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A review by jacki_f
Zero Day by David Baldacci
4.0
David Baldacci writes a number of series, but this book introduces a new character: John Puller. Puller is a specialist military policeman who grew up in a military family. He has strong deductive powers, superior combat skills, a loner personality and drinks a lot of coffee. Sounds familiar? The story is highly reminiscent of Lee Child's books - but the good news is that it's better than the last few Reacher novels. If I didn't think Child writes his own books, I would be wondering if Baldacci had poached Child's top ghost writer. Certainly it's hard to believe that this book was written by the same person who penned the dire True Blue.
The story involves Puller being sent to small town West Virginia to investigate the murder of a colonel and his family. He quickly builds a strong rapport with the police sergeant Samantha Cole and they work together on the case. As the body count grows, it swiftly becomes apparent that there is more to this than a simple family murder and that both Puller and Cole are in danger. There are a lot of twists and the story holds your attention nicely. None of it is very plausible, but that's pretty common for the genre. If all you want is sheer entertainment, you will find it here.
The only thing that really bugged me about this book was Sam's family - both her brother and sister play key roles and neither is even remotely believable. Their conversations, motivations and actions are all simplistic and highly unlikely. A shame, because several of the other characters are genuinely interesting and nuanced. I found my heart sinking a little whenever the family came into the action. But otherwise I was pleasantly surprised and I thought it was easily the best that "Baldacci" has written in a while. If you enjoy Lee Child's books, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy this also.
The story involves Puller being sent to small town West Virginia to investigate the murder of a colonel and his family. He quickly builds a strong rapport with the police sergeant Samantha Cole and they work together on the case. As the body count grows, it swiftly becomes apparent that there is more to this than a simple family murder and that both Puller and Cole are in danger. There are a lot of twists and the story holds your attention nicely. None of it is very plausible, but that's pretty common for the genre. If all you want is sheer entertainment, you will find it here.
The only thing that really bugged me about this book was Sam's family - both her brother and sister play key roles and neither is even remotely believable. Their conversations, motivations and actions are all simplistic and highly unlikely. A shame, because several of the other characters are genuinely interesting and nuanced. I found my heart sinking a little whenever the family came into the action. But otherwise I was pleasantly surprised and I thought it was easily the best that "Baldacci" has written in a while. If you enjoy Lee Child's books, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy this also.