The Sixth Man by David Baldacci (2011)

Obviously I can't stay away from Baldacci, though I wasn't totally thrilled with my last read. But the audio book store had mistakenly put this book on hold for me, so I just decided to go with it. One more Sean King  & Michelle Maxwell story. Again well told.

I liked the main premise, that there might be certain people with the ability to use more of their brain capacity and they could absorb exorbitant amounts of information and analyze it, that they could take all the data that is gathered by our various security agencies and grok it into some valuable actions and policies to protect our country and our world. For example, destroying the opium crop in Afghanistan just makes the Taliban richer, but bringing in seeds of poppies that don't produce good opium and takes them out of being a player in the drug production world actually sounds like a good idea.

Edgar Roy is such a person who can process floods of information, but he is sitting in a high security prison, because six bodies were found buried in his barn. King and Maxwell have been hired by Roy's lawyer to help prove his innocence. When they get to Maine (nice setiing), they find the lawyer dead - and they are off.  The book is full of interesting characters - Peter Bunting, who invented this concept and who got government agencies to actually share information. He is a rather unlikable character in the beginning, but I grew to like him. I liked Kelly Paul and James Harkes, though for the longest time I didn't know which side they were on. At times they seemed to take over the action from King and Maxwell, and I wouldn't be surprised if Baldacci brings them back in future books. Baldacci even creates interesting small characters, like the owner of the inn where King and Maxwell stay - she doesn't care for Maxwell and chides them on spending time together in his room.

With Nora Roberts I know how many dead bodies to expect (usually 3), but with Baldacci, they kept piling up - a bit out of my comfort zone. Strange - I have a comfort zone to how many dead bodies I am willing to read about? How about watch? Many of my TV shows are violent. I guess it ups the ante on the gravity of the situation. The characters are literally facing life and death situations. Wonder if I could find non dead body mysteries? Or maybe ones that just have one? I'll have to start keeping count and see if Lisa Scottoline or other writers are less bloody. Probably someone has already done that on the net. (A quick Google search came up with a sentence in a readers advisory book about amateur detectives often being in less violent books. Authors mentioned were Diana Mott Davidson, Karen Greenland and Elizabeth Peters. I've read a couple by the latter, but hasn't intrigued me.) I also had strong moments of discomfort when the head of Homeland Security was being ultra nasty - ready to kill absolutely anyone who stood in her way. This was actually very similar to Baldacii's first book, Absolute Power (the last book of his I just read), where another highly placed government woman went beserk trying to hold on to her power.

Overall - a good read, but I think I'll take a break from Baldacci for a while.