Joni Parker's Blog - Posts Tagged "david-baldacci"

Published in 2018. This is the fourth book in the Memory Man series. The author has seven different series with multiple books in each one.

Amos Decker is a former player in the National Football League. He had to quit playing football after a serious head injury that nearly killed him. He was left with two conditions—hyperthymesia or the ability to remember everything and synesthesia or the ability to sense colors. He finds both senses useful in his role in law enforcement. A former patrol officer, he now works with the FBI on a special task force. He’s dedicated to his work and never takes a vacation until his partner, Alex Jamison, convinces him to tag along with her to visit her sister in Baronville, Pennsylvania. It was a dark and stormy night when Decker relaxes on the porch, drinking a beer and listens for the incoming storm. As the rain begins to fall, he hears strange noises, a car starting up and driving away, an airplane overhead, and then sparks inside the house in back. Knowing the sparks are probably caused by an electrical problem, Decker runs to the house. Inside, he finds two dead bodies. Even though he’s on vacation, he can’t resist investigating and finds more than he bargained for.

This story was quite an adventure and provides a close look into the lives of people living in towns that are now broke. Baronville was once prosperous, but the former owner of the coal mine, textile mill, and paper mill sold out long ago. But the town is now on the rebound with the building of a new fulfillment center.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author but I’ve heard his name around for years. I’ll definitely read more.

Published in 2016. The story begins in a California prison where Paul Rogers is due to be released. He’s been in prison for ten years for murder and has been paroled. However, due to a clerical error, he’s being released a day early. No problem. As he leaves on a bus, a young couple makes the mistake of trying to rob him of the money the prison system gave him to start a new life. He kills them, trashes any thought of meeting his parole officer, and heads east where he has a score to settle.

Meanwhile, John Puller, an Army CID officer, arrives home to see his father in a nursing home. His father, once a three-star general, suffers from Alzheimer’s and is bedridden. However, two Army CID agents have opened a new investigation into the general based on a letter received from an old neighbor who accuses the general of murdering his wife. John was eight at the time and remembers little. But he opens his own personal investigation of his mother’s disappearance. The story continues on two separate tracks for the majority of the book but I like how it comes together at the end. Even though John is ordered to stand down from his investigation, he plows ahead in spite of the impact on his Army career.

I really didn’t understand why the book had this title, though. A ‘no man’s land’ is a place where no man can survive but that isn't part of the book. I didn’t see any reference to it in the book, either.

At any rate, it was a thrilling read and I couldn’t put it down, especially towards the end. For me, it took a little bit for it to get going. Still, I’d recommend it and will look for other books by the author.

Published in 2018. Introducing Atlee Pine, FBI agent, who mans a one-person office in Shattered Rock, Arizona. Atlee is called to investigate an unusual situation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. One of the pack mules used to carry tourists to the bottom has been killed and a tourist is missing. The only evidence she can find are two initials carved into the hide of the mule, ‘j’ and ‘k.’ No one knows what it means until Atlee asks her secretary for help. Fortunately, she knows but it doesn’t help. With nothing more to go on, the case lingers until Atlee is told to drop it and take a vacation by her boss in Phoenix. That just makes her suspicious and she delves deeper into the mystery.

The story of Mercy is not resolved in this book and probably won’t be for several more. When Atlee was six, her twin sister was kidnapped from their bedroom. The kidnapper chose Mercy at random and she was never seen again. Atlee can’t shake the feeling of guilt and it follows her. At thirty, she’s still single and has trouble relating to other people. This case helps her take her first steps in coping with her sister’s kidnapping and probable death.

Atlee is an interesting character and I enjoyed meeting her. I found the plot to be a little far-fetched but okay, it could happen…maybe. I write fantasy novels so I can stretch the imagination quite a way. The author has written 37 books and been on the bestseller list a lot of times. He’s good.

Published in 2019. Atlee Pine is an FBI agent stationed at a one-person office near the Grand Canyon. However, on this day, she’s returning from the supermax federal prison at ADX Florence, Colorado, when she learns of an amber alert between Colorado and Utah. She passes the vehicle and follows it, trapping it in a dead end dirt road. The suspect resists arrests and Atlee takes him down, but loses control and almost kills him. After the incident, her boss gives her time off to calm down and resolve her issues, in particular, the death of her twin sister at age 6. She'd just visited her alleged killer at the supermax prison in Colorado.

Her administrative assistant, Carol Blum, accompanies her to Georgia where Atlee finds her old home. She hopes to revive her memories of her sister's abduction but finds her memories are sparse and the clues remote. Still, she finds people who not only remember what happened but remember her as well. As the investigation proceeds, she finds a dead body and she becomes involved in another investigation. She assists because she’s a law enforcement officer and because she was on scene. Eventually, the two investigations intertwine but one is solved and the other remains a mystery.

Interesting story and it didn’t turn out quite the way I thought it would, which was good. Otherwise, it would have been too predictable. By the way, the title has nothing to do with the story. This is the second Atlee Pine novel and I like her. Hopefully, there is another one in the pipeline.

Published in 2020. Thriller. FBI Agent Atlee Pine's search for her twin sister, who was kidnapped when she was six, enters a new phase after she was able to identify the kidnapper, Ito Vincenzo. Now she's in New Jersey and found the house where Ito used to live, but his grandson, Tony, owns it. As she knocks on the front door, he escapes out the back. She follows but runs into an Army CID agent, John Puller. The quarry gets away as the two agents sort out the two different cases they’re pursuing. Since they are both after the same guy, they team up.

The case takes an interesting turn with the Army case. But in the back of her mind, Atlee keeps an eye out for any information on Ito. She would like to know if he’s even alive and presumes he is because she can’t find any evidence of his death. But no one seems to know where he is. If she could only talk to him, maybe she could find out what he did with her sister. Is she dead or alive?

I enjoyed reading this story and found the conclusion to the Army case much more satisfying than Atlee’s case, which is why I’ll give this book a pass. Even if her case continues into another book, the ending could have been better—Atlee’s destructive outburst at the end isn’t consistent with her character. I was also disappointed that the author thinks a navy captain is the same as an army major. Not so. A navy captain is the same as an army colonel. Finally, the title is okay, but not great. It doesn’t apply to actual daylight—maybe it’s a reference to a break in a case that bring daylight to a mystery. Well, whatever.

Published in 2022. Thriller. Travis Devine takes the 6:20 am train into New York City every day. He works for the financial firm Cowl and Comely from the time he arrives at 8 in the morning until 9 every evening. And he hates his job. But today, he gets a mysterious email telling him about the death of another worker in the company. Sara was found by a custodian in a storeroom on the 52nd floor, hanging from a rope. Her death is at first deemed to be a suicide, but a few days later, the cause of death is changed to homicide. Travis becomes a suspect because he dated the woman several times. But he didn’t do it. Who did?

Her death raises more questions about the company and draws attention of the feds. They enlist Travis’s help to find out what the company is doing. He takes on the challenge and begins his own investigation to find out before the NYPD arrests him.

While I enjoyed reading this book, the first part of it was a bit slow and didn’t give enough details of the federal investigation. Once I found out the actual reason for the investigation, I got interested and the pacing picked up.

Published in 2023. Thriller. Utilizing her skills as a former police officer and detective, Mickey Gibson, a single mother of two, works for an online firm called ProEye, an investigative firm that hunts down the wealthiest of tax abusers and credit frauds. She’s just uncovered the latest fraud scheme when she gets a phone call from another employee of the company. Arlene Richardson asks her to check out an estate called Stormfront, not far away, for her investigation. Although the request to visit the site is unusual, Mickey does it to help a fellow employee.

The estate is in dire need of repair, and inside, Mickey finds the body of a man, sitting in a secret room. The scene was set up so she would find the body, but why? Who was this Arlene Richardson? Mickey calls the police who begin their investigation. Mickey can’t help but investigate this on her own, especially when she finds out the deceased used to be an accountant for the mob.

A gripping tale that kept me wondering where the story was going. Arlene Richardson was a fake name, one of many aliases used by the woman along with countless disguises. When a name was given to her, I wasn’t sure it was the real one, until the end. But this woman was also meticulous, keeping copious notes on everything going on.

I enjoyed reading this story and unraveling the puzzle, created by all the lies.

Published in 2023. Thriller. Travis Devine, the 6:20 Man, is sent to Putnam, Maine to investigate the death of Jenny Silkwell, an employee of the CIA. At first, the feds thought this case involved espionage, but the initial investigation didn’t reveal anything. So, Devine is sent in to find out the true cause. Right off the bat, he becomes suspicious of the initial findings when he notices inconsistencies in witness statements. For instance, an old man named Earl found the body in the middle of the night in pouring rain. While it could be true, Devine doesn’t believe an old man, with severe arthritis, a bad back, and walked with a cane, would walk that far in the rain.

Devine knows he is on the right track when he is targeted and shot at. Despite the danger to his life, he continues his investigation to find the killer and the motive behind it.

I enjoyed reading this book. It kept my interest from the beginning to the end. This is only the second book with Travis Devine, but I hope there will be more.

Published in 2024. Thriller. Travis Devine, the 6:20 Man, works as an investigator for the Department of Homeland Security. He’s assigned a new mission in the Seattle area where a criminal kingpin, Danny Glass, is about to go on trial on RICO charges. However, several key witnesses have been murdered, so Devine is sent to investigate because he knew Glass when he was in the Army. After he arrives, he also learns that Glass is attempting to adopt his niece since both parents were murdered under suspicious circumstances. While the charges against Glass are pending, there’s no way to stop the adoption, unless Devine delves deeper into the parent’s murder case. By doing so, he reveals a threat to national security, even more pressing than Glass’s RICO case.

I like Travis Devine. He’s a good guy who wants to do the right thing for the country, for the people he loves, and for Betsy Odom, Glass’s twelve-year-old niece. So, when he finds a problem, he fixes it—in the right way. Although his main adversary started out to be Glass, it changes to The Girl on the Train, who had tried to kill him in Europe (previous book). His relationship with her also evolves as she becomes more involved in the case.

This was quite a long book, so it took me a while to read it. But I enjoyed it.