Series Update

Where are we up to in the series?

Book Ratings Thus Far
The Innocent – 4.64
The Hit - 4.83
The Target -5.00
The Guilty

The Innocent by David Baldacci
Will Robie series Book #1

Will Robie…a government assassin for a dozen years or more is a marvelous shooter who always follows orders that take him around the world to targets confirmed by a secret agency office that shuns the public eye.

Then the almost unthinkable happens. Robie has a target he just can't handle: a midlevel Washington bureaucrat, and a mother with two small sons.

He balks at the crucial moment of killing and knows that this is a fatal mistake. He aso knows that you don't screw around with his boss. So, he quickly takes a well-planned contingency route and heads out of town on a bus to New York City.

Along comes a 14-year-old girl with a backpack on the same bus, followed by a man whom Robie recognizes as someone just like himself, a stone cold killer.

Having made one major mistake, Robie again goes against all his training and helps the teenager. Now there is big trouble.

Assignments are catching up with Robie, and a whole basketful of strange coincidences and occurrences are placing him and the girl in deadly danger.

This book comes across as a "who and why dunnit".

The main character of Will Robie, is a very interesting and unusual character… an assassin with a heart.

The main supporting character is a 14-year-old girl. Only at one point in the book did she act or talk like a 14-year-old girl. The rest of the time, she spoke like a middle-aged man whom you have been told is a teenage girl. Her character was just a bit too smart and forgiving for a teen of this age to be believable.

On the other hand the character of Nikki Vance, the FBI agent was a very cool, level headed person.

Short chapters made for quick and easy reading. However this is a book with lots of casualties and a lot of ways to die.

There were 8 participants in the discussion.

Overall rating was 4.64 with only 7 participants rating.
Comments:

Pros:
"I really liked Robie, Vance and Julie. The struggle Robie was having over his job and what he still wanted to do with his life and the pace and the action."

"I loved the characters, the pace of the book, the short chapters, the action without being too much."

"I like this series and John Puller the most. I enjoy King and Maxwell, Camel Club and Amos Decker, even though I didn't care for the most recent book, “The Fix”."

"Good, three-dimensional characters; interesting plot; nice writing style."

"I liked Robie, Vance and Julie and found them to be well rounded characters. I liked the plot and found it interesting. I liked Baldacci's writing and the short chapters."

Cons:
"I don't think Baldacci does as well with dialogue as he should and some of those scenes could have been cleaned up - they were too forced. This story was convoluted but once explained it made sense - maybe a little more clarity/connection."

"Maybe a little more character development, I liked them so much I wanted to know more about them."

"I like to get a workable clue now and again, just to keep me involved in the plot."

"I felt a little clueless and lost throughout the whole book and would like to have a few more clues dropped so that we have a chance to know a little about what is going on."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Hit by David Baldacci
Will Robie series Book #2

Will Robie is a master of killing. A highly skilled assassin, Robie is the man the U.S. government calls on to eliminate the worst of the worst-enemies of the state, monsters committed to harming untold numbers of innocent victims.

No one else can match Robie's talents as a hitman...no one, except Jessica Reel. A fellow assassin, equally professional and dangerous, Reel is every bit as lethal as Robie. And now, she's gone rogue, turning her gun sights on other members of their agency.

To stop one of their own, the government looks again to Will Robie. His mission: bring in Reel, dead or alive. Only a killer can catch another killer, they tell him.

But as Robie pursues Reel, he quickly finds that there is more to her betrayal than meets the eye. Her attacks on the agency conceal a larger threat, a threat that could send shockwaves through the U.S. government and around the world.

Will is assigned to stop Jessica Reel, who is deemed a rogue agent, having just killed two top government employees.

Jessica is also considered the best in her field, an assassin on par with Will Robie. Now she has gone rogue, and Will has been tasked to find her and bring her back dead or alive.

Seemingly unconnected at first, Reel’s initial targets range from a lowly agency handler to the Deputy Director of the CIA, with the promise that more deaths will follow.

As the story unravels we begin to learn of a larger and more sinister conspiracy, one with terrifying global implications.

The book follows some twists and turns. Also, plenty of cat and mouse chases where it becomes difficult to distinguish who’s the cat and who’s the mouse until there comes a point when, both, the reader and Robie, understand the motivations behind Jessica’s actions

Will Robie also begins to question what he does and provides some food for thought as he begins to wonder whether what he does is “good” or “bad” since he’s a killer essentially… even though he may be killing for the good of the country.

There were 6 participants in the discussion.

The overall rating: 4.83

Comments

Pros:
Loved the uncertainty of who was the "bad guys" and the action was outstanding."

"I Loved the whole plot of the story and thought it was action-packed."

"Great plot, great characters, very fast paced."

"I liked the characters - Robie and Vance especially - as well as the storyline and the way the book was written...a very easy, quick read."

Cons
"I wanted more Vance and Julie, and just a little bit more tension and excitement at the end."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Target by David Baldacci
Will Robie series Book #3

The President knows it's a perilous, high-risk assignment. If he gives the order, he has the opportunity to take down a global menace, once and for all.

If the mission fails, he would face certain impeachment, and the threats against the nation would multiply.

So the president turns to the one team that can pull off the impossible: Will Robie and his partner, Jessica Reel.Together, Robie and Reel's talents as assassins are unmatched. But there are some in power who don't trust the pair.

They doubt their willingness to follow orders. And they will do anything to see that the two assassins succeed, but that they do not survive.

As they prepare for their mission, Reel faces a personal crisis that could well lead old enemies right to her doorstep, resurrecting the ghosts of her earlier life and bringing stark danger to all those close to her.

All the while, Robie and Reel are stalked by a new adversary: an unknown and unlikely assassin, a woman who has trained her entire life to kill, and who has her own list of targets--a list that includes Will Robie and Jessica Reel.

There were 6 participants in the discussion

Overall Rating; 5.00

Comments

Pros:
" I like the book just the way it was written."

"I thought it was perfect. The audio was especially well done.

"Don't mess with perfection."

Cons

A tiny bit more meat on the bones in places - the Nazi confrontation, for example."

"There could have been a bit more detail and drama in the action scenes. They felt kind of “meh”

A good and timely reminder, Carol. Thanks! 😀

>3 Sergeirocks: You are welcome. Enjoy the book.

Thanks Carol, wow they did get great ratings! Let’s hope this one can match the last one. 👏👏👏🙌🙌

Thanks Carol - Baldacci seems very consistent in his writing!

>6 EadieB: I like almost everything he's written.