Tuesday, July 17, 2012

"A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing." Elizabeth I



The United States has many enemies and sometimes they think they can hide behind political curtains when planning ways to hurt the country. Robbie is an American Assassin.

Somehow his last target didn't fit with his usual assigned kills. This woman lives near his office and when he enters her apartment, he finds her asleep, holding her child. Robbie is talking to his handler through an ear phone and refuses the hit but the woman is killed by Robbie's handler who was monitoring Robbie's actions from an apartment across the street.

Robbie thinks he's been set-up and has to escape from his own people. He's unsure of who to trust so has to make an unusual departure. He gets on a bus and comes into contact with a fourteen-year-old girl. He doesn't pay too much attention but then his instinct makes him notice and a man following her makes a move to kill her. Robbie intercedes and he and the girl get off the bus. Moments later, the bus is blown up - only Robbie and the teenager survive.

In an action packed story, Robbie learns that the teenager, Julie Getty, was trying to escape from an intolerable foster care situation and that her parents were recently murdered.

The story of Robbie's betrayal and Julie's parent's murder, come together with excellent drama. While Robbie usually works by himself, he finds that it's unsafe to leave Julie on her own so he acts outside of his normal mode of operation.

David Baldacci has written a finely crafted and provoking book about the intelligence operation in the United States. It will leave the reader breathless. Both Robbie and Julie are excellently drawn and fully developed characters with Julie being in the mode of the wonderful Lisbeth Sandler from Steig Larsson's novels.

Highly recommended.

Currently Reading

Currently Reading
Broken Promise