With the author’s previous five books starring King and Maxwell all #1s on the New York Times bestseller list Baldacci has every right to rest on his laurels - no way. He’s back again with the sixth thriller featuring the dynamite duo of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell and it’s better than ever. True to form he begins with a zinger and continues at high speed carrying readers along with an imaginative plot, can’t-resist characters, and imminent dangers.
Sam Wingo, an outstanding soldier who had been painstakingly vetted for an important mission was in the middle of nowhere, a country still mired in the ninth century, carrying a cargo weighing 4800 pounds. He wasn’t wearing his uniform but the clothes he’d been given, and had driven countless miles in a box truck. Nonetheless, he was close to his destination where everything should go according to plan. However, it didn’t, definitely did not.
First, he was almost out of gas, apparently someone had miscalculated. Secondly he was met by a gun put in his face by a man identifying himself as a CIA agent who said plans had been changed. Wingo knew that wouldn’t happen. Barely escaping with his life he reaches Kabul where he calls his commanding officer only to be told that the people he was supposed to meet were at the appointed place, where was he? Wingo is accused of being a traitor and keeping the cargo for himself. Further, he is told that his son, Tyler, has been told he was killed in Afghanistan.
Shift to King and Maxwell who are driving at night through driving rain. Michelle sees a boy running like the very devil is chasing him. She tells King to stop and takes off after the boy; he is perhaps fifteen and carrying a gun. He is Tyler Wingo. And so begins one of the most dangerous jobs ever undertaken by King and Maxwell, which is saying quite a bit. It is also the opening of one of the most inventive, exciting stories penned by David Baldacci, which is also saying quite a bit.
While I’m a person who needs her sleep I couldn’t close my eyes until I’d finished this one. Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
No comments:
Post a Comment