Ranger Games cover art

Ranger Games

A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime

 Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Ranger Games

By: Ben Blum
Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A tense and layered true-crime story about an all-American soldier boy turned bank robber.

Alex Blum was a clean-cut all-American kid with one unshakeable goal in life: to serve his country in the military. He was accepted into the elite Rangers regiment, but on the first day of his leave before deployment to Iraq, Alex got into his car with two fellow soldiers and two strangers, drove to a local bank in Tacoma and committed armed robbery.

The Blum family was devastated and mystified. How could he have done such a thing?

Alex's attorney presented a defence based on the theory that trainee Rangers are indoctrinated on a level akin to the brainwashing in an extreme religious cult, and Alex insisted that he had believed the robbery was just another exercise in the famously daunting Ranger program. But Luke Elliot Sommer, the charismatic soldier behind the robbery, maintained that Alex knew exactly what he was doing, and had, in fact, planned it all with him.

Who was lying? What had happened to Alex during those gruelling months of training? How accountable was he?

©2017 Ben Blum (P)2017 Random House Audio Military & War Organized Crime Relationships Social Psychology & Interactions Teenagers Young Adult Military Solider Mental Health Robbery Cult
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Ballad of Danny Wolfe cover art
Blood in the Fields cover art
The True American cover art
Scary Monsters and Super Freaks cover art
The Girl from Blind River cover art
The Constable: The Complete Series cover art
Dead Irish cover art
The Shadow Ryana cover art
Street Soldier cover art
Cold Zero cover art
AMORALMAN cover art
Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend cover art
The Prisoner in His Palace cover art
Asgard's Fall cover art
The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know cover art
The Other Wes Moore cover art

Critic reviews

"Ben Blum's achievement in this relentlessly gripping book is to make an incredible story entirely credible. If many of the serial revelations and twists are subtle and nuanced rather than spectacular that only adds to the sense of his narrative command and assurance." (Geoff Dyer)
"Ranger Games is a rare and totally original work of nonfiction. The odd characters and dangerous situations live vibrantly in these pages and the stakes are always high. Ben Blum's search for truth leads him down many paths into an inner turmoil and boil about family, fidelity, identity, good and evil, and military service. Once you start reading you won't put it down." (Anthony Swofford)
"Ranger Games is one of those rare books that illuminates its subject beyond what you thought possible - and then transcends its subject to become something more. In this case, the subject is engaging and disturbing all on its own; the 'inexplicable crime' of the title is fascinating, the fall-out from it is heart-breaking and suspenseful. But the book is not only about the crime or the family it tears apart, it is about the strange pathologies of North American culture, a particularly masculine form of madness, and the mysterious, timeless relationship of charm and evil." (Mary Gaitskill)

What listeners say about Ranger Games

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Jackie

Brilliant...and beyond!

....i truly believe this book falls into that category at the top...an award winner. It is a story that so deeply reveals , in my heart, the definition of karma...of a mirror that slowly defogs, revealing truth in it's purest forms...that we are only human but that people who raise their kids with the core values of honesty, empathy, humor, love and that willingness to endure the pain and anger and hurt together, rather rhan apart will come thru in the end. I hope that Alex and Ben truly understand and feel their courage and the realization that they have shared the lessons that change is necessary for growth in a way that makes their story a true blessed gift for the reader....brilliant, Ben....a written masterpiece....thanks!

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!