I am not sure why I hadn’t read any of David Baldacci’s novels before. I know he has been prolific, and his book are immensely popular – perhaps there was some subconscious attempt to resist that aspect of the crime fiction zeitgeist. If I am going to be honest, I only really tried this because I was able to buy an e-copy at a ridiculously cheap price.

It was money well spent because I found it very enjoyable. I was gripped within a few paragraphs, and found myself enmeshed in a very complex plot involving various local and federal police and investigative agencies, and the extensive tendrils of organised crime gangs. Mickey Gibson works from home in her role as asset tracer for a prominent private investigation agency. A former police detective, she has moved into the private sector to utilise their more flexible working pattern so that she can also look after her two young children. One morning, shortly after concluding a case discussion with her boss, she takes a call from someone else purporting to work in the organisation asking her to check out a substantial property nearby.

This pitches her into a murder investigation, and brings her up against Francine Langhorne, an expert in the art of manipulation, who has a very complicated agenda of her own. The story develops along several directions, and moves with great pace. Baldacci doesn’t indulge in deep or detailed descriptions of his characters, but they all come across as highly plausible.

I enjoyed reading this, and will certainly look for more books by Baldacci. ( )

I really enjoyed it! A bit different from his other books, so far. ( )

This book is what I would call a slow burn, it takes a while to get into the action and adventure of the story, but is a good read after that point. It is worth the slow grind that is the start of the book ( )

Single Mom v Con Woman
Review of the Grand Central Publishing audiobook (April 18, 2023) narrated by Lisa Flanagan and Corey Carthew, released simultaneously with the Grand Central Publishing hardcover/eBook editions.

I really liked the lead character of single mom Mickey Gibson in this new series by veteran thriller writer David Baldacci. Stay-at-home mom Gibson works for a firm on asset recovery. She becomes involved with a murder and a con-woman when she is directed to do a value assessment at a luxury mansion estate. As always with Baldacci there are quite a number of improbable events and coincidences along the way. You still root for Gibson to solve all of the mysteries though.

The narration by Lisa Flanagan (all female voices) and Corey Carthew (all male voices) was excellent throughout. I did get somewhat confused though due to the number of aliases used by various characters. By the end several of the characters switched allegiances as well, which made for further confusion. And of course, some goodies are revealed to be baddies and viceversa in the requisite twists. All of that may have been harder to follow on audio and not as much of a problem on paper (or if you realize you should be making notes 🤔).

On the Berengaria Ease of Solving Scale® this was a 10 (i.e. impossible to solve by the reader until you had it all explained to you). ( )

Fun, fast read. A bit different than Baldacci's usual style. ( )