to Baltimore, he goes where he makes fast friends with Diana and Pierre and unknowingly makes an enemy or two. Corey, the head of the drug organization his father left to him, is attempting to make his mark in the drug game while keeping his secret life secret. He has gone as far as to have a girlfriend for hire, Diana. His righthand man, Dre, who is also his "best friend" is revealed to have a secret connection to Corey's father and Rio.

Rio with his usual flair is able to make fast friends with members of Corey's team. Corey and Dre believe he has ulterior motives, which someone uses to their advantage to take down Corey's team one by one. Now, Rio has to clear his name all on his own because his family does not know where he is exactly. As the story unfolds, we get to see a new love interest for Rio, the demise of a secret relationship and the demise of a parent/child relationship.

The authors took their time building the story by focusing on character development as opposed to story development. This approached did nothing to pull me into the story. It took me a few weeks to finally get into it the audio. I think the story could have done without the extra attention on a few characters or storylines that added nothing to the story i.e. Ashton. When the story reached its climax and ultimately became interesting, it wrapped up quickly. The last 30 minutes of the almost 7 hour listen was fantastic. There were moments when the story could have pulled me into it and breathed life back into the story. Rio's character while not given the same respect as the other characters when it came to presenting his romance, he did find that his family did care for him.
I will say that the narrators (Ace Bentley, Dylan Ford, Morae Brehon)chosen for the audiobook did a good job. I do hope that with the ending and Rio's traveling companion returning home with him that their romance receives the same respect as the others and is not relegated to the background as he has been for the majority of the series.

All in all, this was a decent addition that could have been so much more with the colorful character that was the focus.

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