Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Target by David Baldacci (2014)

Another Will Robie and Jessica Reel thriller. This one has quite a few story lines going. We have an imprisoned evil murderer plotting one last revenge on his deathbed. There are still negative repercussions from the last adventure, where Reel ended up killing some traitorous agents, and though she and Robie got medals, they aren't trusted by all, and are sent for "evaluation" at a strenuous training facility. Reel is forced to face her past and ends up in the hands of Neo-Nazis. In between these stories we get an uncomfortable glimpse into the concentration camps run by North Koreans and an amazing assassin on their side that ends up targeting - someone. Plus there is the evolving friendship between Robie and Reel - will it be more? And their growing relationship with 15 year old Julie, that was rescued on a previous mission and lives with a guardian. So no lack of hair raising adventures, or in my case, keeping me awake on a long night drive.

I do like that we get some background on why Reel is the way she is, and the whole story line in North Korea was fascinating. We don't have meany deadly enemies right now, but the North Koreans are up there, so they provided one set of villains for the story. I liked the fact that Yi played and incredible chess game - thinking many steps ahead - and was able to accomplish something quite amazing with young Min.

It is unfortunate that we still have Neo-Nazi's around and since I am also staring to listen to Ken Follet's Winter of the World - about WWII and Hitler's rise to power (scary when I start seeing parallels to our politics today), these books complement each other.

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