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A review by weaselweader
The Target by David Baldacci
4.0
“Politics is a dirty, ruthless business [that] makes the intelligence sector look relatively honorable by comparison.”
Ordering the assassination of a foreign head of state is an impeachable offense for the president of the USA. And, when he reaches the decision to give that order, he has absolutely no doubt that the Senate would convict him if his orders came to light, all intentions directed to good will, good government and world peace having become irrelevant. Graduate readers of THE HIT, the previous novel in the Will Robie series, will understand that the director of the CIA is happy to send the USA’s finest undercover assassins to do the job if for no other reason than he believes the job to be a one-way suicide mission. Will Robie and Jessica Creel are on their way to North Korea but their paths will cross with an equally skilled assassin who has been sent by Kim Jong Un to the USA to avenge what their eastern minds have perceived as an unforgivable insult to their sovereignty and place in the history of the world.
I’ve yet to encounter the David Baldacci novel that wasn’t a successful, gripping page-turner and THE TARGET is no exception to that rule. Subject only to a desire to read his various series in order to get the most benefit from his character development and their back stories (and there is certainly plenty of that), I am still willing to pick up any Baldacci novel without bothering to refer to any back cover marketing blurbs. That said, THE TARGET is also particularly evocative in its rather gruesome depiction of daily life in the prison camp of totalitarian North Korea. If only half of what Baldacci writes is accurate (making allowances for the fact that there is clearly no love lost between the USA and North Korea), then life north of Pyongyang and the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula must be a Spartan and brutal affair indeed. The only word I can think of is “shocking”!
Well done and well worth the read. Thank you for another winner, Mr Baldacci. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss
Ordering the assassination of a foreign head of state is an impeachable offense for the president of the USA. And, when he reaches the decision to give that order, he has absolutely no doubt that the Senate would convict him if his orders came to light, all intentions directed to good will, good government and world peace having become irrelevant. Graduate readers of THE HIT, the previous novel in the Will Robie series, will understand that the director of the CIA is happy to send the USA’s finest undercover assassins to do the job if for no other reason than he believes the job to be a one-way suicide mission. Will Robie and Jessica Creel are on their way to North Korea but their paths will cross with an equally skilled assassin who has been sent by Kim Jong Un to the USA to avenge what their eastern minds have perceived as an unforgivable insult to their sovereignty and place in the history of the world.
I’ve yet to encounter the David Baldacci novel that wasn’t a successful, gripping page-turner and THE TARGET is no exception to that rule. Subject only to a desire to read his various series in order to get the most benefit from his character development and their back stories (and there is certainly plenty of that), I am still willing to pick up any Baldacci novel without bothering to refer to any back cover marketing blurbs. That said, THE TARGET is also particularly evocative in its rather gruesome depiction of daily life in the prison camp of totalitarian North Korea. If only half of what Baldacci writes is accurate (making allowances for the fact that there is clearly no love lost between the USA and North Korea), then life north of Pyongyang and the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula must be a Spartan and brutal affair indeed. The only word I can think of is “shocking”!
Well done and well worth the read. Thank you for another winner, Mr Baldacci. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss