BOOK REVIEW: The Escape

THE ESCAPE is the third book in David Baldacci’s series featuring John Puller, combat veteran and special agent with the United States Army. After reading Zero Day and The Forgotten, I could not wait for the continuation of John’s story, especially since I knew this one would include his older brother Robert.

Following in his famous father’s footsteps, Robert Puller had been a military hero. Exceptionally intelligent and a computer genius Robert was on the fast track to becoming head of the nation’s top security agency until he was found guilty of treason.

The evidence against him was clear and iron tight. He was caught copying sensitive documents and later photographed giving them to an enemy agent. Crimes that should have spelled his death, but instead he was given a life sentence in a federal prison that had never had an escape. The morning after a violent storm, Robert’s bed is found to contain the corpse of an unknown man, but no Robert.

John Puller is usually the agent called in to solve the unsolvable cases for the government and he is considered the ideal person to hunt down this new threat to national security, his own brother. Pulled between loyalty to his country and love for his older brother, John finds himself in a situation where all of the people around him are suspects.

When David Baldacci is good, he is very good and so far the John Puller books are very good. Baldacci mixes fast action with intelligent espionage and involves characters that can keep a reader guessing. THE ESCAPE has it all. His car chases kept me from breathing at times, yet his creative use of computer skills intrigued me. It seems every time the news programs explain a new use, or danger, of the electronic world, Baldacci has already used it in a plot line.

Another thing that puts Baldacci on my regular author- to- read list is his ability to create complex characters.  His heroes are always slightly flawed. I find myself approaching everyone in the book with skepticism. I think that after reading so many of his thrillers, I start expecting any romantic interest to be killed off, especially if they end up in bed with the hero. In THE ESCAPE John’s female partner, Veronica Knox, was particularly well done. My feelings for her went from full suspicion to pity and back to fearing for John Puller’s life.

Usually I find the first in a David Baldacci series to be the best written and then each book can vary on the scale of good to not so good. So far I am enjoying the John Puller books very much. In fact, I can not wait for the next one. Enough hints have been dropped about his and Robert’s parents that I will have trouble waiting. (The father, a military legend, is hospitalized with dementia and the mother had mysteriously disappeared when the boys were young children. Now, you know there is a blockbuster story there!)

David Baldacci deserves his large fan base.