The Last Mile

 David Baldacci, an incredibly prolific writer, has produced another captivating crime novel, The Last Mile. It is the second novel in a seven book series about protagonist Amos Decker who has joined an FBI special force although he is not officially an FBI employee. Decker was drawn to a specific case which mirrored his own earlier life. Melvin Mars had been convicted of murdering his parents and was sent to prison for his execution. After 20 years in death row, Decker was about to be executed when another man came forward to admit committing the murders. Both Decker and Mars were former college football players. Mars was an all-star who was headed for a big NFL contract and perhaps to become the best player in the league. They had played against each other in a big game, Decker with Ohio State and Mars with Alabama. Mars was a star that day and Decker was unable to stop him. After graduation Decker had made it to the NFL for just one play that resulted in his knee being destroyed. Both men had lost their families to brutal murders only to have someone else, many years later, claim that he had done the deed. Mars story had to be proven, and it was not known if the new confessions was an honest one. Mars’ case became more important when a woman on the FBI who was also working on Mars’ case was kidnapped. Surely, there were some ominous hidden truths hidden behind that kidnapping.

The story was rather complicated. There were lots of characters from both Decker’s and Mars’ early lives, as well as people they knew currently. What if Mars parents were really not dead? I thought this was a good story, one that clearly kept me interested to the very end. Both protagonists were strong and well-developed personalities. The Last Mile gets a strong recommendation from me.

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Nash Falls

Nash Falls is a new novel from David Baldacci who is introducing a new protagonist, Walter Nash. Nash came from a Vietnam War verteran father and a most loving and supportive father. His parents’ marriage was a good one and both of them were obviously still in love with each other through Nash’s early years. Nash was proud of his father’s accomplishments in Vietnam, a decorated war hero. His dad had also been a star athlete in high school and college, and Nash thought he wanted him to follow in those footsteps. However, Nash chose tennis because he loved the sport and didn’t have to get beat up by others in the process of playing. Nash always thought that was the reason that they had a major falling out and then both father and son began leading noncommunicative lives. Nash perceived that his father hated him, and that did not change when his mother was diagnosed with late-stage cancer and died at too early an age. Although Nash himself got married and had two children with Judith, he always maintained an emotional distance from everyone.

 

Meanwhile, Nash used his college degree to become an expert in investments, and he advanced to a senior executive VP at a company called Symbaritic Investments. The company was wildly successful because of the financial success of Barton Temple who had founded the company, and then turned the CEO duties to his son Rhett. Rhett was Nash’s boss, and Rhett was clearly a severe narcissist and could not accept that the company’s significant continued prosperity was really due to Nash and not himself.

 

Although Nash and his father lived only eight miles apart, there was never a rapproachment for Nash and his father, Ty, and Nash only learned of his father’s death from an elderly neighbor who let him know that his father’s funeral was about to happen. It was at the funeral that Ty’s best friend, a fellow Vietnam veteran, stood up and openly verbally ripped Nash a new anal orifice. But then Ty’s will seemed to cloud the picture about his real feelings for his son.

 

At the same time, Nash was approached by the FBI about illegal dealings by his company, something that he had not known. This was when this story got most interesting. There were giant forces at workon both sides of the corruption, and Nash’s life was certainly in danger. When Barton Temple was murdered and all vectors pointed at Nash as being responsible, when this emotionally limited man’s marriage was coming apart, and then his beloved daughter was kidnapped by the very evil side in the corruption struggle, Nash turned for help to the very man who had badly embarrassed him at his dad’s funeral. He disappeared for more than a year while getting ready to return to deal with both the FBI and the evil forces leading the corruption. 

That’s enough of the plot. The plot development was excellent and the characters were believable and held my interest. I think this book shows Baldacci at his best. It comes to an end just as Nash is flying to Hong Kong to take on the very dangerous and notorious Victoria Sterers who has been stealing billions of dollars from Symbaritic. Now, ASAP, I want to get my hands on the sequel, Hope Rises.

Strangers In Time

 

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci is a remarkable book in a way I did not expect from this author with whom I’m very familiar. This novel is at least the 20^th of his books that have been reviewed in the blog, and most of the reviews were by me. I’ve always thought Baldacci was a good author with occasionally very good books, but I’ve not put him in my list of 10 best authors in this genre of thrillers and murder mysteries. However, it’s my opinion that this specific novel deserves great recognition for the plot and character development.

 

It's another WWII novel, but this one takes place in London during the horrible Blitzkrieg which occurred from 9/1940 to 5/1941 resulting in the death of tens of thousands of civilians and devastating destruction. Baldacci used three protagonists, a 13-year-old boy named Charlie, a 15-year-old girl Molly, and a widower and bookkeep named Mr. Oliver.

 

Charlie was from great poverty. His father had been killed at Dunkirk, and his mother died shortly after that. He was left with his grandmother who was in poor health. They were dirt poor and were about to be evicted from their miserable apartment because the bakery where the grandmother’s worked had halved her salary because of the economic troubles of the time. Charlie had dropped out of school in order to find work to help support them, a fact that he hid from his caring grandmother.

 

In contrast Molly came from significant wealth and had been shipped out of London at the start of the war, before the Blitzkrieg. After some years away during which her rigorous education continued, Molly had a very protected life. When the funds for her living in the country stopped coming from her father, although her foster family was willing to continue to provide for her, she chose to return to London and be with her parents. She did not know that her mother had been placed in an asylum in Cornwall or that her father had disappeared six months earlier when he was under investigation for killing three British soldiers. Upon returning to her mansion, it was only the housekeeper, who had helped raise her since birth, provided her any help and companionship.

 

Mr. Oliver had inherited the book shop from his wife when his she, Imogene, committed suicide by jumping off a cliff and into the sea. Mr. Oliver and Charlie met as the result of Charlie and two friends robbing his shop, Circumstances of the war brought all of them together, and when Molly’s housekeeper was killed in continued bombing, it turned out they only had each other to depend on. They felt fortunate indeed to have found one another.

 

The horrors of the war and its negative effect on the populace was well described. Baldacci brought the several plots of the death of Mr. Oliver’s wife, the trauma that Molly’s mom had suffered, and the suspicious war activities of Mr. Oliver were all brought to a fitting conclusion. The characters in Baldacci’s book sprang to life in a most believable fashion. The relations that developed among the protagonists was emotional and real. Even though I have already read literally hundreds of WWII novels, and although I now try to avoid books in the WWII genre (been there done that), this one stands out and gets my highest recommendation.

A Calamity of Souls

 A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci was released in 4/24, and I would have gotten to it sooner, but it was very popular on Libby. After a three-month wait, I’ll tell you the wait was worth it. The story takes place in 1968, just four years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act which was spearheaded by Lyndon Johnson. The location is in rural Virginia and the action surrounds the murder of a white couple and a wrongfully accused black man. The county where the murder occurred produced a jury was on of all white men, and one could have assumed that the innocent man would be found guilty.

The courtroom setting was one that was obviously grossly unfair to the accused man with a judge that had a history of belonging to the Ku Klux Klan although that fact had been kept secret for many years. The prosecution was being supported by a wealthy white man who was also funding the 1968 campaign for president by George Wallace. The defense team was of two radically and experientially different people, a white local attorney, Jack Lee, and a nationally-known black activist, Desiree DuBose. There were times when the characters spouted old tropes about the unfairness of the state of civil rights and the firm belief of whites who spoke for the status quo, but for the most part, this was an action-packed, well-structured plot.

 

At the current age of 74, I grew up in an era of racial discrimination that is so much worse than it is today. As a youth, I remember seeing “Whites Only” signs on public bathrooms and water fountains when I traveled through southern states. I toured South Africa while Nelson Mandela was still in prison and a mixed-race couple I was traveling with was strongly warned not to do any public displays of affection. During two high school summers, I worked as a teller in a bank where a black female teller befriended me long enough to help me see racially-biased acts to which I had been ignorant. Baldacci captured all of that in his novel. I give it a 5-star rating and recommend it highly to all. It’s the best Baldacci book that I’ve ready in many years.

The Edge

 

While looking at this blog before writing this review, I was surprised to see that this is the 20^th Baldacci novel that we’ve reviewed. I had no idea that we had read so much of his prolific output, and eight of those reviews came from me. I was very entertained by his 5-book Camel Club series but those books were read and reviewed by in me 2011. By 2024, I had come to think of Baldacci as being a B+ writer which means a dependable effort could be expected but that he had not captured the same excitement I felt from reading his earlier books. So, I took on The Edge when I had run out of autobooks and this one became available on Libby. And, my impression of this mystery novel was most favorable. It gets a strong recommendation from me for all of you murder mystery and espionage readers. This is the second book in the 6:20 Man series, although I liked the second book much more than the first one.

 

Jenny Silkwell, a CIA operative, was killed when she went to her family home in Maine, and Travis Devine was called to investigate. Initially, it looked like a simple case to solve, but Putnam Maine was a place that did not trust outsiders like Devine, and it had a long list of secrets that the town folks did not want revealed. There were two powerful families that dominated the scene, including a Senator who was slowly slipping away as the result of Alzheimer’s Disease. This was a town were everyone knew each others’ business. Devine discovered that the assault and rape of Jenny’s sister, Alex, had been hushed up, and Travis was sure there was a connection between that long ago event, and the current murder. So, it’s a good mystery and I did not see the plot’s final twist until I was upon it. Baldacci certainly showed his skill as a writer in this book.

 

Simply Lies (#1592)

 

Simply Lies is a mystery novel by the prolific writer, David Baldacci. His first novel was published in 1995, and Simply Lies is his 51^st book. So, he’s nearly produced two books a year over the course of his career. He’s had multiple series, and my favorite series was the Camel Club which consisted of six books written between 2005 and 2014. At Men Reading Books, a number of his novels have been reviewed. 

This novel was not my favorite. It was a story of multiple people who led very twisted lives, often as the result of horrendous abuse that was done to them. The protagonist was Mickey Gibson, a single mom of two and former cop who had begun working as an investigator for a private investigation company, ProI, so nearly all of her work was done on her computer from home. That worked allowed for her to be with her kids as much as possible, although her parents were there and ready to step in whenever they were needed. For a while, life seemed simple if not boring, until she was pulled into an investigation which led her to go back into the field. Although Mickey was an interesting lead character, the cast of people around her were not people I could identify with. They never seemed real enough to me. Given my failure to buy into the characters, the plot held little interest. I’d rate this book no higher than a 3/5. Enough said. I listened to this one on audiotape, and the actors were good enough. I probably finished the book only because I had so many audiobooks on hold that I did not have anything else immediately available to entertain myself on my long dog walks.

#1532. The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci

Another David Baldacci thriller, The 6:20 Man.

The title is a reference to the train that Travis Devine took every morning into work in Manhattan for a large and very successful investment firm. He had come to the investment game rather late in life, having been an Army Ranger until he took an early out after some gruesome work in the Middle East. He used the GI Bill to finish his MBA. The reader learns that he is really a domestic spy and the firm where he is working is suspected of significant fraudulent trading. Like so many younger people trying to climb up the halls of wealth in NYC, Devine was living in a shared apartment with others of apparently similar circumstances.

 It seemed that all parties involved came from highly dysfunctional families which allowed the author to invent a story with twist after unexpected twist, twists that continued right to the end of the book. Lots of people die in this story who seem to have no connection to one another. I’ve come to expect this circuitous plot line from Baldacci, so I just sat back and enjoyed the run, however unbelievable it seemed at times. Devine was a good character, and Baldacci surrounded him with a good cast of characters. It was an entertaining story, a good vacation read, that I’d give a 3.9 rating.

 

 

West Coast Don

Long Shadows by David Baldacci

It has been a year since I read a new David Baldacci novel, and Long Shadows is what you would expect, a well-written novel with a great plot line regarding murders and intrigue. Baldacci has had multiple books reviewed in this blog which have generally been reviewed favorably. Amos Decker is an FBI consultant who does not fit the typical FBI special agent mold. He won’t wear a tie, and he does not pull his punches when faced with a policy decision by a boss with whom he disagrees. While the FBI seems to want to get rid of this pain in the ass employee, the problem is that he keeps solving cases, maintaining a 100% conviction rate during his decades with the bureau. This is the seventh book in the Memory Man Series, so titled because of Decker’s perfect recall.

 

In Long Shadows, Decker has been sent to southern Florida to solve a case involving the murder of a female federal judge. Her body was found in her own home, and she had been butchered with multiple stab wounds. In the same house, there was also the corpse of her body guard who had curiously been hired privately by the judge rather than using the Department of Justice to provide her with security. Unlike the judge, the body guard had been shot.

 

Meanwhile, Decker was assigned a new partner, a young black woman named Frederica White who seemed to be the victim of racism in the department. Decker was famous for being difficult to work with and hard on his partners, so a scratchy relationship between Decker and White gradually evolved into a good working partnership. Both Decker and White were traumatized by the loss of a child.

 

It was Decker who thought the two murders which happened nearly at the same time might have actually been done by two separate murderers. The cast of characters involved the judge’s ex-husband, an attorney, and her 17 year old son who was a football phenomenon. The ex-husband, a horrible alcoholic, was obviously not over the loss of this relationship, but the son was his father’s alibi for the time of the deaths.

 

I didn’t see the end coming in this complex plot with many more wrinkles that I’ve reviewed here, and Baldacci was a pro at disguising the ending. There is a formulaic quality to this murder mystery, but the story is a good one and it still gets my strong recommendation.

 

West Coast Don

Mercy by David Baldacci

The fourth and last book of the Atlee Pine series by David Baldacci did not live up the set up over the first three novels. I did take a different approach to this one than the first three by listening to it on audio rather than reading it. I was about to take a long road trip with my wife, to among other places, the Grand Canyon where by serendipity, the first novel in the series began. I think the actors did a fine job with the script, it was just that the script defied my ability to deny reality, a talent that those of us that love thrillers must have. Unfortunately, I found myself laughing at the plot changes and twists which Baldacci provided.

 

So, I’m not going to worry about spoiling the plot for anyone because it’s my intent to do just that. My opinion is that the final book is just too ridiculous. Basically, Atlee’s sister is found to be alive and she did not murder her captives, although she was set up to look as if she did. The road to the discovery of Mercy and the reuniting of the sisters was tortuous. At one time or another, Atlee, Mercy, and Carol Blum were held hostage by some very bad men, and then the women joined forces to rescue the one who was currently abducted. In the end, the bad guy Buckley (think of Richard Butler, the white supremacist who had a large compound in Idaho – a compound that was successfully as a result of the successful legal attack by the Southern Poverty Law Center) kidnapped all three women at the same time, forced the twins into a mixed martial arts fight against one another while Carol Blum was being cut up whenever Buckley thought the girls weren’t fighting for real. With the help of one of Buckley’s allies, they were able to break free and win a horrendous gun battle over a strongly superior force.

 

To cut to the chase, the guy who had assumed the role of the twins father had died, and their mother was found living in Savannah where she was running a flower shop, and there was a merry reunion of the three women. In the last scene they are seen happily walking together toward the flower ship, glowing in their love for one another.

 

I feel like I spent four books chasing down a rabbit hole only to emerge in a very mad tea party. While I remember loving Baldacci’s Camel Club series, I do not have such affection for this. My wife was in agreement and she boycotted the last half of the book. I should have followed her lead, and once again, she has proven herself to be right.

Daylight by David Baldacci

David Baldacci has written a 4-book series about FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine, and I’ve recently reviewed the first two books, Long Road to Mercy and A Minute to Midnight. The third novel is Daylight. While the books could be read individually, this series was clearly meant to be read in order. The overall theme is that Atlee has grown up with remarkable tragedies. We now note that her parents were drinking and smoking dope into the wee hours on the night that an intruder broke into their home, caused Atlee to have a skull fracture which nearly killed her, and then kidnapped her identical twin sister, Mercy. While Atlee recovered, her twin was never seen again. On Atlee’s 19^th birthday, her father committed suicide, and it was not long thereafter, when Atlee came home from college to find that her mother had disappeared. Despite her expert abilities in finding people, Atlee had never been able to get any information about her mother.

 

It was the kidnapping that gave Atlee the motivation to join the FBI, not wanting others to suffer the losses that she had endured. After a rapid rise through the ranks, she eventually decided to leave the metro areas and to opt for a one-person office in St. George, Utah. She was the nearest federal officer to the Grand Canyon where she could operate on her own. Atlee learned that her mother had been doing some undercover work for an unnamed government branch that led to an important conviction and incarceration of a major Mafia figure, which led to seeking revenge against Atlee’s mother. The kidnapping of her sister and the near death experience of Atlee, then six years old, was the result of this revenge.

 

Much of the action of the three novels has to do with the ongoing search for Mercy. But, Atlee has a talent for stumbling into other cases that benefit from her attention. However, that always takes her away from the primary search for her sister. The other cases get increasingly complicated as the three books progress. In this book, there is a very high level government corruption happening, and as Atlee uncovered more information, some senior people are being hidden from her, or are not being compliant, like the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a Deputy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

By the end of the third book, Atlee has learned that her sister is probably still alive although she has endured unspeakable horrors of torture, and it is possible that she murdered the people who were keeping her hostage over many years. She was thought to be severely emotionally damaged, and after her escape, the trail for her had gone cold. In addition, she learned that her father’s death had been faked and her mother may have joined him and are living somewhere with hidden identities.

I'm leaving in the morning to travel through Arizona, and I have the fourth book and concluding book Mercy on tape to listen to during the drive.

A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci

A Minute to Midnight is the second book in the four book series by David Baldacci regarding FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine. I recently reviewed the first book, Long Road to Mercy, and I immediately started reading the second one. This adventure for Atlee picks up exactly where book one ended, with a visit to Daniel James Tor, a serial killer who was residing in the federal supermax prison in Colorado. She learned he had been operating in the area of her childhood home in rural Georgia, and she hoped he would tell what had become of her twin sister who had been kidnapped right out of their bedroom. At the same time, the kidnapper viciously struck Atlee in the head, causing her to have skull fracture, nearly killing her.

 

Part of the mystery had to do with how the kidnapping could have occurred if her parents were in the home, drinking and smoking marijuana, as they claimed. Her family then slowly fell apart. When Atlee was away at college on her 19^thbirthday, her father committed suicide. They, shortly thereafter, her mother simply disappeared without leaving a note or any clue. Atlee had no idea if she was still alive. Atlee was a gifted athlete who completed for the Olympic weight-lifting team, but missed getting on the team by a kilogram. It was then that she chose the FBI as her career path. 

 

Meanwhile, she had avoided going to therapy to help with her mighty abandonment issues and her anger was sometimes not successfully contained. In this story, her FBI boss gave her some time off to pursue the mysteries of her family and for the first time, she revisited her home in Andersonville, Georgia, the home of the infamous Civil War prison. She found people who remembered her family and knew of her early tragedies. But then, the story got even more complicated as she learned the truth about her paternity, and suddenly some of the people she was investigating were also disappearing.  

 

This book is worth the read, but the pursuit of Mercy and their mother is far from complete. Meanwhile, the time for her leave is running out. One character that is carried over from the first book is Atlee’s administrative assistant, Carol Blum, but there are many new characters who Baldacci has used to fill out the story. I’ve already begun reading the third book, Daylight.

Long Road to Mercy by David Baldacci

It’s been a long while since I’ve read a novel by David Baldacci, who is a prolific writer of thrillers, but I’m glad I gave him another try. His female protagonist in Long Road to Mercy is Atlee Pine, an FBI Special Agent. It’s the first of four books about Agent Pine and I’ve already acquired book II in the series. 

 

Atlee has a most intriguing history. She was born as an identical twin, but at the age of six, a man broke into their bedroom in the middle of the night and abducted Atlee’s twin, Mercy, and Mercy was never seen again. Meanwhile, Atlee became a highly successful athlete. She missed an Olympics team as a weightlifter by a tiny margin, and then she joined the FBI. She rapidly progressed with her assignments in the FBI and was promoted. Given her choice of assignments, rather than go to one of the high action centers like DC or NY, she chose to live in St. George, Utah. She was an outdoors woman and since the disappearance of her sister, she had mostly been a loner. In St. George, other than having a secretary, she ran a one-person office and was often the only federal law enforcement officer for hundreds of miles.

 

While pursuing a bizarre case of a slaughtered mule in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Atlee also remained driven to solve her sister’s case. She came to suspect that the perpetrator of the kidnapping might have been Daniel James Tor, a man who had been captured as a serial killer. He was convicted and placed in the supermax federal prison in Colorado. She managed to get an interview with him – so the book started out with that dramatic encounter with this very frightening psychopath. 

 

I liked the fact that Atlee was not a two-dimensional character. She struggled with her relationships, and the story benefitted by the relationship she developed with her secretary, Carol Blum, who was rogue in her own right. The investigation into the slaughtered mule led to a plot to unseat the federal government. The book was written in 2018, so it predated the mess in DC by two years.

 

This is an excellent thriller and Pine is a compelling character. David Baldacci, welcome back to our blog.

One Good Deed by David Baldacci

After fighting in Europe during World War II, Aloysius Archer, (“just call me Archer”) is sent home to Oklahoma only to be arrested and sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  Upon release he hopes to start fresh in Poca City but soon finds circumstances stacked against him.  He is hired by a rich man, Hank Pittleman to repossess a car offered as collateral for a $5000 loan.  Archer visits the man, Lucas Tuttle only to find that Tuttle will repay the loan only if his daughter, Jackie, who has taken up with Hank, returns home.  While Archer tries to negotiate her return, Hank is murdered and Archer begins seeing Jackie.  Archer becomes the number one suspect in Hank’s murder but the detective, Irving Shaw finds evidence leading another direction.  Hank is secretly broke and has a brain tumor.  Shaw sees potential in Archer’s investigative skills, appreciates his honesty, and invites him, a suspect, to help in the investigation.  Soon other associates of Hank’s are murdered including Lucas Tuttle.  Conceding to pressure from above, Shaw is forced to arrest Archer for the Pittleman and Tuttle murders.  Archer without money choses to represent himself at trial.  Contrary to popular belief, this client is no fool.

I enjoyed the flashback to the post-war period and the authenticity of cultural norms of the time.  The lead character is likable and honest to a fault and the plot is complex enough to allow for several outcomes yet simple enough to follow.  This is one of the better Baldacci novels I’ve read and the door is open for a series.

King and Maxwell by David Baldacci

King and Maxwell is the sixth book in David Baldacci’s series featuring the two private investigators, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, both former Secret Service Agents.  Their training and contacts within government law enforcement attract them to a different type of client than the typical PI.

Tyler Wingo is a teenage boy living in the Washington DC suburbs whose world has just been turned upside down.  The army has just informed him and his new step mother that Sam, his father has been killed in action in Afghanistan.  To make matters worse, Sam is supposedly suspected of some wrong doing surrounding a secret mission.  However, Sam had emailed Tyler after his reported time of death to declare his innocence.  Tyler’s step mother mysteriously disappears and Tyler hires King and Maxwell to investigate and find his father.

King starts with his Army contacts.  Some casual inquiries result in attempts on his and Maxwell’s lives so they know all is not as it seems.  The FBI and Department of Homeland Security then warn the PI’s to stay off the case but with Tyler’s life in danger and Sam possibly still alive, they refuse to stand down.  Then the President of the United States takes note of their actions and encourages King and Maxwell to complete their assignment… with strong objections from the FBI and DHS of course.  The President has moved on to 'manage the scandal' mode but doesn't realize what dangers lie ahead.

 

King and Maxwell learn that Sam Wingo was assigned to deliver one billion euros to forces that would overthrow a significant Middle Eastern country.  His mission went terribly wrong when supposed CIA operatives confiscated his shipment.  Wingo became the fall guy for an apparent hair brained move by the President.  But someone apparently outside the government wants Wingo dead and the President impeached... or worse.  It’s up to King and Maxwell to figure out the who and the why while protecting young Tyler and helping the President.

 King and Maxwell is one of Baldacci’s better efforts.  The characters are likable and believable.  The plot is a bit far-fetched but to a cynical mind becomes plausible.  Yet with Baldacci, I feel like he lacks originality… like I’ve seen this before.  Maybe that’s because this series was made into a TV show albeit cancelled after one season… I don’t know.  But at the end of the day this book has most everything we ask for in our genre… quick pace, well developed characters, a plausible plot with some interesting twists.  It’s a good read but it’s just not exceptional. Take it to the beach this summer but keep your expectations in check.

The Forgotten by David Baldacci

The Forgotten is David Baldacci’s second book featuring John Puller, the infallible military cop and takes up where Zero Day (previously reviewed on MRB) left off.

Puller is recovering from events of Zero Day when his father receives a concerning letter from Puller’s Aunt Betsy who lives in a small town named Paradise on the Florida panhandle.  She refers to mysterious happenings at night and people not being who they appear to be.  Puller goes to Paradise to visit his aunt and finds she is recently deceased.  She drowned in shallow water in her backyard pool but local police find no foul play.  Puller immediately finds other mysterious happenings and decides to use his professional skills to personally investigate.

Meanwhile, another man arrives in Paradise equal to Puller in physical stature.  Having illegally entered the country from Bulgaria, he does menial labor while clandestinely searching for his lost sister.  Working independently, the unlikely duo discovers a wealthy Paradise citizen may be involved in human trafficking.  Remembering his aunt’s warning that people are not who they appear to be, Puller doesn’t know who he can trust.  He even becomes suspicious of the local police.  After nosing around in unwelcome places Puller finds himself teamed up with the large Bulgarian and both are in serious danger.

I’ve commented before how hot and cold I am on Baldacci.  In The Forgotten, you can’t avoid the similarities between Baldacci’s John Puller character and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character but in doing so Baldacci pales in comparison.  Once that judgment is assessed, all the other flaws quickly surface.  The story’s plausibility suffers, the character development seems weak and you begin to question Baldacci’s creativity.  Wasn’t Paradise, MA the setting from Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series?  Hmm…perhaps this book should be just...well…forgotten.

The Innocent by David Baldacci

Will Robie is a U.S. government assassin.  He’s not FBI, CIA, Secret Service, military or any other well known agency.  But if an American enemy, global or domestic is ordered to be taken out, Will Robie is your man.  He is a 40 year old, six foot one, 180 pound killing machine.

 

For years he has successfully carried out every sanctioned assassination without question or remorse.  Then one day he is sent to kill a young single mother living near poverty in Washington DC.  He easily enters the apartment undetected but finds the target asleep with her child.  Seeing this he can’t pull the trigger and a long distance sniper takes out the target and her child from outside the apartment.  Suspecting foul play, Robie heads for his private safe house via an escape route known only to him.  At a deteriorating bus station in DC, Robie saves the life of a 14 year old girl, running from danger herself.  The girl, Julie Getty is wise beyond her years and had escaped from a foster home only to return to her parent’s home and witness their murders.  Her parents had loved her but their addiction to drugs had caused them to seek foster care for her.  The unlikely pair, Robie and Julie reluctantly join forces at the bus station.  Robie somehow feels responsibility for the teenager’s welfare and agrees to help her find her parent’s murderer.

Robie’s lead handler, Blue Man is impressed by Robie’s judgment and loyalty and assigns him to represent their powerful covert agency in the FBI’s investigation of the single mother’s and her child’s murders.  FBI Special Agent Nicole Vance quickly adopts Robie’s theory that at least one traitor is at work within one of the Federal law enforcement agencies.   As evidence unfolds, it becomes apparent that the two dual murders are connected.  Julie’s father and the ex-husband of the dead woman served together in the First Gulf War.  The ex-husband is also found brutally murdered.  The investigators discover other members of the former unit and each one has been interrogated, threatened, and/or murdered by forces unknown.  What secret was thought to be known by Robie and/or Julie and was suspected of being spread?  Whatever the secret why was it worth murder to conceal… and by whom?  Can it somehow be related to Robie’s past?  Robie  feels he has to find answers to these questions to survive.

I’ve read several of Baldacci’s books over the years and tend to run hot and cold on him.  Many times his ideas do not seem that original to me and he’s easy to confuse with other authors.  But The Innocent is creative and compelling… definitely one of his strongest works.  The unlikely pair of lead characters, an assassin and a distrusting teen age girl share a common goal to find the truth.  Each have their own personal code of ethics deemed more important than their lives.  Yet they each have a vulnerability that makes them likable.  You quickly find yourself hoping for their success and safety.  The plot and story line are reasonably believable fiction and the facts are revealed in an active pace with numerous twists to keep you flipping pages.  Well done Mr. Baldacci…more like this please.

Zero Day by David Baldacci

Zero Day by David Baldacci introduces us to a new hero, John Puller. Puller is an experienced and highly accomplished soldier, now with the army Criminal Investigative Unit. He has repeatedly chosen field work over military rank and has proven himself a competent and tireless investigator.  His dedication to justice over politics immediately endears him to the reader. He is assigned to investigate a murder case in rural West Virginia that quickly unravels into a conspiracy that threatens the security of the nation.

A Lieutenant Colonel, his wife and two kids are killed in a small West Virginia coal town while visiting family. Puller is solely assigned to the case with no back up and is told to report his activity only through secure channels.  Puller makes contact with the local county detective, Samantha Cole and finds her relieved to have the assistance.  They soon discover four other related murders in the area.  Puller and Cole follow leads to the rich coal company owners, a local motorcycle club with drug dealing connections, and an ancient but abandoned federal nuclear research center with a mysterious past.  Attempts on Puller’s life convince him that someone has secrets to keep and are desperate to do so.  He finds out from a retired army officer that corners were cut when the nuclear research facility was closed and that dangerous nuclear fuel could potentially be still inside.  In terrorist hands this powerful fuel could do far more damage than 9/11.  Homeland Security intercepts chatter from this small West Virginia town that leads them to believe an attack is imminent, only three days away.  Yet they continue to rely solely on Puller to foil the attack.  They fear that sending in the troops would tip off the terrorists who would advance the operation.

Baldacci’s Zero Day is riveting and fast paced with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing to the very end. John Puller is an intriguing powerful lead character with likable human qualities.  But here’s the rub…you can’t read this book without constantly comparing it to Lee Child’s The Affair.  The characters are too similar and the story lines too parallel.  That really detracts from an otherwise good read.  But I hope we see more of John Puller.

Hell's Corner by David Baldacci

Maybe this one was a bit over the top. It is the fifth and last in the Camel Club series, so it was the usual cast of characters, starting with Oliver Stone, Annabelle Conroy, Alex Ford, Reuben Rhodes, and Caleb Shaw. Baldacci added some new characters over the course of the five books, and killed off some others. Stone is the master spy/assassin, now in his post-prime years. His instincts are so good that, which each new twist in the plot in this particular story, those instincts are not only surprising to the reader, but they become unfathomable. This story had too many twists to follow, and I was tired of it well before the last page. I’ve recommended the first four books in the series, but not this one. It is not clear that this book was meant to be the end to the series, so assuming that the author writes another one, we’ll see if I choose to read it. I’m disappointed. On the other hand, I’m not kicking Baldacci out of my power rotation of authors.

Divine Justice by David Baldacci

Although he never admits to having been the trigger man, this fourth book in the Camel Club series opens with Oliver Stone killing, Roger Simpson, a well-known senator from Alabama, and Carter Gray, the nation’s intelligence chief. Both men had forced Oliver Stone, aka John Carr, into hiding, 30 years before. And, they had murdered his family only because Stone wanted to quit being America’s best assassin. From the beginning of the story, Oliver is on the run and the Camel Club is trying to help even thought Oliver does not want them to risk their lives by doing so. By the fourth book, you know all the characters well, and Baldacci has done well to create interesting associates for Stone. There is a new character in this book, Joe Knox, an ace CIA tracker. It’s his boss, the maniacal Macklin Hayes, who also has a personal vendetta against Carr stemming to their time together in Vietnam. The murders of Simpson and Gray give Hayes the excuse to sic Knox on Stone and to plan Stone’s execution. Bladucci gives more back story on Stone/Carr than we’ve known before, so the real dirt between the protagonist and Hayes is told for the first time. As Stone flees into the hills of southern Virginia, he stumbles into an even bigger mess. Meanwhile, Joe Knox is tracking him down, as is the Camel Club. Probably because I already liked the characters and knew them so well, this book grabbed me immediately, within a couple pages. This series of stories is worth reading, and it is my recommendation to read them in order, so you can enjoy the character development as Baldacci intended. I’ve already acquired the 5th and last book in the series, and I’ll start that next – but I don’t want it to come to an end.

Stone Cold by David Baldacci

This is the third book in the Camel Club series. It would be impossible not to like and hate the characters that Baldacci has created. This story further develops all of the main characters that have been set up in the first two books. There’s Oliver Stone, a.k.a., John Carr, the ex-CIA master assassin; Caleb Shaw, the rare book guy from the Library of Congress; Reuben Rhodes, the muscle of the group who has other talents; and Milton Farb, the true genius of the group with OCD. Given that the members of the group are all in their early 60s, they are easy for me to identify with. In the last book, Baldacci added the bad ass Jerry Bagger, casino owner, and his antagonist, the beautiful Annabelle Conroy, ace con woman, who successfully swindled the maniacal Mr. Bagger out of $40,000,000. In this book, Baldacci cleverly intertwines the troublesome past spy/espionage/assassination history of Stone/Carr with the current conflict of Bagger and Conroy. Not all of the characters survive the end of this story, and I can see good possibilities for the continuation of the saga. This was a good read and I’ll continue with the next one in the series. It’s of my “airplane book” category – enjoyable and entertaining, while not being more than that.