Candice: I have just finished this book by David Baldacci. I’ve read a few of his over the years after picking up ‘Last Man Standing’ in a charity shop and thinking ‘I like this’. So when I saw this and fancied something to read I snapped it up.
The problem these days is he’s written a lot of books and he actually has a number of series running with different characters, so dipping into this one I realised after a while I probably needed to read some of the other books about these characters to really understand their story. I wouldn’t say it was totally detrimental to the book but it didn’t help.
The premise of this one is around two special forces American government operatives whose job is to go in and sort out the jobs that no one else will do. Will Robie and Jessica Reel are there to do the messy jobs, and every job they do they may or may not return from. It seems that they met on a previous job where Will saved Jessica’s life, and through out the book there is a current of potential love interest between the two.
The interesting thing about the book is that, there is one story that runs through out around a plan to over throw the Korean government, but instead it building to one big event they are sent to save the day, do it, come back and then are sent to save the day again. So I got a bit confused as I thought, oh that’s the end, oh but it’s not as there are more pages in the book. It felt like I was reading a collection of short stories instead of one book, which meant I didn’t really connect with it as well as lots of small peaks before a big finish. I think one of the reviews of this book says its like Mission Impossible, and I think that sums it up well. There are so many big flourishes and places where they nearly die and then are saved. Its like he sat down and had so many ideas he decided to shoe horn them into one book rather than save them for another.
Again, it probably would have helped if this had been read while lying on a sunlounger so I could get into it all in one go, rather than in small chunks so I lost the plot along the way.
I shall go back to Mr Baldacci but probably a different series as if this is his style for these characters, its not my cup of tea.
nolanparker 