Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Review of The Hit


Book #17: The Hit, by David Baldacci. Unabridged audio.

Will Robie was one of Baldacci’s more interesting recent character creations. Introduced in The Innocent (reviewed here), Robie is one of US government’s leading assassins. Perhaps only one other hitman can match his skills – Jessica Reel. It appears that Reel has gone rogue, and Robie has been tasked to dispatch of her. But there might be more to Reel’s supposed betrayal than meets the eye. Perhaps she discovered that the greatest threat to American security is right in the middle of her intelligence services.

The cat-and-mouse game that Robie and Reel engage in here is thrilling, and their hesitance to trust each other is very reasonable. That slowness to trust also leads to some very compelling and exciting scenes. The depth of the conspiracy (and the players) are revealed slowly, and this tension is a strength of the novel. Readers spend much of the novel in the same state of confusion as the main characters, again adding to sense of tension.

Two of the characters introduced in The Innocent appear here, as well, although neither is a main character. The series is about Robie, and Baldacci spends the most effort developing his character. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and look forward to Baldacci writing future books about Robie and his supporting characters.

As always, the production elements of this audiobook were excellent, with both Ron McClarty and Orlagh Cassidy turning in excellent vocal performances.

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